statecraft
![Brian Piercy](data:image/svg+xml;utf8,<svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="%230A66C2"><path d="M20.447 20.452H16.89v-5.569c0-1.328-.027-3.037-1.852-3.037-1.853 0-2.136 1.445-2.136 2.939v5.667H9.351V9h3.414v1.561h.046c.477-.9 1.637-1.85 3.37-1.85 3.601 0 4.267 2.37 4.267 5.455v6.286zM5.337 7.433a1.982 1.982 0 1 1 0-3.964 1.982 1.982 0 0 1 0 3.964zm1.782 13.019H3.555V9h3.564v11.452zM22.225 0H1.771C.792 0 0 .774 0 1.729v20.542C0 23.227.792 24 1.771 24h20.451C23.2 24 24 23.227 24 22.271V1.729C24 .774 23.2 0 22.222 0h.003z"/></svg>)
Juan Pujol García was one of the rare individuals whose participation in World War II made him a Member of the Order of the British Empire and earned him the Iron Cross. He gained that unlikely distinction in perhaps the riskiest of all roles in espionage, that of a double agent.
Over the course of 2025, the average tariff rate on U.S. imports increased from 2.6 to 13 percent. In this blog post, we ask how much of the tariffs were paid by the U.S., using import data through November 2025. We find that nearly 90 percent of the tariffs’ economic burden fell on U.S. firms and consumers.
Buka Town in Bougainville shows how bureaucratic states could be reimagined, not as concrete buildings but as living gardens
Venezuela purchased Russia's S-300VM air defense system because it was supposed to be an impenetrable umbrella. It was full of holes.
Why Silicon Valley's Defense Obsession is Missing the Real Path to American Reindustrialization
Sixty years after a team of American and Indian climbers abandoned a plutonium-powered generator on the slopes of Nanda Devi, one of the world's most forbidding Himalayan peaks, the U.S. government still refuses to acknowledge that the mission ever happened. The device, a SNAP-19C portable generator...
As fake news accelerates, we need to teach our children how to think critically. Finnish schools are leading the charge
In the early 1980s, in Tucson, activists and religious leaders joined forces to protect refugees at the U.S.-Mexico border. Their collaboration galvanized the Sanctuary Movement.
In the 1970s, the radical leftwing German terrorist organisation may have spread fear through public acts of violence – but its inner workings were characterised by vanity and incompetence
Why so far north? So cold? Why not on a big river or a coast? Why the biggest city in Europe? Why the capital of the biggest country on Earth?
notes on shenzhen, shanghai, and more
The Mongols are known for their brutality when it came to warfare. But just how brutal were they?
A review of Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union, by Vladislav Zubok
Getting assigned to your first sub doesn't make you a submariner and once you become one you'll find yourself in a social structure unlike any other.
A story of secrecy, resistance, and the fight for digital freedom.
Read on to learn all about El Cid, one of the most revered figures in European history.
Cavalry, armored and using superior mobility, dominated the medieval battlefield. That is, until archers with powerful bows and better military tactics won key battles, demonstrating otherwise.
“Once more, we play our dangerous game—a game of chess—against our old adversary.”…
The Medieval period was a time of constant innovation, with a wide array of weapons and armor developed to give warriors an edge on the battlefield.
The Hittites built a successful empire in the ancient Near East. Their military success was based on their religion, technology, and military tactics.
While battles got the most attention, sieges were an important warfare tactic in ancient Greece and Rome. It took time and ingenuity to breach city walls.
On June 21, 217 BCE, an entire Roman army marched into an ambush set by the Carthaginian general Hannibal Barca.
American weapons are important, but Ukrainian drones have changed everything.
Insects are among the oldest of weaponry
This week we’re looking at a specific visual motif common in TV and film: the arrow volley. You know the scene: the general readies his archers, he orders them to ‘draw!’ and then…
The legacy of Solferino is in more danger than ever
This is the untold story of America’s hidden role in Ukrainian military operations against Russia’s invading armies.
World War II is when the bomber came of age, and such aircraft could impact the course of war. All the powers would field planes whose names would become synonymous with this conflict.
Engineers at the Naval Research Lab launched a spy satellite program called Parcae and revolutionized signals intelligence at the height of the Cold War. The program relied on computers to sift through intelligence data, providing a technological edge at a pivotal moment in the Cold War.
In Russia’s war against Ukraine, electronic warfare, including signal-jamming, anti-drone weapons, and innovative protections for critical military systems, has become a key piece of the conflict.
The scramble to preserve submarine stealth in an age of AI and all-seeing sensors
"I'm now going to offer you a megalomaniac explanation of the course of events"
A recent, alleged Baltic Sea sabotage highlights the system’s fragility
Civil war is in the air. Why not revisit one that has already taken place?
This tech could literally save the world
Learn to identify some of the more common types of unexploded ordnance (UXO) in online images using open-source tools and resources.
Seventeen years after I left my post as the U.N.’s representative in Myanmar, I crossed into the rebel-held part of the country to witness new forms of local governance emerge amid a dramatic revolution.
