By Robbin Laird The fundamental assumptions underpinning Western defense planning are collapsing. For generations, democratic nations operated under the comfortable presumption that major conflicts would arrive with ample warning, years, perhaps a decade, to mobilize industrial capacity, train forces, and prepare society for war. This strategic cushion has evaporated. The…
By Robbin Laird For decades, national security establishments have organized around crisis management or the structured response to disruptions within fundamentally stable systems. The Cuban Missile Crisis, though terrifying, operated within understood parameters: known actors, measurable capabilities, calculable escalation ladders. Even the most dangerous moments followed a logic that skilled…
By Robbin Laird In February 2026, a team from OpenAI published what may become a landmark document in the emerging field of AI geopolitics. “AI and International Security: Pathways of Impact and Key Uncertainties” represents something unusual: a major AI laboratory attempting to map how its own technology could reshape…
Recently, Lt General (Retired) Preziosa published two essays in European Affairs in Italian which we are including in translation after this overview of his analysis of Europe’s position in the evolving global system. His argument rests on a fundamental proposition: the Russian-Ukrainian war represents not a regional conflict but a…
By Robbin Laird February 7, 2026, The Wall Street Journal published an interesting article entitled, Squeezed by U.S. and China, the World’s Middle Powers are Teaming Up. Upon reading this article, I wanted to take that assessment and compare it to the findings in my forthcoming book with Ken Maxwell…
By Robbin Laird The Trump Administration decision to intervene in Venzuela was certainly a decisive act. But acts are not strategies. My own sense is that the intervention opened up new strategic possibilities. To explore this idea, I had the chance on January 21, 2026 to talk with one of…
By Robbin Laird November 2025 articles published in The Australian reveal a troubling disconnect at the heart of Australian policy toward China, one that raises fundamental questions about how democracies should respond to authoritarian pressure while maintaining essential economic relationships. The contrast between Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s carefully calibrated diplomatic…
By Robbin Laird My latest book on Australian defence has focused on the significant challenge facing liberal democracies to develop credible defense in depth capabilities that extend far beyond traditional force structures to encompass whole-of-society considerations. The contemporary security environment demands a fundamental reimagining of how nations prepare for, deter,…
