Security & Defense

Jordan’s military deterrence has collapsed 

By Aaron Magid

Jordan continues to absorb attacks from Iran without firing back.

A revolutionary coffee: The impact of Syria’s removal from the terrorism sponsor list

The US removal of the country from its list of state sponsors of terrorism is big step for Syria toward its post-Assad future.

Satan’s Chariot: Mercenary Trouble in Mali

By Alia Brahimi

In Season 2, Episode 17 of the Guns for Hire podcast, host Alia Brahimi chats to Wassim Nasr, the veteran French journalist for France24 and Senior Fellow at the Soufan Center. Wassim talks us through the spectacular April 25th offensive across Mali by JNIM, an al-Qaeda affiliate that looks set to soon make a play to take over the whole country.

Ukrainians are not superheroes with endless powers of resilience

By Lauren Van Metre, Elena Davlikanova

By celebrating Ukrainian resilience as an almost superhuman quality, the international community risks obscuring the much less glamorous reality that Ukrainians are actually ordinary people who have endured extraordinary violence for far too long, write Lauren Van Metre and Elena Davlikanova.

Drone parade showcases Ukraine’s remarkable military transformation

By Mykola Bielieskov

Ukraine celebrated Independence Day this week with a novel military parade made up exclusively of unmanned systems, underlining the country’s emergence as a global leader in the field of drone warfare, writes Mykola Bielieskov.

AI and autonomy in contested operations

By Owen J. Daniels

Any potential major conflict the United States engages in will be shaped by AI and autonomous systems. US forces should expect their systems to operate in denied, degraded, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) conditions imposed by jamming techniques, cyber-attacks, and anti-satellite capabilities designed to sever the connectivity and wreak havoc on military operations.

In an age of great-power competition, democracy is an advantage for the United States

By Markus Jaeger

The spread of democracy could give Washington an edge in great-power competition and make armed conflict less likely.