This article is part of a series on (European) innovation and capabilities. This is a lightly edited transcript of my presentation today at the ACCSS/NCSC/Surf seminar ‘Cyber Security and Society’. I want to thank the organizers for inviting me to their conference & giving me a great opportunity to talk about something I worry about a lot. Here are the original slides with notes, which may be useful to view together with the text below.
Israeli agents had wanted to kill Iran’s top nuclear scientist for years. Then they came up with a way to do it with no operatives present.
The Great War never ended in some old battlegrounds.
Israeli intelligence sources reveal use of ‘Lavender’ system in Gaza war and claim permission given to kill civilians in pursuit of low-ranking militants
Although North Korea has a manpower advantage, the bulk of its forces rely on 'increasingly obsolete equipment” dating back to Soviet era.
A Ukrainian military source believes that Russia’s long-range strikes are aimed using satellite imagery provided by U.S. companies.
There’s another Middle East conflict going on, and U.S. soldiers are on the front lines of it.
Every day, millions of barrels of oil are being transported by ships with obscured ownership and origin. But is the game up?
Moscow may be trying to help Pyongyang with access to the international financial system in exchange for missiles and ammunition, U.S.-allied intelligence officials suggest.
We asked a few Green Berets what books they recommend, and they delivered. You can't go wrong reading these five books about Special Forces.
How General Mark Milley protected the Constitution from Donald Trump
The United States and our allies have every legal right to transfer frozen Russian assets to Kyiv.
Algorithms used in the XQ-58's AI brain were trained millions of times in simulated environments before being put to the test in reality.
An inside account of how Air Force pararescue jumped into the middle of the Pacific Ocean to reach an injured sailor.
Experts say plotters’ most crucial task is to convince other soldiers and officers that success is assured. Plus, our columnist’s recommendations for reading up on coups, and modern Russia.
Having served in the Roman army under a risky conscription scheme, Arminius's ambush in Teutoburg Forest inflicted massive damage to the Empire.
The bomb's marking show it is less than 1/5th explosive by weight and that skews even more when the fins and guidance kit are added.
China’s path to fielding airborne early warning aircraft wasn't straightforward, but has yielded big results that speak to a wider strategy.
In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and...
When this week’s podcast guest, John Lisle, talked about William Fairbairn in our discussion of the Office of Strategic Services, I was duly intrigued. I wanted to learn more about the work of this fascinating character, so I bought a complete compendium of his books. Fairbairn was a Royal Marine, learned multiple martial arts, and […]
To learn about history is to learn about war, or so it can feel when you go far back enough in time. And in any era of antiquity, few could have matched Alexander the Great's mastery of that art.
A first-ever oral history of how top U.S. and Western officials saw the warning signs of a European land war, their frantic attempts to stop it — and the moment Putin actually crossed the border.
When a SpaceX Falcon Heavy launched a national security mission to geostationary Earth orbit Jan. 15, the Space Force revealed that three of the payloads onboard were developed by one of its most s…
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The Peacemaker missile’s navigation suite featured the most precise and complex self-contained gyro system ever built. It had 19,000 individual parts.
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Veteran SR-71 pilot gives a highly detailed tour of both cockpits and shares incredible recollections from his time flying the legendary jet.
The B-21 is a 'B-2 2.0' in some ways, and that is a major feature, not a bug, but in other ways it is truly revolutionary.
As investigators piece together clues, Russia has quietly taken steps to begin expensive repairs on the giant gas pipeline, complicating theories about who was behind September’s sabotage.
Along the country’s seven-hundred-mile front line, constant artillery fire and drone surveillance have made it excruciatingly difficult to maneuver.
His daring raids in World War I made him a legend. But in the Middle East today, the desert warrior’s legacy is written in sand
A September attack in northern Burkina Faso left dozens dead. Satellite imagery helps show the true scale of the incident.
"We bring the full hospital to the patient.”
The first B-21 is set to make its inaugural flight in 2023, but the public will get to finally see it in December.
Afewerki’s attack on Tigray is the culmination of the Eritrean dictator’s ambition to become master of the Horn of Africa.
How could tiny nations such as Portugal and the Netherlands challenge vast empires like China and India in the age of sail?
TexasSignal: Rep. Lance Gooden, a Republican who represents Texas’ 5th District, has introduced legislation that would allow U.S. citizens to seize the yachts, jets, and other property belonging to Russian oligarchs who have been sanctioned in response to the invasion of Ukraine. In other words, privateering. …In the age of sail, it was common for […]
The North Atlantic Fellas Organization is fighting the Kremlin’s propaganda machine — and winning.
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F-15 vs. Satellite
Russia 'gifted' Syria the S-300 after a friendly fire incident, but it remained in Russia control and now it's heading towards Ukraine.
