Countering Asymmetric Attrition Strategies: Optimizing the Combat Approach of the Ready Force

05/24/2025
By Murielle Delaporte For thousands of years, military commanders have considered mass — having more troops and equipment than the enemy — a critical factor in winning battles. The last fifty years have seen a shift from mass to precision, a trend that has accelerated since the end of the…

Air Power in an Age of Strategic Uncertainty: The Perspective of General Moseley

05/23/2025
By Robbin Laird Dateline: Canberra, Australia Recently, General "Buzz" Moseley spoke via video link to the May 22, 2025 seminar held by the Sir Richard Williams Foundation in Canberra, Australia. General Moseley was the 18th Chief of Staff of the United States Air Force. Moseley was a distinguished war fighter…

Australia in Era of Strategic Uncertainty: The Defence Dimension

05/22/2025
Robbin Laird Dateline: Canberra, Australia On May 22, 2025, the first seminar of 2025 for the Sir Richard Williams Foundation was held at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. The seminar was entitled: The Imperatives for Cost Effectiveness in Multidomain Operations. The program for the seminar laid out the…

Australia’s Littoral Defense Strategy and Regional Security

05/20/2025
By Robbin Laird Dateline: Canberra, Australia Australia's approach to littoral defense represents a strategic pivot that extends far beyond simple territorial protection. As outlined in the national strategy, this approach demands a fundamental rethinking of force deployment and equipment, creating opportunities for enhanced regional cooperation and security integration. Reframing Territorial…

From Reykjavik to Riyadh: Trump’s Strategic Pivot to the Middle East

05/16/2025
President Donald Trump has outlined a dramatic foreign policy shift during his recent address in Saudi Arabia. The speech signals what appears to be a fundamental realignment of American priorities in the Middle East and potentially reshapes the global balance of power. A New Vision for the Middle East Trump's…

A Paradigm Shift in Maritime Operations: Autonomous Systems and Their Impact

05/14/2025
The paradigm shift in maritime operations involves moving away from concentrating power in capital ships to distributing capabilities across a network of assets. Distributed Maritime Effects (DME) are the effects created by this distributed force, often independent of or supplemental to traditional capital ship operations which are increasingly focused on…

Lula in Moscow and Beijing: Coming to Terms with the Multi-Polar Authoritarian World?

05/13/2025
By Kenneth Maxwell The three major Brazilian newspapers in their editorials had nothing good to say about Lula’s presence in Moscow for the 80th anniversary parade on Red Square celebrating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in WW2. The Brazilian President and his wife, Rosângela (Janja) Lula da Silva, joined…

The Return of the Nuclear Deterrence Challenge in Europe

04/14/2025
By Robbin Laird The war in Ukraine has brought the nuclear question back again as a central topic in European security. And now the Trump Administration with its focus on European defense by Europeans, coupled with the unfinished business of the Ukraine war, have intensified considerations of what is the…