War on the Rocks

“[T]he exigencies of desperate survival do stimulate wise leaders to seek such unorthodox solutions.” —Barton Whaley, StratagemOn the night of Jan. 5, 2025, my first mission in the Pokrovsk command po…

2d ago

After losing fellow marines in Iraq, Jeff Lindquist struggled with post-traumatic stress that was steadily destroying his life. Years later, an innovative technology helped him reclaim it. This is the…

2d ago

This exclusive Cogs of War interview is with Rakesh Kumar, the author of Chip Age: How Semiconductors Became the World’s Most Powerful Resource. Rakesh has worked as a co-founder, professor, researche…

3d ago

Since fall 2023, Ukraine’s supporters have fallen into a pattern: Ukrainians warn that Russia is targeting its energy infrastructure to prevent them from heating their homes, schools, and businesses i…

3d ago

In September, fighting broke out in Ethiopia’s Tigray region between Ethiopian government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), effectively collapsing the 2022 peace deal. In October…

3d ago

Militaries have spent more than a century operating with fuel and ammunition as limits of combat endurance. They are only beginning to treat batteries with the same operational seriousness, as small u…

4d ago

The Tehran that the world knew is gone. It died in the fires with former Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war in February. His son and new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei — whereve…

4d ago

In 2023, three North Korea analysts identified what they believe most people studying the country get wrong, and how analysts can avoid those traps. Three years later, we asked them to revisit their a…

4d ago

In March 2025, Germany did more than loosen a fiscal rule. It fused two national emergencies — a deteriorating European security order and a deteriorating industrial model — into a single constitution…

5d ago

Welcome to The Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only for War on the Rocks members. Each week, we bring you a curated selection o…

5d ago

As the United States seeks to rebuild its defense industrial base, Washington is scrambling to understand an industrial ecosystem that it no longer controls, nor largely understands. China has been ab…

6d ago

Between May 10 and 13, 1940, German Panzer Group Kleist advanced through the densely wooded Ardennes Forest, which the French considered impenetrable to large, mechanized formations. Numbering five ar…

6d ago

As China and India have improved their relations in recent months, many observers have attributed this improvement to the end of U.S. strategic altruism toward India. Indeed, in the past year, China h…

Oct 16

Since the end of World War II, the United States has maintained hundreds of military installations abroad. While U.S. forces have faced some objections to their presence, many allies and partners have…

Oct 15

For as long as nuclear-armed, intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles have existed, strategists and engineers have pursued a seductive idea: a shield effective en…

Oct 15

In June 2026, I visited Khartoum, my hometown, for the first time since the war broke out in Sudan in April 2023. I left the city to seek safety with my family after the war spread into civilian neigh…

Oct 15

The Chinese Ministry of Defense’s announcement of a “joint support and training center” at an airport in Ban Keun, Laos, on Sept. 29 drew attention to the People’s Liberation Army’s growing footprint…

Oct 15

In 2022, Jeremy Shapiro warned in “We Are on a Path to Nuclear War” that the war between Russia and Ukraine was heading toward nuclear escalation. Four years into the war, we asked him to revisit that…

Oct 14

For most of its history, Pakistan’s geopolitical value has risen and fallen with other countries’ emergencies. The Mecca Pact may be its most serious attempt yet to break that cycle. On Aug. 31, Pakis…

Oct 14

Advancing military AI capability is a priority for the United Kingdom, and in recent weeks, the new government has doubled down on its ambitions for AI and defense via two major partnerships.On Aug. 2…

Oct 14

Welcome to The Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum only for War on the Rocks members. Each week, we bring you a curated selection o…

Oct 13

America faces a well-defined industrial base problem. Whether it’s a hypothetical Taiwan invasion wargame run two dozen times, the current Iranian conflict, or the Russo-Ukrainian War, the same result…

Oct 13

The standard explanations for why Taiwan is so important to the Chinese Communist Party are familiar: territorial integrity, credibility of deterrence commitments, great power competition with the Uni…

Oct 13

For years, ground autonomy lagged well behind its counterparts in the air. That gap is starting to close. Jonathan is joined by Ryan Hartman (Ondas Sentinel) and Scott Philips (Forterra) to examine wh…

Oct 12

The American team thought it was signaling restraint. The Chinese team saw preparations for combat. In a closed-door Sino-American crisis simulation I helped organize in the 2010s — which the U.S. mil…

Oct 12

Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below.***IranIn late…

Oct 9

A kill chain measured in seconds cannot depend on processes measured in weeks or months. The Pentagon recognizes that drone proliferation and AI-enabled lethal targeting are reducing decision cycles a…

Oct 9

In 79 A.D., Gaius Plinius Secundus, known today as Pliny the Elder, was the supreme commander of the Roman imperial fleet, permanently stationed at Misenum near Naples. He died during the eruption of…

Oct 9

For America’s 250th anniversary, Cogs of War ran ten essays on innovations forged in wartime that subsequently diffused throughout the civilian economy, or had a lasting impact on society, governance,…

Oct 8

In 1914, European armies entered a war with forces designed to move. Within months, they were digging themselves into the earth. Fires from newly introduced machine guns and heavy artillery made movem…

Oct 8