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,…
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…