The tactical use of drones is expanding as demonstrated from the past 100 years. Drones were first created in the U.S. and United Kingdom during World War I, though neither country employed them during the war. In World War II, the Nazis created the V-1 to serve as a missile. The U.S. employed drones for surveillance missions during the Vietnam War and utilized them frequently for counter-insurgency surveillance and strikes in Iraq and Afghanistan. Drones are now developed in and utilized by over 100 countries and non-state actors. Drone capabilities, manufacturers, and customers will likely continue increasing and a tactical shift in utilizing drone swarms is emerging. This article provides a broad overview on the current state of drones for commercial and military use, the impact drone swarms can play in the military environment, and the options available to combat swarms.
Since antiquity people have harnessed sound as a weapon, and the practice continues – in new high-tech ways – today.
In March 2022, it was reported that the United States was sending over some Switchblades to Ukraine.
After decades of promise and failure, a new plasma weapon emerges.
What are letters of marque and reprisal, and who is on the US’s list of Block Persons?
The Thirty-Six Stratagems is a Chinese essay used to illustrate a series of stratagems used in politics, war, and civil interaction.
In a showdown between Russia and NATO, the ‘Suwałki Gap’ would likely be the first point of contact.
Can the West still provide the arsenal of democracy?
From artillery strikes to Zoom calls, the tech billionaire’s internet service has become a lifeline in the fight against Russia.
When vast gas reserves were discovered off the idyllic coast of northern Mozambique, a crew of roughnecks flew in from around the world to make their fortunes. But in March 2021, Islamist rebels attacked, and the foreigners and thousands of Mozambicans were abandoned. Two hundred holed up at the Amarula Lodge, where the expats faced a choice: save themselves, or risk it all to save everyone. As oil and gas fuel a new war in Europe, Alex Perry pieces together, shot by shot, a stunning morality tale for the global economy.
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Just like how Navy planes have vast instrumented ranges for aerial wargames, submarines have one too, and it is arguably even more impressive.
In seven years or so, if everything goes according to plan, the U.S. Air Force should get what looks like a new bomber.
When Russia attacked Kyiv, Ukrainians dropped everything to protect the city—and to ease one another’s suffering.
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Breaking down how modern torpedo attacks really go down and the types of torpedoes that are used to sink ships and other submarines.
This article is part of the contribution made by the US Army War College to the series “Compete and Win: Envisioning a Competitive Strategy for the Twenty-First Century.” The series […]
A strong national identity is essential for any country's survival – and the easiest route to acquiring one is to unite behind a common enemy.
Editor's note: Don't miss our comprehensive guide to Russia's war against Ukraine. Russia’s military buildup along the border with Ukraine has
A Canadian filmmaker has raised thousands of dollars to help Ukrainian refugees by selling missile launcher-themed stickers.
An attack that targeted Apple devices was used to spy on China’s Muslim minority—and US officials claim it was developed at the country’s top hacking competition.
Putin’s military moves are rallying Ukrainians and unifying NATO.
The political, moral, and visceral considerations behind assassination.
The Biden Administration faces a potential confrontation with a longtime rival that is better armed and more hard-line than at any time in its modern history.
Arabic-speaking armies have been generally ineffective in the modern era. Egyptian regular forces did poorly against Yemeni irregulars in the 1960s.1 Syrians could only impose their will in Lebanon during the mid-1970s by the use of overwhelming
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Dubbed the Ravens, misfit American pilots in Vietnam learned they could fly, fight, and drink as they pleased in a CIA-sponsored secret war. Just one catch: They answered to General Vang Pao.
Three weeks ago, videos surfaced online showing a massacre in Ethiopia's Tigray Region. These videos have now been geolocated to the town of Mahbere Dego.
The dogfighting AI DARPA is developing is set to make the challenging migration from a synthetic environment to the real world soon.
The company’s software can sift through enormous amounts of data, and those metrics can be used to make life-or-death decisions.
A British nudist who liked to give press briefings wearing only a pith helmet and boots and a dapper Scotsman partial to wearing kilts with his dress
The Jianruiying were a small elite unit of specially selected Manchu soldiers under the Qing dynasty. They were trained to overcome rough terrain, obstacles, and rivers in order to commence special attacks towards fortifications. In some ways, they are comparable to today's special forces.
Development of hypersonics is moving so quickly that it threatens to outpace any real discussion about the potential perils of such weapons, including how they may disrupt efforts to avoid accidental conflict, especially during crises.
The most consequential military engagement in Southeast Asia in the 20th century is the 1954 Battle of Dien Bien Phu. It was fought ostensibly between the French and the communist-led Vietmin at Dien Bien Phu, an obscure valley bordering China, in the remote northwestern part of what was then French Indochina. The battle ended with a humiliating defeat for the French, which brought down the French government, ended French colonial rule in Asia, ushered in America’s epic military involvement in the region for decades to come, and fundamentally changed the global geostrategic landscape.
James Palmer's answer: What are some things soldiers aren’t allowed to do? This question allows me to post one of my favorite things from the Army: 213 Things Skippy is not Allowed to do in the Army. As the story goes, a soldier, nicknamed “Skippy” recorded a list of things his chain of comman...
Even in the face of the ultimate human failing, we must be responsive to suffering and attuned to joy