Not the Russian Empire: Putin Brings Back Soviet Scientific and Technological Decline

09/15/2025
By Robbin Laird My friend and colleague Erik Hoffmann and I worked extensively on analyzing the efforts to change the Soviet system under the pressures of the technological revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. This was when Brzezinski published his book on the technotronic age and described the challenges a…

Russia’s Adaptation to Drone Warfare

09/14/2025
By Pasquale Preziosa In recent months, Russia has radically transformed the way it uses drones, making these low-cost tools a pillar of its strategy. What appeared at the beginning of the war to be a rudimentary bombing campaign, conducted with Iranian-made aircraft adapted for local use, has gradually evolved into…

Echoes of the 1930s: Comparing International Coalitions in the Spanish Civil War and Ukraine Conflict

09/12/2025
History rarely repeats itself exactly, but it often rhymes with haunting resonance. The international coalitions that formed around the Spanish Civil War of 1936-1939 and the ongoing conflict in Ukraine since 2022 reveal striking parallels in how major powers align themselves during ideological and geopolitical crises. Both conflicts transformed from…

From World War I to Modern Warfare: Ukraine’s Vintage Drone Hunters

09/10/2025
In the early hours of a spring morning in 2024, a beaten-up Soviet-era propeller plane taxied to a halt on a rural Ukrainian runway. Two unlikely warriors emerged from the cockpit, a 56-year-old pilot who had learned to fly as a hobby before the war, and a 38-year-old former auto…

Admiral Nicolas Vaujour Provides a French Navy Perspective on Global Dynamics

09/08/2025
By Pierre Tran Paris - The Chinese navy was large, growing fast, and led by a complex command structure which showed an aggressive approach in operations at sea, the navy chief of staff, Admiral Nicolas Vaujour, told the Association des Journalistes de Défense (AJD) Sept. 3. Meanwhile, the Russian navy…

Putin’s War: How Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine Triggered a Scientific Exodus

09/05/2025
When Vladimir Putin launched his "special military operation" against Ukraine on February 24, 2022, he envisioned a swift victory that would restore Russia's great power status. Instead, the invasion has triggered one of the most devastating scientific brain drains in modern history, systematically dismantling the mathematics and physics capabilities that…

Russia’s Yuan Pivot: How Sanctions Forced Moscow’s Currency Revolution

09/01/2025
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…

The Speed of War: America’s Hypersonic Crossroads

08/31/2025
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…