Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. In Beijing summit, Trump got what he wanted on Iran, and Xi got what he wanted on Taiwan 2. Notes from Central Taiwan: Stop calling it ‘unification’ 3. Xi Jinping Is Now the World Leader He Wanted to Be, but It Has Come at a Cost 4. The Growing Gap Between … Read more
Abstract The May 2025 India–Pakistan crisis and the United States–Israel–Iran war that began on 28 February 2026 have transformed the global perception of Chinese military technology. From the J-10C and PL-15 fighter engagements over the Line of Control, the de facto border between Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir, to the suspected use of BeiDou for Iranian missile guidance, the steady flow … Read more
Iran did not improvise the Hormuz crisis. The mine stockpiles, the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps’ fast-boat fleet, and the Houthi program at Bab al-Mandab are a coordinated architecture assembled over the years to make commercial insurance a controllable coercive mechanism. The 2024 Houthi campaign proved the concept. Without sinking a vessel, it drove Asia-Europe freight rates up sevenfold and collapsed … Read more
Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. China ratcheting up aggression, ex-AIT head says 2. Stop Calling It the “Gray Zone”: How China Exploits the Language of Ambiguity 3. Putin and the Cliff-Edge Fallacy 4. Japan Emerges as Asia’s New Strategic Anchor 5. Balikatan Military Drills ‘Directly Relate to a Potential Contingency Involving Taiwan,’ Experts Say 6. Air Force intel … Read more
By publishing Special Report 6, “Islamic State Craft-produced Light Recoilless Guns: Conventional & Chemical Variants,” ARES seeks to provide a comprehensive technical understanding of IS craft-produced recoilless guns and their munitions—including a chemical weapons capability—highlighting the implications for threat assessment and force protection. Islamic State’s Craft-Produced Arsenal: Recoilless Guns and Chemical Variants A new special report from Armament Research Services … Read more
The Problem With the Term For over a decade, “gray zone” has been the West’s default descriptor for Chinese coercive activity below the threshold of armed conflict. In an Irregular Warfare Initiative piece called “Stop Calling It the “Gray Zone”: How China Exploits the Language of Ambiguity,” Col. David Maxwell argues the term is a strategic gift to Beijing. Calling … Read more
As the American and Israeli campaign against Iran enters its second phase of hostilities, Western analysts have been quick to catalog the visible actors: the bunker-busters delivered by B-2s, Iran’s ballistic retaliation, the Shahed drones reprogrammed with Russian assistance, and the tolls exacted on a Strait of Hormuz effectively closed to hostile shipping. Conspicuously absent in most of these … Read more
Abstract The administration’s pivot to a one-page memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Iran represents meaningful de-escalation, but it also risks codifying the same strategic deficit that bipartisan members of Congress pressed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine to address in May 12 testimony. This article argues that an MoU framework, in the absence of a … Read more
Abstract Should military action succeed in significantly degrading Iran’s defenses and a naval blockade further constrain its economic and industrial capacity, Iran – with a talented and highly educated population and an abundance of oil, natural gas, and mineral resources – can be expected to re-emerge as a regional power in the not-so-distant future following the conclusion of any conflict. … Read more
Bring Irregular Warfare to the Conventional Forces is published by the Special Operations Association of America | May 11, 2026 Mandates for Institutional Integration The Department of Defense has issued several high-level directives intended to transition irregular warfare from a specialized niche to a joint force requirement. The 2020 IW Annex to the National Defense Strategy explicitly mandates the institutionalization … Read more
Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. America has a serious Chinese spying problem 2. The Strategy That Forgot the Threat 3. Iran’s Seizure of Chinese Security Ship Shows Its Favors for Friends Have Limits 4. How America Can Put Teeth in Its Blockade 5. ‘Insatiable’ demand: Inside the fight for a bigger U.S. Special Forces budget 6. Was the … Read more
Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. US shows Taiwan non-negotiable: analysts 2. The Thucydides Trap, Xi Jinping, and America’s Strategic Blind Spot 3. The Myth of the Thucydides Trap Is Convenient for China 4. Trump warns Taiwan against declaring independence after China talks 5. Trump Turns Taiwan Arms Sales Into Bargaining Chip With China 6. Taiwan releases statement in … Read more
Supporting the Special Operations and Irregular Warfare Community Through Research, Education, and Innovation TAMPA, Fla. — May 16, 2026 — Small Wars Journal (SWJ), in collaboration with multiple Arizona State University initiatives focused on national security, irregular warfare, and special operations, will participate in SOF Week 2026, the premier annual gathering of the international special operations community. This year’s presence … Read more
Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. ‘New positioning’ in Sino-US ties: What does ‘constructive strategic stability’ really mean? 2. Senior Leaders Update Congress on Special Ops Community 3. US special operations leaders frustrated by inability to modify their own equipment 4. The case for a $24 Billion Special Operations budget 5. Tightly Choreographed Visit Masks … Read more
The Trump administration has been telling the public that Operation Epic Fury obliterated Iran’s military. The intelligence community is telling a different story. The Reality Classified assessments obtained by the New York Times and corroborated by CNN reporting indicate Iran retains roughly 70% of its pre-war missile stockpile—ballistic and cruise missiles included. More alarming, U.S. intelligence assesses that Iran has … Read more
An Anthropic researcher was sitting in a park, halfway through a sandwich, when the message came through. Not from a colleague or a routine alert, but from the system he had been testing. Within a controlled environment, Claude Mythos Preview had mapped a path out, assembled a multi-step exploit, and reached beyond its sandbox to contact him directly. The boundary … Read more
Editor’s Note: This essay is from the Security & Defence PLuS Emerging Voices Series, which highlights the next generation of scholars and practitioners shaping thinking on strategy, security, and defense. The series brings together perspectives from PhD candidates and early career researchers, grounded in the complex geopolitical realities of the 21st century. The collection explores a “Latticework of Resilience” that connects … Read more
A group of Ukrainian veterans is in the Southwest, telling Americans that today’s wars advance faster than news cycles and institutions. Denys Haida carries himself with the precision of a career soldier: shoulders aligned, spine straight, eye contact steady. Mykola Melnyk has a close-cropped military haircut and moves between three languages, often translating for Haida and Oleh Bonchynskyi. Bonchynskyi keeps … Read more
Abstract Operation Epic Fury has fragmented Iran’s proxy network, creating a narrow window for the United States to disrupt Tehran’s influence while exposing the risks of overcommitting high-demand Special Operations Forces (SOF) amid competing National Defense Strategy priorities. This paper argues that a strategic economy of force approach – centered on SOF-enabled partner operations, intelligence-driven network targeting, and limited, high-threshold … Read more
Access National Security News HERE. Access Korean News HERE. National Security News: 1. Xi’s Taiwan Warning to Trump Highlights Tensions in Beijing Summit 2. Pentagon Abruptly Cancels Deployment to Europe as Part of Trump’s Drawdown 3. Military Snipers Are Being Put Out of a Job by Drones 4. The China Gambit: From Nixon to Trump 5. Gen. Caine’s Silence on Iran War Leaves Questions About … Read more