To Shorten Wars and Prevent Wider War The Biden Administration Should Lift Allies’ Conventional Strike Restrictions Against Iran’s and Russia’s Conventional Military Targets
October 4, 2024 Ukraine & Israel: Ukraine and Israel face common adversaries axially aligned. Russia and China enable Iran and its terror proxies with lethal supply and know-how to wage war against Israel. Russia and China could sanction Iran but do not. Iran, China, and North Korea likewise back Russia’s increasingly genocidal war of aggression…
Strategy Essay: Zelensky’s Unmet Requests are Xi Jinping’s Political Capital for Invasion of Taiwan
Chinese leader Xi Jinping uses China’s manufacturing power to help Russia’s aggression against Ukraine not out of friendship for President Vladimir Putin, but because a Putin victory in Ukraine can help him ram through his imperial military agenda for Taiwan and the region. The U.S. and free allies, by their munitions and weapons supply to…
Defending Ukraine, Changing War with Anti-Weapon Weapons
In February 2015, we wrote about a newly conceived category of advanced weapon systems purposed or repurposed to destroy aggressor states’ conventional weapons, ammo, and war supplies while such are used for aggression, yet refining the weapons to be ever more precise to that purpose, reducing collateral damage and depopulation: “These could be relabeled “disarmament…
Reality Over Reactivity for Right Result in Deterrence and Détente
As Iran provides Russia with short range ballistic missiles to use against Ukraine, U.S. officials are reportedly mulling approval of Ukraine’s request to use longer range U.S. weapons to strike Russian targets deeper inside Russia. Asked whether Ukraine should be allowed long range strike capabilities into Russian territory with U.S.-supplied weapons, The Wall Street Journal…
Essay: Xi Jinping Gambles on Putin’s Wars. China’s Jiang Zemin & Hu Jintao Did Not Need To
Xi Jinping has since allowed Putin to steer the Chinese Communist Party’s risk tolerance toward an investment black hole in Russian military adventures with no limits in sight. The Black Hole As one who cares for and feeds an addict, China is investing in and creating a heavier and heavier albatross for itself to carry…
U.S.-China Relations: Corrosive Effects of China’s National Intelligence Law
Thaw Sought: National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan has wrapped-up his August visit to China to try to find grounds for resolving gridlocked issues in U.S.-Chinese relations. One of those that may not have come up is China’s economically and geopolitically destabilizing 2017 National Intelligence Law (NIL17). Problem: NIL17 requires Chinese expats and citizens to aid…
What Caspian States Can Do If Russia Tries to Misuse Treaty to Co-Opt Them for Putin’s Wars
The Set-up In the Spring of 2018, during negotiations leading to the execution of the Convention on the Legal Status of the Caspian Sea on August 12, 2018 by Russia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Iran, and Azerbaijan, the Russian Ministry of Defense took two actions to coerce the other parties: (1) the April 2018 relocation of the…
Repurposing Retired Aircraft Carriers
Advocation: Stop scrapping and start repurposing retired aircraft carriers, other warships, and utility ships with advanced weapons, technologies, and capabilities. Security and Incentivizing Ideas: Keep repurposing projects strictly shrouded in mystery for potentially adversarial forces, the press, and unreliable partners as would bleed information. Put the projects under direct military command, strict counterintelligence oversight, and…
House Obstruction Drives Risk of Long War, Lost Advantages
The Senate has passed a $95 billion dollar aid package for Ukraine and Israel but the Majority Leader in the U.S. House of Representatives, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) signaled that Republicans there will not pass it without the border security measures they want. However, a bi-partisan border security measure is already on the table…
From Cluster Munitions to Cluster Neutralizers
Setup: Cluster munition shells made the latest round of U.S. military support to help Ukrainian Armed Forces replenish dwindling artillery shell supplies. For that stopgap purpose, it may be the only substitute the U.S. can now give. To date, Russia has aggressed with cluster and incendiary weapons against Ukrainian defenders and civilians, and Ukraine has…