Lessons Observed from the War Between Israel and Iran - War on the Rocks The outbreak of direct hostilities between Israel and Iran in June represents one of the most significant geopolitical escalations in the Middle East in

Bunker-buster bombs, drone swarms, cyber blackouts — this war was a test run for tomorrow’s battlespace. warontherocks.com/20...

The Importance of the Battle of Cannae - War on the Rocks Editor’s Note: This is part of a new series of essays entitled “Battle Studies,” which seeks, through the study of military history, to demonstrate how

The battlefield was Hannibal’s, but the war belonged to Rome. warontherocks.com/20...

Calling Out Russia: France’s Shift on Public Attribution - War on the Rocks Is silence strategic when your adversary barely hides? For years, France maintained a policy of quiet restraint, generally refusing to publicly name

Cyber intrusions, disinformation, and sabotage. France says enough is enough. warontherocks.com/20...

Australian-Indian Naval Cooperation in the Indian Ocean - War on the Rocks In her 2020 article, “Australia-India Naval Cooperation and the Islands of the Indo-Pacific,” Darshana Baruah argued that a maritime partnership between

How is Australian-Indian naval cooperation evolving in the Indo-Pacific? warontherocks.com/20...

Notes from History for Surviving the Trade War - War on the Rocks The trade war isn’t coming. It’s already here. Alarming as the daily news may be, this is not the first time nations have clashed over trade. In the 20th

Is this trade war just history repeating itself, or is it something fundamentally different? warontherocks.com/20...

Populists vs. Spies in Israel and Beyond - War on the Rocks Over a year and a half after the Oct. 7 attacks, the Israeli government is embroiled in an unprecedented institutional clash with the nation’s internal

From Tel Aviv to Caracas to Ankara, one pattern holds: Populist leaders eventually target the spies. warontherocks.com/20...

Embrace Poland and the Baltic States for Embracing Anti-Personnel Mines - War on the Rocks Anti-personnel mines are widely reviled, especially in the humanitarian community, but there are certain places in which they could be used to prevent war

What if the key to stopping a Russian invasion of the Baltics isn’t new technology but an old one? warontherocks.com/20...

Mexican Gibraltar: When Americans Fought for Monterrey - War on the Rocks Editor’s Note: This is part of a new series of essays entitled “Battle Studies,” which seeks, through the study of military history, to demonstrate how

Victory at Monterrey didn’t end the war — it reshaped how the United States would wage war. warontherocks.com/20...

Russian and Ukrainian Advantages in Drone Warfare - War on the Rocks Drones have played a crucial and evolving role in the Russo-Ukrainian War. On June 1, Ukraine highlighted how drones are changing warfare, with a surprise

It’s a high-stakes drone race in Ukraine. Who’s winning? warontherocks.com/20...

Get Ready for the New Rules of War in the Indo-Pacific - War on the Rocks Ukraine shocked the world (and the Kremlin especially) when it launched a surprise attack with over a hundred kamikaze drones smuggled into Russia and

Ukraine’s drone campaign inside Russia raised alarms. What would a maritime version look like in the Indo-Pacific? warontherocks.com/20...

Will China Force a Rethink of Biological Warfare? - War on the Rocks Is the Defense Department still preparing to fight biological warfare as if it's 1970? When preparing for biological warfare, most nations picture

What will it take for the U.S. military to modernize its approach to biological threats? warontherocks.com/20...

Rethinking Rome’s “Most Reluctant” Emperor – War on the Rocks

#ICYMI my review of @irehman.bsky.social's 'Iron Imperator' for @warontherocks.bsky.social ks. #TIBERIUSbio
warontherocks.com/2025/05/reth...

If America Abandons Europe, Will the Continent Fragment or Unify? - War on the Rocks For over seventy years, U.S. military power has formed the backbone of Europe’s security architecture. American leadership enabled the continent to

What happens if the trans-Atlantic alliance unravels? Europe faces two possible futures. warontherocks.com/20...

Does America's Indo-Pacific Strategy Still Run Through Ukraine? - War on the Rocks In 2022, Luis Simón wrote "America’s Indo-Pacific Strategy Runs Through Ukraine" where he argued that a decisive defeat of Russia in Europe would

Winning in Ukraine might be the most strategic move in the competition with China. warontherocks.com/20...

How Iran Lost Before It Lost: The Roll Back of Its Gray Zone Strategy - War on the Rocks "Today, you can get in a car in Tehran and get out in the Dahia, Beirut." Five years and two months after Gen. Qasem Soleimani made this statement, the

Iran’s gray zone strategy was already unraveling before it lost its regional partners. What went wrong? (Originally published Jan. 2025). warontherocks.com/20...

Too Much Tech Can Ruin Wargames - War on the Rocks The U.S. defense community has developed a healthy obsession with innovation. AI, modeling and simulation, machine learning — these are the buzzwords

As new technology tools flood into the defense space, wargamers are facing a consequential crossroads. warontherocks.com/20...

