Strategic Power Has a Temporal Architecture

11/12/2026 The last installment closed on the idea that strategic power lives less in what a system currently holds than in its capacity to generate, regenerate, and reconfigure capability over time. This installment takes that phrase — over time — and makes it the whole subject. Preziosa's foreword introduces a variable that strategy often acknowledges in passing but rarely builds into… Read more »

From Partner to Node: Denmark, the Royal Navy and the Hybrid Fleet in the North

11/11/2026 By Robbin Laird The navies of northern Europe are changing how they think about building fleets. For decades the question was how many frigates a nation could afford, crew and keep at sea. Now the question is how crewed warships, uncrewed vessels, sensors and data can be combined into a single fighting network. And that network increasingly crosses national boundaries.… Read more »

Looking Back on Euronaval 2026: Key Themes and Messages

11/09/2026 By Robbin Laird The 30th Euronaval closed on November 6 at Paris Nord Villepinte with 713 exhibitors, up 45% from 483 in 2024, and a message that was easier to state than to deliver: Europe's navies intend to build hybrid fleets, crewed hulls working with uncrewed systems, and they intend to buy European to do it. Organizers reported 28,000 professional… Read more »

Where Chaos Meets Order: The 138th, Nevada, and Mastering Chaos

11/08/2026 By Robbin Laird The Indiana National Guard has built a leadership course whose design principle is productive discomfort, and its organizers describe the target in terms that match the argument of Mastering Chaos and what Nevada Army National Guard leaders have been telling us on Second Line of Defense. On Sept. 13–18, 2026, the 138th Regiment, Regional Training Institute ran… Read more »

One Voice, Three Tables: Meloni’s Letter and Europe’s Seat in the Ukraine Talks

11/07/2026 By Pasquale Preziosa and Robbin Laird Giorgia Meloni’s November 5 letter to European Council President António Costa is less a plea for one EU envoy than a demand to know who may commit Europe to what. She asked that leaders take up the question at the informal summit in Dublin next week, and that the December European Council formalize a… Read more »

The Philadelphia Test: Allied Shipbuilding Comes Ashore

11/06/2026 By Robbin Laird The American debate about shipbuilding has hardened into a simple choice: build warships at home or buy them from allies abroad. That framing makes good politics. It is poor strategy. The more useful question is whether the industrial know-how of allied shipbuilders can be brought into American yards quickly enough to make a difference for the fleet.… Read more »