Recent Publications

Parameters | Summer 2025
June 18, 2025 — Welcome to the Summer 2025 issue of Parameters. This issue consists of an In Focus special commentary, three forums (Indo-Pacific Challenges, Russia-Ukraine Issues, and Historical Studies)... MORE

Book Review: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine
July 1, 2025 — Billed by the reviewer as “must-read for military professionals who want to understand how the United States and Russia came to the precipice of war,” this book posits that the Washington bipartisan foreign policy consensus is to blame for the Russia-Ukraine War. Using US diplomats, bureaucrats, defense contractors, and politicians to make his point, Horton uses their work to argue for restraint when dealing with Russia. ... MORE

Cover for Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine

Book Review: The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire
July 1, 2025 — Mick Ryan’s book The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire examines Russia’s and Ukraine’s strategies and, and Ukraine’s NATO supporters, “exploring how the Russians and Ukrainians adapted during the war—on the battlefield and institutionally.” The book has two parts. Part one explores strategy. Part two discusses adaptation in the Russia-Ukraine War and includes points about adaptation for future wars. The reviewer sees it as a must-read saying, “The War for Ukraine is essential reading for civilian and military national security professionals. The strength of the book is Ryan’s unique blend of experience, education, and access.” ... MORE

Cover for The War for Ukraine: Strategy and Adaptation Under Fire

Does NATO Still Matter?
April 21, 2025 — The alliance has created economic growth, peace and stability. America’s relationship with Europe is undergoing a potentially profound reexamination. Whether and how the transatlantic bond — especially America’s commitment to NATO — will endure has become an open question.To some degree, reassessment makes sense. The NATO agreement was penned over... MORE

Does NATO still matter? | Dr. John R. Deni

Don’t waste this crisis, Europe: consolidate your defense industry
April 15, 2025 — Turn your excess national defense champions into continental ones.Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine and questions about the American commitment to NATO have cast a spotlight on European efforts to safeguard security on the continent. But today, the major hurdles confronting Europe are no longer defense spending and industrial capacity. At both the... MORE

Don’t waste this crisis, Europe: consolidate your defense industry | Dr. John R. Deni

North Korea in Ukraine: Analyzing Authoritarian Cooperation
March 18, 2025 — The deployment of North Korean forces to Ukraine marks a critical inflection point in global security dynamics, challenging long-held assumptions about the limits of cooperation between authoritarian states. This development, unprecedented in its implications, reveals even absent formal alliances or ideological cohesion, the strategic realignment among authoritarian states has the potential to reshape the global order and future conflicts... MORE

North Korea in Ukraine: Analyzing Authoritarian Cooperation
Jake Rinaldi

Freezing Point: PLA Army Expeditionary Units Lack Readiness for Extreme and Hazardous Cold Weather
February 20, 2025 — In 2024, the US Department of Defense promulgated the latest edition of its Arctic Strategy, highlighting the need to enhance domain awareness and operational readiness to safeguard US and allied interests in the Arctic region. The Arctic possesses vast resource potential, is geographically linked to the US homeland and allied territories, and is a strategic avenue for US force projection in the Indo-Pacific theater... MORE

Freezing Point: PLA Army Expeditionary Units Lack Readiness for Extreme and Hazardous Cold Weather | Jake Vartanian

“Potential Forms of Russian Support for China in a Protracted War”
January 6, 2025 — Brian Carlson and David Stone – “Potential Forms of Russian Support for China in a Protracted War” In this episode of CLSC Dialogues, Brian Carlson interviews David Stone, a Russia expert from the U.S. Naval War College, about potential forms of support that Russia might or might not provide to China in the event of a protracted war in the... MORE

CLSC Dialogues | Brian Carlson and David Stone

8 Simmering Threats You Shouldn’t Ignore in 2025: A Plausibly Deniable Russian War Against Europe
January 2, 2025 — The sabotage of undersea communications cables in the Baltic Sea by the cargo ship Yi Peng 3 is only the latest in a series of asymmetric attacks against Western interests and infrastructure that appear to be connected in one way or another to Moscow. The Kremlin has clearly ratcheted up efforts to intimidate and coerce Europe, hoping to... MORE

A Plausibly Deniable Russian War Against Europe | John R. Deni, in Foreign Policy

SSI Live 114 – The Role of European Allies in the Ukraine War
December 2, 2024 — America’s European allies have played a critical role in providing military assistance to Ukraine. Can Europeans maintain that effort or even increase it if the United States reduces its role? What lessons can the United States learn from the role of its European allies in this war, which might be applicable to future rounds of strategic... MORE

Opidata #8: The BRICS Summit, China, and the Emerging Illiberal Counter-Order
November 14, 2024 — The 2024 BRICS summit in Kazan solidified an anti-liberal «counter-order,» challenging the rules-based international system. With its expansion to 23 members, the bloc, financially led by China, seeks to evade global restrictions and advance its agendas, though it faces coordination challenges and diverse objectives among its members. ... MORE

Opidata #8: The BRICS Summit, China, and the Emerging Illiberal Counter-Order | Dr. R. Evan Ellis

Venezuela: The Path Forward
November 6, 2024 — Thanks to the courageous work of the Venezuelan opposition, including obtaining physical and photographic evidence of over 80% of the individual “acts” from Venezuela’s more than 30,000 polling places, the world generally knows that Edmundo Gonzalez received far more votes than Nicholas Maduro in the country’s July 28, 2024, Presidential election. Nonetheless, he is unlikely to successfully take control of the state apparatus that controls Venezuela’s territory on Inauguration Day, January 10, 2025. ... MORE

Venezuela: The Path Forward | R. Evan Ellis