In September 2025, Poland made a decision that reverberated far beyond its borders with immediate consequences for global trade. Citing security concerns following the Zapad-2025 military exercises and Russian drone incursions, Warsaw closed all crossing points with Belarus, effectively severing one of the most important arteries in the China-Europe trade…
As the war in Ukraine enters the fall of 2025, what began as a regional European conflict has transformed into a global struggle with profound implications for the Indo-Pacific. Far from remaining spectators to events thousands of miles away, major Asian powers, China, North Korea, Japan, South Korea, and India,…
By Robbin Laird After learning about the International Flight Training School during my visit to Rome in November 2024, I was eager to understand more about Italy's innovative approach to shaping air power training. The opportunity came in October 2025, when I returned to Italy to meet with Italian Air…
The maneuvers in the war in Ukraine in the Fall of 2025 show several dynamics at once. The Russians are using attacks on civilian targets to undercut the will of the Ukrainian people to fight. But Putin has a significantly constricting economy and the threat of the Russian people becoming…
The battlefields of Ukraine are witnessing a technological revolution that is reshaping the nature of ground combat. While aerial drones have dominated headlines throughout the conflict, a new category of unmanned systems is quietly transforming military operations: unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs). From experimental prototypes to mass deployment, Ukraine's ambitious push…
On April 28, 2025, at precisely 12:33 CEST, the lights went out across the Iberian Peninsula. What began as a voltage surge at a solar installation in Spain cascaded into a massive blackout affecting nearly 60 million people across Spain and Portugal, lasting approximately 10 hours in most areas. The…
2016-03-02 Our colleague Air Vice Marshal (Retired) John Blackburn has focused attention on the energy security shortfall for Australia for some time. As an island continent at the bottom of the Asia Pacific region, Australia is heavily dependent upon liquid energy imports and with a rapidly disappearing domestic refinery production capacity,…
2016-01-30 Recently, our partner defenceWeb looked at the evolving challenges of maritime defense and security seen from South Africa. Thursday, 28 January 2016 Economic growth through development of the ocean economy as part of Operation Phakisa requires effective maritime surveillance and defence, with nearly 4 000 kilometres of South Africa’s…
