Regional Issues - Category External Articles

What is Strategic Rivalry? Why Should We Care?
April 9, 2026 — The states most likely to draw America into its next major crisis or war are not unknowns. They are the usual suspects: The same handful of states that have threatened the United States repeatedly across decades. Interstate rivals have caused roughly 80 percent of history’s wars and the odds of any given rivalry ending peacefully are little better than a coin toss. Yet America’s key strategy documents since the 2017 National Security Strategy have used phrases like great power competition, interstate strategic competition, and strategic competition without acknowledging the essential difference between a competition and a rivalry... MORE

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Fighting for Intelligence in Large-Scale Combat Operations: The Role of the Intelligence and Electronic Warfare Battalion–Next
March 3, 2026 — This article contends the US Army’s proposed intelligence and electronic warfare battalion–next concept constitutes an organizational solution essential for achieving intelligence dominance in large-scale combat operations. Transcending legacy formations that are predicated on specific intelligence disciplines, this innovative design furnishes a functionally oriented, modular, and layered architecture that affords the requisite analytic capabilities, agility, and endurance for the contemporary battlefield. The analysis incorporates lessons extracted from the Russia-Ukraine War, US Army experimental endeavors, assessments of peer threats, and doctrinal evolutions, thereby providing readers of US Army War College Press publications with vital insights into how the Army is adapting to the future of warfare... MORE

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Is there still a Path for an International Security Force in Gaza
February 26, 2026 — The US twenty-point peace plan that marked the end of Gaza War created an opportunity to break the... MORE

MITVIM article - Is there still a Path for an International Security Force in Gaza

If China Attacks Taiwan: Beijing Risks Social Instability in a Conflict
February 4, 2026 — A conversation between Dr. Sheena Chestnut Greitens, Dr. Jake Rinaldi, and Bonnie Glaser on the risk of domestic social instability for Beijing if China attacked Taiwan. A podcast from The German Marshall Fund of the United States... MORE

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If China Attacks Taiwan: Beijing Risks Social Instability in a Conflict

Can the 15th Five-Year Plan Fix the People’s Liberation Army’s Procurement Bottlenecks?
January 14, 2026 — China’s newly released 15th Five-Year Plan (2026–2030) proposal, unveiled after the Fourth Party Plenum in October 2025, not only marks Beijing’s quest to achieve the People’s Liberation Army’s goal of building a so-called world-class military by 2049. As the last major planning cycle before the 2035 benchmark for “basically achieving full modernization,” the plan also reaffirms General Secretary Xi Jinping’s core priorities: operational efficiency, technological self-reliance, and the Chinese Communist Party’s absolute command... MORE

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A Human-Centric Framework: Employment Principles for Lethal Autonomous Weapons
January 12, 2026 — As lethal autonomous weapon systems become a battlefield reality, the Department of War must establish unambiguous employment criteria to allow war fighters to use these controversial systems ethically and responsibly. The updated policy should shift the conversation from the weapon system to humans by defining pre-deployment judgment and emphasizing accountability... MORE

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A Long, Hard Year: Russia-Ukraine War Lessons Learned 2023
January 12, 2026 — As the Russia-Ukraine War passed the two-year mark, the conflict ground to an entrenched, apparent stalemate. Nevertheless, the conflict, with a blend of conventional warfare and innovative technology, offers new lessons to the US Joint Force about the changing character of war. From fires to airpower to intelligence, this review of 17 different aspects of the conflict offers insights to prepare leaders for tomorrow’s war... MORE

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The 2024 Carlisle Conference on the PLA: Protracted War Against the PRC
January 12, 2026 — The US Army War College’s 2024 Carlisle Conference on the People’s Liberation Army was held on October 16 and 17 at Carlisle Barracks, Pennsylvania. The conference brought together experts to discuss the People’s Republic of China’s understanding of and capability to carry out a protracted war in the Indo-Pacific, with this volume comprising papers authored by panelists... MORE

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If China Attacks Taiwan: The Consequences for China of "Minor Conflict" and "Major War" Scenarios
January 6, 2026 — Introduction by Bonnie S. Glaser: Research on the possibility and likely outcome of a conflict in... MORE

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How Maduro’s capture went down – a military strategist explains what goes into a successful special op
January 5, 2026 — The predawn seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro on Jan. 3, 2026 was a complicated affair... MORE

Screenshot of the article covering R. Evan Ellis' interview with "The Conversation"