Sheinbaum’s Dilemma: Mexico’s Security Choices After FTO Designation
The United States designated six Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, prompting President‑elect Claudia Sheinbaum to reassess Mexico’s security strategy. The authors model three possible responses—total subordination to U.S. efforts, covert subordination while preserving public sovereignty, and strategic resistance with an independent approach. Game‑theoretic analysis finds covert subordination provides the most stable Nash equilibrium, balancing operational effectiveness and political feasibility. The study warns that full alignment could destabilize domestic politics, while outright resistance risks failure without rapid capacity building.
Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan Ep. 1 & Ep. 2
Target Intelligence: PSYOP with Shawn Ryan is a ten‑episode audio docuseries that pulls back the curtain on modern psychological operations. Episode 1 features Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen and details Russian troll farms, the Internet Research Agency, and algorithm‑driven disinformation. Episode 2 shifts focus...
Of Microchips and Mud: Repelling Drones in the Donbas
Ukrainian forces on the Donbas front line are confronting a relentless wave of Russian attack drones that patrol the open terrain. Soldiers rely on handheld drone detectors and small‑arms fire to knock out the buzzing threats, while command posts fuse...
ISIS-K and AI: Chatbots, Propaganda, Recruitment
ISIS’s Afghanistan affiliate, ISIS‑K, has begun publishing a guide that encourages recruits to use artificial‑intelligence tools and chatbots for research, propaganda and recruitment. The advice appears in the group’s English‑language magazine *Voice of Khorasan*, framing AI use as a “responsible”...
Глаза Видят, Руки Делают “The Eyes See, the Hands Do”: Africa Corps Does Neither
Russia’s Africa Corps in Mali has failed to counter JNIM’s insurgency, highlighting the perils of over‑reliance on technical intelligence (TECHINT) without robust human intelligence (HUMINT). The JNIM fuel blockade of Bamako and simultaneous attacks revealed that Africa Corps’ coercive, sensor‑driven...
Why the USSOCOM Should Establish a Western Balkans’ Denial and Resilience Program
Russia is intensifying gray‑zone campaigns in the Western Balkans, using propaganda, cyber attacks, and support for nationalist proxies to undermine Euro‑Atlantic integration. Existing Western responses remain largely reactive, addressing crises only after they materialize. The article proposes a Balkan Denial...
Fading Into the Background: From Risk Awareness to Technological Intuition
The Joint Special Operations University report warns that sensor‑rich battlefields are turning every movement into a data point, exposing Special Operations Forces to automated inference, overhead drones, subsurface vibration detectors, and ambient device networks. Gielas argues that merely knowing these...
Wars of the Greater Middle East, 1945–92 | TNSR
Dr. Carter Malkasian’s Winter 2026 TNSR article argues that the Cold War fundamentally reshaped warfare in the greater Middle East, eroding state monopolies on violence and empowering non‑state actors. Post‑colonial regimes built conventional armies modeled on European powers, but social...
Nordic Lessons for Romania’s Information Defense: Adapting Psychological and Societal Resilience Models for Hybrid Warfare
Romania’s Constitutional Court annulled its 2024 presidential election after intelligence uncovered a massive Russian hybrid campaign that included 34 coordinated attacks, 85,000 cyber intrusions and a TikTok‑driven disinformation surge that lifted a fringe far‑right candidate to a first‑round win. The...
The $75 Radio: Why US Special Operations Command Needs to Buy Off the Shelf for the Next War
U.S. Special Operations Command is urged to supplement its high‑signature, expensive military radios with disposable, low‑power commercial‑off‑the‑shelf (COTS) solutions such as LoRa. By operating in the unlicensed sub‑gigahertz ISM band and using chirp spread spectrum, these radios can hide below...
The Regional Reverberations of the U.S. and Israeli Strikes on Iran | CSIS
CSIS analyst Mona Yacoubian warns that recent joint U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran have triggered immediate Iranian missile and drone attacks across the Gulf, shutting airspace and threatening oil flows through the Strait of Hormuz. Iran’s retaliation targeted civilian infrastructure in...
Beyond Metrics: Integrating Command Culture with Operational Readiness
The Navy is emphasizing command culture as a force multiplier for expeditionary logistics, linking initiatives such as Culture of Excellence 2.0 and Get Real, Get Better to operational readiness. Leaders are urged to foster psychological safety, decentralized decision‑making, and learning‑focused...
WEBINAR (3/10/26): American Peacebuilding at a Crossroads
The University of Notre Dame’s Keough School of Global Affairs and Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, in partnership with the Alliance for Peacebuilding, are hosting a full‑day virtual webinar on March 10, 2026 titled “American Peacebuilding at a Crossroads.”...
2/28/26 National Security and Korean News and Commentary
The Small Wars Journal roundup highlights a surge in U.S.-Iran tensions, citing a CIA assessment that hard‑line IRGC elements could replace Ayatollah Khamenei if he is killed, and President Trump’s reaffirmed red line leading to a massive strike plan. Israeli...
