By Robbin Laird Sixteen years ago, we launched Second Line of Defense with General Patton's warning that "if everyone is thinking alike then no one is thinking" wasn't philosophical wisdom for it is operational necessity. When defense establishments fall into intellectual lockstep, people die. When military leaders embrace comfortable assumptions…
By Robbin Laird The war in Ukraine is the most documented conflict in human history, and at the center of this digital chronicle sits Telegram, a messaging application that has transformed from a simple communication tool into a multifaceted instrument of warfare. Since Russia's full-scale invasion began in February 2022,…
In September 2025, Poland made a decision that reverberated far beyond its borders with immediate consequences for global trade. Citing security concerns following the Zapad-2025 military exercises and Russian drone incursions, Warsaw closed all crossing points with Belarus, effectively severing one of the most important arteries in the China-Europe trade…
As the war in Ukraine enters the fall of 2025, what began as a regional European conflict has transformed into a global struggle with profound implications for the Indo-Pacific. Far from remaining spectators to events thousands of miles away, major Asian powers, China, North Korea, Japan, South Korea, and India,…
The maneuvers in the war in Ukraine in the Fall of 2025 show several dynamics at once. The Russians are using attacks on civilian targets to undercut the will of the Ukrainian people to fight. But Putin has a significantly constricting economy and the threat of the Russian people becoming…
On April 28, 2025, at precisely 12:33 CEST, the lights went out across the Iberian Peninsula. What began as a voltage surge at a solar installation in Spain cascaded into a massive blackout affecting nearly 60 million people across Spain and Portugal, lasting approximately 10 hours in most areas. The…
When Russia, a nation whose territory extends into the Arctic Circle, positions itself as part of the "Global South," it reveals something fundamental about how international relations have evolved beyond simple geographic boundaries. The term "Global South," increasingly used by organizations and coalitions worldwide, has become less about hemispheres and…
By Robbin Laird In the shadowy world of 18th-century colonial Brazil, monks conducted business through holes in convent walls, French diplomats openly discussed bribing governors, and British ships feigned distress to access forbidden ports. This wasn't the chaotic underworld we might imagine. It was a sophisticated economic system that would…
