This article is reserved for War on the Rocks members. Join our community to unlock exclusive insights and analysis.

Mike Kofman and Ryan brought out the mics to discuss the pressing issues in the war between Ukraine and Russia. They focused ...

Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s recent visit to three Southeast Asian countries drew widespread headlines — not only for diplomatic pageantry but also for its ...

What is the greatest threat to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait? For a growing number of analysts and officials in capitals around the world, the answer is straightforward: An invasion or ...

The Multi-Domain War The challenge for the United States and most of its allies and partners lies in the fact that the legal principles applied during land warfare and counter-insurgency operations in ...

The offensive al-Shabaab launched in late February 2025 marks its most ambitious push in years, reversing government gains and reasserting control in swathes of central and southern Somalia. The rapid ...

If U.S. European Command — where I am the chief of staff — had to fight today, we would risk failing to support our commander in making decisions at the speed and quality necessary to succeed in ...

The Peace Dividend Looking back at the defense cuts of the early 1990s with the benefit of hindsight is easy to do, but we should appreciate that the decisions made were rational in the short term ...

Editor’s Note: This is the second part of an essay. The first was published last week. What if the ages old military maxim that “the best defense is a good offense” is false? What if the “best defense ...

David Johnson August 15, 2022 Commentary Ending the Ideology of the Offense, Part I David Johnson August 15, 2022 We have already stated what defense is — simply the more effective form of war: a ...

Drawing from research on strategy and coercion, we identify five potential military theories of victory that are universal to all countries and all conflicts. The first candidate, dominance, relies on ...

It will have been easy to miss with all the excitement of a mutiny by the Wagner Group marching unhindered hundreds of miles toward Moscow, but Russian analysts are talking seriously about nuclear ...