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,…
By Pasquale Preziosa Understanding what future Russia desires requires a preliminary distinction between the country, its ruling class, and the political system that governs it: three closely linked realities whose interests and perspectives do not always coincide. The Kremlin’s decisions bind the Russian state, but they do not necessarily express…
By Robbin Laird A September 2026of digital storytelling from The Conversation, built by researchers at the University of Sydney and the National University of Singapore’s Centre of Maritime Studies, traced the life of a single tanker called New Konk. Built in Japan in 1991 as an unremarkable cargo vessel, it…
On my way back from Australia, I had a chance to reflect on years of writing and wrote this piece as a consequence. Over the years I have worked through nearly every format available to someone who thinks about defense and strategy for a living. I have given lectures and…
By Robbin Laird At a winging ceremony held for the U.S. Navy’s newest naval aviators, Rear Admiral Max McCoy, the 39th Chief of Naval Air Training (CNATRA), delivered a speech that did more than mark a rite of passage. It laid down, in plain and forceful terms, what it means…
By Robbin Laird It is no accident that I am writing this essay early in the morning in Canberra, Australia. There is no government which uses the term “rules based order” more than the Australian one does. For most of the postwar period, the phrase “rules-based order” carried a single,…
Preview: Sir Richard Williams Foundation Seminar, 1 October 2026, National Gallery of Australia By Robbin Laird On 1 October, the Sir Richard Williams Foundation returns to the question that has quietly reshaped Australian airpower debate over the past two years: not whether the Royal Australian Air Force can support the…
By Robbin Laird There are dates that carry weight beyond the events that fall on them, and September 11 is one of them. For anyone born in the last sixty years, the date needs no elaboration: it means the destruction of the Twin Towers, the wounding of the Pentagon, the…
