Bury the Dead and Feed the Living: Lisbon, November 1, 1755, and What Rebuilding Requires

11/01/2026 By Kenneth Maxwell At about 9:45 on the morning of November 1, 1755, All Saints Day, the earth beneath Lisbon began to move. The churches were full. Many of the faithful were at mass when the vaults and walls came down on the congregations. "I could hardly take a step without treading on the dead and dying," one eyewitness recalled.… Read more »

The Forces of Change: Why the Post-Industrial Thinkers of the 1970s Still Matter in the Age of Chaos

10/31/2026 By Robbin Laird When I published my recent piece carrying Alvin and Heidi Toffler's thinking forward into today's strategic environment, I hoped it would start a conversation. I did not expect one of the most thoughtful responses to come from Deborah Westphal. Alvin Toffler recruited her to Toffler Associates in 1999, and she ran the firm as CEO from 2007… Read more »

The Multi-Polar Authoritarian Supply Chain Supporting Russia in the War in Ukraine

10/30/2026 By Robbin Laird On Oct. 20, The Insider published an investigation into the chemistry behind Russia's explosives. Its central finding was stark: for the plasticizers, binders, acids and stabilizers Russia's defense plants need, Chinese companies supply virtually all of them and in most cases also manufacture them. The Roshal Plasticizer Plant bought sebacic acid from China's Farmasino and told customs… Read more »

From Capability to Strategic Capacity

10/29/2026 The last installment traced how the geography of European defense has shifted from a Franco-German engine to a genuinely networked pillar, layered across NATO, the EU, and smaller coalitions. This installment turns to the question underneath that architecture: even with the right actors in the right places, what does it actually take to convert what Europe has into usable strategic… Read more »

From Future Shock to the Age of Chaos: Carrying Alvin Toffler’s Question into a World of Contested Order

10/28/2026 By Robbin F. Laird When I met Alvin Toffler during my time at Columbia, Future Shock was already one of the defining books of its era. It had given a name to something many people felt but could not articulate: the sense that change itself had become a force acting on us, not simply a series of events happening around… Read more »

Which Industrial Habits Should America Import from Korea in Shipbuilding?

10/27/2026 By Robbin Laird Marcus Jones, writing for CIMSEC on October 2, has made a case that deserves a wider audience than the shipbuilding specialists who will read it first. His argument is that Korean shipbuilding will matter to American naval power only if American institutions change how they buy, schedule, repair, and build. Money and goodwill are not enough. I… Read more »