This V-E Day, Remember All of Communism’s Casualties
This May 8, we celebrate V-E Day, Victory in Europe Day, marking the Third Reich’s unconditional surrender to Allied forces. Though this day commemorates...
How Relatives Can Make Radicals
We tend to think violent extremism is all about ideology, but we ignore the power of personal loyalties at our peril. Of the roughly...
Military Regimes Cannot Be Peace-Builders or Democracy-Promoters
The Sudan case gives evidence that military and paramilitary regimes cannot be the answer to political and democratic transition in developing countries. In 2002,...
How Long Should Ukrainian Forces Defend Bakhmut? Lessons from Stalingrad
A week ago, a West Point classmate and I were discussing urban warfare. As most discussions on the topic usually do, ours gravitated to...
How Russia Might Benefit from Central Asia’s Authoritarian Regeneration
Central Asia is becoming more authoritarian before our very eyes: after the power grab completed during the pandemic, the region’s elites are now introducing...
The Enduring Consequences of Intelligence Leaks
Having dealt with the investigation of, and fall-out from, Edward Snowden’s treachery while I served as CIA’s Chief of Counterintelligence (CI), the ongoing flap...
Modern solutions to countering violent insurgencies
Countering violent extremism in Africa is complicated and nuanced. It requires a multi-faceted intervention to address the socio-economic issues that permit an insurgent group...
Left of Boom: Leveraging Security Force Assistance to Deter War
The conflict in Ukraine, now thirteen months long and counting, has made clear the costs of failed deterrence. The first lesson to draw from...
Extremist NFTs: How Does Blockchain Immortalise Extremism?
Introduction Blockchain allows users to preserve unique art, games, and photographs. One of the famous examples is the art collection by Beeple, who sold...
The Left and the Ukraine War
Aggression should indeed be opposed, but not at the expense of human survival or the survival of millions of Ukrainians. To be a leftist...