Political platforms periodically change with every election in democratic countries, but regardless of what path India takes, its alliance with American is now solidified by numerous agreements and congressional acts. By Patrick Mendis* and Antonina Luszczykiewicz** Until recently, it is not a public secret that the United States considers India as one of its most...
Category: <span>Opinions</span>
No way out: Why nuclear modernization is necessary (In Six Slides)
By Loren Thompson* Last week I participated in an online panel about modernizing the U.S. strategic arsenal sponsored by the Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance. ANWA, as it is called, is one of the few think tanks in Washington that focuses on the enduring requirements of nuclear deterrence—and what might happen if those requirements are not...
Why Turkey is dialing down tensions in East Med
By Hasan Selim Ozertem* The change of power in the US – and a wish to re-set relations with the EU – are behind Ankara’s de-escalation of tensions in volatile waters. Turkey and Greece resumed their exploratory talks after a five-year break on January 25. Resuming the talks after such a long break was received...
Rebuilding America’s Navy for great-power competition
By Brent D. Sadler* Once again, we find ourselves in an era of great-power competition. And the pressures driving current competition among the United States, China and Russia are only intensifying. In China, growing demographic and economic pressures will come to a head by 2029. Ultimately, failure to deliver on sustained economic growth and cowing of...
What are China’s leaders saying about the South China Sea?
By Oriana Skylar Mastro* The rhetoric weaves between cooperative and competitive, leaving the question of what – and who – to believe. When China began three days of military exercises in the South China Sea’s Gulf of Tonkin back in January, some observers speculated that Beijing was testing the new Biden administration. Harsh words from Beijing accompanied the exercises,...
How the US Can Avoid Future “Forever Wars”
By Artur Kalandarov* To avoid a repeat of Iraq and Afghanistan, US policymakers should look to the Powell Doctrine for guidance. Over the past two decades, the United States has spent over $6 trillion waging the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but neither military nor diplomatic means have been able to bring either conflict to a successful resolution....
Leaked Dutch intelligence file warns about Erdoğan’s role in domestic radicalisation, rise of salafism
By Nicholas Morgan* A leaked Dutch intelligence document drew a connection between Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the rise of Salafist inside the Netherlands, Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (NOS) reported on Monday. In a still confidential report, the Dutch National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) assesses that Erdoğan’s goals of “Islamisation” in Turkey are being spread...
The Middle East – a conflict zone between China and Russia?
By Danny Citrinowicz*and Roie Yellinek** Background – China and Russia relations In his speech at the first MEI – CENTCOM conference, General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of CENTCOM, argued that “we’re beginning to see a resurgence…of great power competition in the Central Command AOR [area of responsibility] as China and Russia begin to find weaknesses and...
US military must develop radically new ideas to win the next big war
By Clinton Hinote* As we remember the euphoria of Operation Desert Storm 30 years ago, it’s easy to forget how broken the U.S. military was just 15 years before Desert Storm, at the end of the Vietnam War. Although many fought with courage and valor in Vietnam, they suffered from disastrous shortcomings: a strategy-tactics mismatch,...
Goodhart’s Law: Why the future of conflict will not be data-driven
By Zac Rogers* Data is the future. Few tropes receive more uncritical acceptance. Pick any rubric of military assessment– take PMESII (political, military, economic, social, information, infrastructure) and DIME (diplomatic, informational, military, and economic) as obvious examples– and you will find analysts, operators, commanders and civilian authorities, convinced the key element of future operational and...