PUTIN’S FINALE AND BEYOND
On February 24 Vladimir Putin began the fifth year of his disastrous war against Ukraine. It has sacrificed a million men killed or wounded in order to gain a fragile hold on only a fifth of Ukraine’s territory. It has crippled Russia’s flagship energy industry, depleted the National Wealth Fund and impoverished the Russian countryside, […]
LAW AND SURVIVAL
WHAT IF PRESIDENT TRUMP ORDERS THE USE OF AMERICAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
WHAT IF PRESIDENT TRUMP ORDERS THE USE OF AMERICAN NUCLEAR WEAPONS?
With an executive branch now declaring it obligatory to follow presidential military orders without hesitation and threatening to prosecute American military personnel for respecting relevant law (the Uniform Code of Military Justice), it is high time to ask the most urgent question: “What if America’s designated military commanders receive a bewildering, incoherent or manifestly illegal […]
Removing the Houthi Threat to US Interests and Allies
One of the principal benefits of pursuing the war against Iran to the unconditional surrender of the Islamic Republic will be the end of the Houthi regime in northern Yemen. This regime represents a strategic Iranian foothold on the Arabian Peninsula. From Sanaa and the Yemeni highlands it has launched missiles and drones at Saudi […]
Iran Has Doubled Down on Digital Repression. How Can Washington Help?
As the Trump administration grapples with how best to confront Iran, its efforts remain centered on sporadic military action and the promise of aggressive economic sanctions. Meanwhile, inside the country, a human rights crisis is escalating—one that Washington is uniquely positioned to help counter. Over the past half-year, unprecedented attacks on the information space by Iranian authorities […]
Don’t Count out Netanyahu
Israelis head to the polls next month for their first parliamentary election since 2022. Polling varies, but many conclude that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces an uphill battle to stay in power. Analysts doubt whether he can pull it off. “Their prime minister is in real political trouble,” writes Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer of […]
Post-War Recovery? Without Economic Revitalization in the North and South, Israel’s Center Will Not Hold
A sustainable national recovery requires new financial solutions Nearly three years after October 7, the emergency has passed and the recovery has not arrived. Across the western Negev and the North, most evacuees have gone home to communities whose business base never came back with them. Emergency relief kept those communities alive. It did not […]
The AfD and Germany’s Democracy
The German left-leaning weekly DER SPIEGEL recently carried a mugshot of Ulrich Siegmund on its cover page with the caption “The Most Dangerous Man in Germany”. Campaigning as the “happy warrior” for the hard-right populist AfD party (Alternative fuer Deutschland) in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Siegmund cheerfully autographed the SPIEGEL cover, while thousands of his […]
Israel's Problems of Governance:
Perennial Causes and Political Context
Perennial Causes and Political Context
The State of Israel is not often associated with the persistent problems of governance that have beset many of its neighbors over the years. With a powerful military, a highly accomplished intelligence community (despite its catastrophic failure is), a well-respected judiciary (albeit under political siege by the present government), a thriving high-tech driven private sector, […]
NUCLEAR ESCALATION SCENARIOS
The IMPACT OF AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN “FIREBREAK” THEORIES ON ISRAELI SECURITY DOCTRINE
The IMPACT OF AMERICAN AND RUSSIAN “FIREBREAK” THEORIES ON ISRAELI SECURITY DOCTRINE
With the Trump administration announcing plans for a revised nuclear strategy that emphasizes the potential use of shorter-range tactical nuclear weapons, this strategy will move American nuclear war “firebreaks” to more closely resemble Moscow’s already-worrisome nuclear thresholds. At the same time, Russia is aiding Iran in the development of an independent supersonic cruise missile technology; […]
Warning! The Iran War Is Heading Down the Track to Vietnam
The United States is wielding enormous power against Iran through cumulative warfare: another strike, another degradation, another punitive blow—each intended gradually to change Tehran’s will. This is the logic that prolonged Vietnam. Washington can control each strike’s intensity, but not how many will be required, how long the war will last, or its terms of […]
The Spread of Terrorism Across the Sahel States and Their Search for Reliable Security Partners: An Opportunity for the United States and Moderate Forces in the Region
Over the past year, Jihadist terrorism in the Sahel region of Africa, especially in Mali, has reached a new level of audacity. Global Jihadist organizations are carrying out bolder attacks, determined to tighten their encirclement around the state and undermine its stability. In April 2026, this escalating violence was marked most notably by a large-scale […]
Why Winning the Iran War Requires the Islamic Republic’s Unconditional Surrender
The Current Stalemate As of August 2026, nearly six months after the outbreak of hostilities on February 28, the Iran War has settled into a dangerous and unsustainable stalemate. The United States and Israel opened the conflict with a coordinated campaign that killed Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, degraded Iranian military and nuclear infrastructure, and imposed […]
