*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Real estate’s expensive these days. It doesn’t matter where you are. But if you happen to be in one of the thirty-eight countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, home prices surged nearly 7 percent from 2019 to 2020. It was the fastest year-over-year…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Deterrence smells like tank exhaust and feels like an earthquake. Hundreds of armored vehicles rumbled over streets, thousands of troops marched in formation, and dozens of planes flew overhead as Ukrainians cheered during their Independence Day parade on August 24. Kyiv’s main boulevard—Khreshchatyk—filled to…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Just before COVID-19 shuttered the world, I submitted an essay to a publication. The editor kindly dismissed the essay in large part over my inclusion of one historical fact about New Zealand. I had written, “New Zealand hasn’t always been safe. Many…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site The world’s in crisis, and it’s time for strategists to earn their paychecks. It’s long been well-known that shifts and shocks produce opportunities that never would have existed otherwise. In car racing, this notion is reflected in the adage that…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Colin Gray—who shaped strategic studies as much as anyone—died last week. And as difficult as it is to know he’s gone, he left us with a body of work that will live on in the minds of strategic practitioners for…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Two centuries ago, Napoleon embodied warfare’s changing character. This conqueror of Europe took advantage of new ways of thinking about warfare and its organization to bend Europe to his will. Of course, it wasn’t just the French emperor driving these…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Once you’ve seen a person hung, drawn, and quartered, you’ve seen it enough. Mostly because you never want to think about it again. Yet the BBC/HBO miniseries Gunpowder, starring Kit Harrington (of Game of Thrones fame) as Robert Cateseby, draws…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. A little over a week ago, two of Saudi Arabia’s major oil facilities, Aramco’s Abqaiq and Khurais, were hit by a series of strikes. A Houthi rebel group in Yemen (aligned with Iran) claimed responsibility for the attack. Although Iran…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. Ernie Pyle in England is an old, dusty book, but one that still has a lot to say. Legendary war correspondent Ernie Pyle rushed to London during the Blitz to see the what the war looked like up close. From…
*Note: This essay was originally published on the Modern War Institute’s Commentary & Analysis site. “It is meritocracy in action,” President George H.W. Bush said of the military in a speech at West Point two weeks before leaving office. A few years later, I was a junior in high school when I first saw that…