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Great Powers

Strategic analysis of US-China-Russia competition, multipolarity, and the dynamics of great power rivalry that shape the international order.

The Alliance That Cannot Win

The Alliance That Cannot Win

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have formed a mutual defense pact, expelled Western forces, and invited Russian contractors. The result is not victory over jihadists but accelerating state failure—and that may be precisely the point.

The Venezuela Deployment: Why America's Mismatch Is the Message

The Venezuela Deployment: Why America's Mismatch Is the Message

The USS Gerald R. Ford sits off Venezuela with enough firepower to destroy but not enough forces to occupy. This gap between capability and intent reveals Washington's true objectives—and their limits.

When the Network Goes Dark: Starlink's Vulnerability and the Future of Western Military Power

When the Network Goes Dark: Starlink's Vulnerability and the Future of Western Military Power

Russia's growing ability to jam SpaceX's satellite constellation threatens not just Ukraine's battlefield communications but the entire architecture of American and NATO military operations from Eastern Europe to the Pacific.

The Killer Instinct: What Made Donald Trump

The Killer Instinct: What Made Donald Trump

Roy Cohn taught him to sue. Fred Trump taught him that love was leverage. Military academy taught him that institutions betray. The survival system that emerged from these crucibles explains the leader—and his limits.

The Cornered Rat: What Made Vladimir Putin

The Cornered Rat: What Made Vladimir Putin

A childhood in post-siege Leningrad, abandonment in Dresden, and the chaos of 1990s Russia forged a leader who experiences geopolitics as personal survival. Understanding Putin's formative crucibles explains decisions that have reshaped Europe.

The Cave and the Crown: What Made Xi Jinping

The Cave and the Crown: What Made Xi Jinping

The most powerful Chinese leader since Mao was forged not by privilege but by persecution. His seven years in a cave village during the Cultural Revolution—and the destruction of his family—created a ruler who fears the Party's weakness more than its strength.

The Sahel's Sovereignty Mirage: Russia, Juntas, and the Limits of Liberation

The Sahel's Sovereignty Mirage: Russia, Juntas, and the Limits of Liberation

Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have expelled French forces, quit ECOWAS, and embraced Russian mercenaries in the name of sovereignty. But their Alliance of Sahel States has outsourced enforcement to a partner with no interest in their success—only their perpetual dependence.

The Architecture of Impunity: Why the World Cannot Stop Sudan's Genocide

The Architecture of Impunity: Why the World Cannot Stop Sudan's Genocide

The United States has formally declared genocide in Darfur. The RSF continues killing. Sudan reveals that the humanitarian intervention system was never designed to work against adversaries with great-power protection and independent revenue streams.

China's Silo Fields and the End of Nuclear Primacy

China's Silo Fields and the End of Nuclear Primacy

Beijing's 250 new missile silos near Mongolia have accomplished their strategic purpose before a single warhead launches: demonstrating that China cannot be disarmed. The era of American nuclear primacy has ended, and no treaty framework exists to manage what comes next.

The Highway Through Paradise: How Drug Trafficking Is Remaking the Pacific

The Highway Through Paradise: How Drug Trafficking Is Remaking the Pacific

International drug cartels have transformed Pacific Island nations from transit points into consumption markets. As methamphetamine flows through ancient kinship networks and overwhelms fragile institutions, communities face threats their governments cannot defeat alone.

The Window That Won't Close: Russia's Shadow Fleet and NATO's Undersea Vulnerability

The Window That Won't Close: Russia's Shadow Fleet and NATO's Undersea Vulnerability

Russia's shadow fleet has spent years mapping NATO's undersea cables and pipelines in the Baltic and North Sea. The intelligence is collected. The targets are known. In a crisis, the vulnerability window—measured in weeks of degraded communications and months of repairs—favors the attacker. NATO...

The Wires Beneath the Waves: Tech Giants and Pacific Sovereignty

The Wires Beneath the Waves: Tech Giants and Pacific Sovereignty

Google and its peers are laying cables to connect the Pacific's most isolated nations. The infrastructure brings genuine benefits—and dependencies that look increasingly like digital feudalism. For island governments that cannot maintain what they do not understand, the gift may cost more than...