For decades Washington has advertised its air and naval supremacy as the indispensable guarantor of global order. Recent events have shown this to be little but increasingly expensive theater. The 2026 Iran War has paused not with Iranian capitulation but in a cascade of humiliations that have permanently altered the strategic landscape. Washington’s vaunted power-projection capabilities proved unable to shield even its own forward bases, depleted critical munitions stockpiles, and ultimately ceded effective control of the Strait of Hormuz to Tehran. These lessons will not be lost on Beijing...

For anyone who has been paying attention to the metastasizing national debt and the fiscal recklessness that has defined Washington for the past two decades, the latest proposal from the Trump administration can be met only by a mixture of disgust and grim predictability. Indeed, at a time of record debt and deficits the White House has floated a $1.5 trillion military budget for fiscal year 2027—a proposal more likely than not to find its way into the next National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). It is a prospect that should terrify every American taxpayer. For context, the most recent...

Though the dust from the devastating Tigray War of 2020–2022 has barely settled, the Horn of Africa once again appears to be drifting toward catastrophe. Recent developments suggest a growing risk of renewed conflict involving Ethiopia’s federal government, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), and neighboring Eritrea. Military buildups, drone strikes, and a rising chorus of diplomatic accusations all point to a region edging back toward war. Should fighting resume, the consequences would be severe: hundreds of thousands more lives potentially lost, humanitarian crises deepening, and...

In late February, longstanding tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan erupted into open conflict, marking one of the most severe escalations since the Taliban regained control of Kabul in 2021. What began as targeted Pakistani airstrikes against militant camps in eastern Afghanistan has spiraled into cross-border offensives, artillery exchanges, and strikes on major Afghan cities, including Kabul and Kandahar. Pakistan’s Defense Minister Khawaja Asif declared an “open war” with the Taliban government following Afghan retaliatory attacks on Pakistani border positions. This flare-up, rooted...