When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, few predicted that within two years, Chinese yuan would become the dominant foreign currency in Russian markets. Yet this dramatic shift represents one of the most significant unintended consequences of Western sanctions forcing Moscow into an unprecedented economic dependency…
Picture a weapon with the same range and payload as a Tomahawk cruise missile, but instead of cruising at Mach 0.7, it screams across the sky at Mach 7. This isn't science fiction. It's the reality of hypersonic weapons, and America stands at a critical decision point that could reshape…
In 1970, the rolling hills and vast plains of Ukraine served as the backdrop for one of cinema's most ambitious war epics. Sergei Bondarchuk's "Waterloo" transformed the Soviet republic into 19th-century Belgium, with thousands of Red Army soldiers marching across Ukrainian soil to recreate Napoleon's final defeat. More than five…
The economic relationship between Brazil and China has emerged as one of the most significant bilateral partnerships in the Global South, fundamentally reshaping both countries' development trajectories since the early 2000s. As China became Brazil's largest trading partner, bilateral trade reached USD 159.6 billion in 2023, with China accounting for…
Nearly five decades after Britain's humiliating dash to the International Monetary Fund for a bailout, warnings of history repeating itself are echoing through Westminster and the City of London. A growing chorus of economists, politicians, and financial commentators are drawing stark parallels between today's economic challenges and the crisis that…
By Robbin Laird The U.S. Marine Corps' latest heavy-lift helicopter, the CH-53K King Stallion, represents far more than an evolutionary step from its predecessor. In an interview on July 22, 2025, Col Kate Fleeger, Program Manager, H-53 Heavy Lift Helicopters Program at NAVAIR, underscored that the CH-53K embodies a fundamental…
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…