We Need a Marine Corps, Part I: A Corps in Crisis - War on the Rocks Marines have spent too much energy in the past five years debating the merits of former Commandant David H. Berger’s Force Design 2030 plan. Force Design

What role do internal reforms and policy shifts play in shaping the future of the Marine Corps? warontherocks.com/20...

Revisiting the Implications of Iran’s Long-Range Weapons Capabilities - War on the Rocks In his 2022 article, “New Missiles, New Risks: The Escalatory Implications of Iran’s Precision-Strike Weapons,” Jim Lamson argued that Iran’s acquisition

Was Iran’s confidence in its missile power misplaced? A closer look at what recent conflicts reveal about Tehran’s strategy. warontherocks.com/20...

Three Alternative Approaches to Deterrence in Europe and the Indo-Pacific - War on the Rocks Whether the United States defines China as a global threat or a predominantly regional one will have pervasive implications for U.S. alliance and

Three choices, three futures: How will the United States manage threats in Europe and Asia? warontherocks.com/20...

How the Arsenal of Democracy Can Get Back on its Feet with Some Help from the Past - War on the Rocks More than a decade before American troops fought their way ashore in Normandy and Okinawa, the U.S. military noted that “the success of a modern fighting

Leaders keep calling for America to rebuild its arsenal of democracy. But how can it actually be done? warontherocks.com/20...

Intelligence, Strategy, and the Israeli-Iranian War - War on the Rocks States use intelligence to inform their strategic decisions — and to influence their friends. Israel has a long history of passing secret intelligence to

What happens when allies don’t see eye to eye on intelligence? warontherocks.com/20...

Putting the Defense Industry Through Wargames - War on the Rocks The U.S. military is going through its “reps and sets” via training, exercises, and wargames to make sure it is ready for a major war. The defense

The COVID-19 pandemic was just a taste of how fragile our supply chains are. In a real conflict, those cracks could shatter everything — unless we stress-test them now. warontherocks.com/20...

Marching to Different Drums: The Army’s Birthday Parade as Seen from China - War on the Rocks On June 14, 2025, the U.S. Army marked its 250th anniversary with a public parade in Washington. While billed as the Army’s celebration, the parade was

A parade that aimed to inspire Americans raised eyebrows — and questions — in Beijing. warontherocks.com/20...

Eye of the Storm? Revisiting IUU Fishing on the Global Stage - War on the Rocks In 2022, Aaron Delano-Johnson and Chris Bernotavicius wrote “A Plan to Push Back Against China’s Fishing Practices,” where they argued that illegal,

As global tensions rise, the quiet fight over fishing rights has serious strategic stakes. warontherocks.com/20...

In a Changing Middle East, What Role Do Iran’s Partners Play? - War on the Rocks Several of Iran’s long-standing regional partners — Hizballah, the Assad regime, and Hamas — have been significantly weakened or collapsed. This reality

Can Iran’s fractured network of proxies still shape the region — or has the balance shifted for good? warontherocks.com/20...

Why Recent Surprise Attacks Against Russia and Iran Should Worry Taiwan - War on the Rocks On June 1, Ukraine caught Russia off-guard with a bold series of drone strikes against five air bases inside of Russia. Weeks later, Israel initiated its

Attacks in Russia and Iran offer a warning for Taiwan. How should defense planners respond? warontherocks.com/20...

I Fought in Ukraine and Here’s Why FPV Drones Kind of Suck - War on the Rocks In 2024 and 2025, I served for six months as an international volunteer on a first-person view attack drone team in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. My team

What a frontline volunteer learned about the real challenges of drone warfare in Ukraine. warontherocks.com/20...

The Case for an Economic Fusion Center to Prevent Strategic Surprise - War on the Rocks The next major threat to U.S. national security won’t arrive through a missile silo or a cyberattack but through a port terminal, a biotechnology lab, or

What if the next great threat to U.S. national security doesn’t come through cyberspace or airspace, but through a shipping terminal? warontherocks.com/20...

The 2025 War on the Rocks Summer Fiction Reading List - War on the Rocks Forget the algorithm — this list was created by the humans who bring you War on the Rocks. Here, they share some of their favorite works of fiction. Kerry

I've been waiting for the @warontherocks.bsky.social summer reading lists every year - and truly honoured that this year's list includes my recommendations as well: Mornings in Yenin (Susan Abulhawa) and The Joy Luck Club (Amy Tan).

warontherocks.com/2025/06/the-...

How close is a new bird flu (H5N1) pandemic? Probably not around the corner but getting uncomfortably closer.

You've probaly seen various headlines this year about bird flu and the potential for a new pandemic.

So I've written a new substack as a simple explainer on what a flu pandemic actually is, why bird flu and what's been going on over the last 3 years.

open.substack.com/pub/christin...