Vladimir Putin has spent much of the past decade insisting that Ukraine has no independent claim to nationhood, that it is, in his formulation, an artificial construct carved out of “historical Russia.” It is worth remembering that this is not a new argument. It is Stalin’s argument, updated for a…
By Robbin Laird On August 31, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Bishkek, Narendra Modi told Vladimir Putin, “We must move away from endless war towards an end to the war.” He described a peaceful resolution of all issues as the call of humanity and said…
By Robbin Laird Two stories crossed my desk within weeks of each other in September, both about the U.S. Navy’s anti-submarine warfare enterprise, and neither one mentions the other. But read together, they describe the same institutional problem being solved from opposite ends of the sensor-to-shooter chain: the platforms that…
The first installment in this series on General Pasquale Preziosa’s foreword to The Unfinished Pillar takes up the argument that gives the book its title — and its sharpest edge. The unfinished character of the European pillar, Preziosa argues, was never primarily an institutional story. It is a story about…
By Robbin Laird At the end of August, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, Narendra Modi did something leaders seldom do in front of cameras: he pressed Vladimir Putin to end his war. Despite the organization’s name, the summit was held in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. Modi told…
By Robbin Laird Canada can credibly become a more consequential middle power, but not merely by declaring one. The Carney government has moved faster than recent governments on defence spending and EU cooperation; however, Canada still lacks the export infrastructure, industrial capacity, military readiness, and execution machinery required to turn…
By Jim Jenkins I. Introduction In The First Battle of the Next War: Wargaming a Chinese Invasion of Taiwan, the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) lays out the results of extensive wargaming of a Taiwan scenario, revealing several serious friction points for U.S. success in the conflict. These…
By Robert Czulda In Polish public debate, a range of controversial topics continuously divides society. Yet one issue stands out as not only contentious but profoundly unpopular: the return of compulsory military service, colloquially known as “zetka” (zasadniczna służba wojskowa). Driven by the precarious security situation along Poland’s eastern border,…
