Essays

The post–Cold War unipolar order – with the United States as the unquestioned, unchallenged hegemon – is over. While the great power rivalry between the U.S. and China is still in its formative stages, another state will exert disproportionate influence on how that competition ultimately unfolds. India – the world’s most populous state – is […]

With his Iran war, or, if you prefer, excursion, President Trump is upending political debate in America on the right. The resignation in March of Joe Kent, his director of the United States National Counterterrorism Center, has inflamed disputes about the origins and course of the war. In his resignation letter, Kent suggested that Trump […]

For his Latin American Leaders Summit, President Trump convened a group of like-minded hemispheric leaders in Doral, Florida. The meeting, driven by China’s influence in the Hemisphere, offered a rare opportunity: focused time among partners who understand that strategic competition in our own neighborhood is no longer theoretical. What is needed is a proposal that […]

As Israel and the United States undertake operations of unprecedented scale against Iran, with a regional war now underway and global implications mounting, many critics are asking why this is necessary. Some pundits and academics have sought to play down the threat of a nuclear Iran, claiming that the logic of nuclear deterrence would apply […]

Recent Iranian missile and drone attacks on civilian infrastructure across the Gulf have transformed the regional strategic landscape. For years, Gulf states pursued a careful policy of de-escalation, economic modernization, and selective hedging among major powers in order to preserve stability and protect their development agendas. They were not the authors of war, but the […]

At a moment when the Middle East is once again compelling Washington to confront first principles—how to balance deterrence and diplomacy, force and restraint, leadership and prudence—Vice President JD Vance has emerged as one of the clearest interpreters of President Donald Trump’s foreign-policy vision. What Vance brings is not a break with Trump, but a […]

President Donald Trump returned to the White House promising to end the war almost instantaneously. That has proven far harder than the slogan suggested. Still, the President did manage to end or de-escalate several other conflicts in a relatively short period of his second term, and he can still add one more success to that […]

The fall of Iran’s Islamic regime is not reform—it is a rupture. It dismantles Tehran’s axis of resistance across the Middle East while redirecting jihadist activity into Africa’s fragile states. From Proxy Collapse to the Recognition of the Republic of Somaliland, the consequences are reshaping regional power, governance, and strategic calculations. Middle East: Proxy Networks […]

Ever since the Trump administration returned to office last year, a major foreign policy debate has raged inside the Washington Beltway. On one side are the foreign policy mavens who believe that the United States confronts a consolidated strategic partnership – an “axis of upheaval” uniting Russia, China, Iran, and other actors in a bloc that poses a […]

While the other fighting arms of the United States Navy, including naval aviation, the surface navy, and naval special warfare have been at war numerous times since the end of World War 2, the U.S. Navy submarine force has not actually been in recorded combat since 14 August 1945, when the Tench class submarine USS […]

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC)  is fighting for its life. It has long been the most powerful force in Iran, controlling its own army and navy, as well as a major portion of the country’s economy. It also controls the Basij organization and supports both Iran’s proxies—Hamas, Hezbollah, the Yemeni Houthis and the Iraqi militias. […]

Demography may not be destiny, but gradually—and unforgivingly—it does alter the realm of the possible in the world arena. One of the most important geostrategic consequences of current global demographic trends is playing out now in China, where depopulation is tightening the constraints on “China’s rise”.  An astonishing and generally unexpected birth crash is now […]