Pakistan–Afghanistan Escalation Signals Shift From Proxy Conflict to Open Hostilities
Tensions between Pakistan and Afghanistan erupted into open hostilities after Pakistani forces conducted airstrikes on key Taliban‑run military installations in Kabul, Kandahar and Paktia. The strikes, announced by Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif, were framed as a response to a...
Paradigm Change in the 2025 National Security Strategy
The 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS) reorients U.S. competition with China from a primarily military focus to an economic‑centric paradigm, emphasizing political warfare, gray‑zone activities, and supply‑chain resilience. It calls for leveraging alliances, reindustrialization, and civilian tools such as the...
The Connector Problem in Resistance Networks: Why Decentralization Fails in Practice
The article argues that decentralized resistance networks collapse not because combat cells are penetrated, but because connector roles—couriers, logistics, safe‑house managers, communications technicians, and external liaisons—create high‑centrality nodes that become single points of failure. Modern counter‑network tactics such as F3EAD...
SOF-Ening the ICE: The Domestication of Special Warfare
Federal immigration agents have begun adopting Special Operations Forces aesthetics and tactics, a shift highlighted by two fatal shootings in Minnesota in early 2026. Data shows only about 5‑6% of ICE arrests involve violent offenders, yet the agency has expanded...
The Purges Within China’s Military Are Even Deeper Than You Think | CSIS Report
The Center for Strategic and International Studies reports that President Xi Jinping has launched a second, far more extensive wave of purges within the People’s Liberation Army, removing 36 generals and lieutenant generals and bringing the total number of senior...
Closing the Tactical Connectivity Gap
U.S. defense leaders face a persistent tactical edge communications vulnerability as near‑peer adversaries enhance electronic warfare. Elsight’s Halo platform offers a multi‑bearer, beyond‑line‑of‑sight solution that maintains low‑signature, resilient connectivity for unmanned systems and edge sensors. The system has logged more...
Going on the Offensive: Rethinking US SOF’s Mission Set for the Age of Strategic Competition
The article argues that the United States must restructure its Special Operations Forces (SOF) to confront adversaries’ gray‑zone tactics. It proposes dropping counterinsurgency and foreign humanitarian assistance from SOF’s core activities and adding Persistent Gray Zone Operations (PGZO). PGZO would...
WEBINAR (3/4/26): When Nuclear Danger Becomes Background Noise: A Conversation with W.J. (“Bill”) Hennigan and Amy J. Nelson
New America’s Future Security Scenarios Lab released a report titled “Threat Complacency and Nuclear Risk,” examining how repeated nuclear warnings have dulled urgency among policymakers and the public. The lab will host a virtual conversation on March 4, 2026, featuring lab director...
Resilience and Resistance: Interdisciplinary Lessons in Competition, Deterrence, and Irregular Warfare
The Joint Special Operations University released "Resilience and Resistance," the first comprehensive canon guiding SOF, interagency, and conventional forces on irregular warfare, competition, and deterrence. The volume blends military science, political science, sociology, and history, offering case studies from Cuba...
Lessons From an Intelligence Officer on Ukraine’s Frontline
The essay by Austin Gray in Proceedings draws on his experience with Ukrainian intelligence near Bakhmut, highlighting four lessons for modern warfare. He argues that countertargeting, a survivable‑or‑attritable platform paradigm, organic information‑warfare capabilities, and resilient leadership are essential for naval...
Dr. Nathan Jones of SWJ El Centro on El Mencho
Dr. Nathan Jones, associate professor at Sam Houston State University and senior fellow at SWJ El Centro, has been featured in major media outlets discussing the fallout from the reported death of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes,...
Call for Papers: Special Issue on Sources and Archives for Intelligence History in Cold War Europe | Intelligence and National...
Intelligence and National Security announces a special issue dedicated to sources and archives for Cold War European intelligence history. Editors Matteo Giurco and Christopher Moran seek papers that examine institutional archives, open‑source material, memoirs, and the gaps left by classified...
The National Security Case for Judicial Review | Lawfare
Lawfare’s new article argues that judicial review of executive national‑security claims enhances democratic legitimacy and strengthens defense outcomes. The authors contend courts can competently assess sensitive security matters without compromising classified information, preventing abuse and improving decision‑making. They link judicial...
Creating Conspiracy Theories: What Information Warriors Need to Know
The essay argues that conspiracy theories function as cognitive environments that can be weaponized in modern conflict, influencing threat perception, trust, and identity before overt actions occur. It presents the Existential Threat Model, detailing five structural elements—pattern, agency attribution, meaningful...
The Resilience Series – The West’s Greatest Vulnerability: Amphibious Critical and Defensive Infrastructure (ACADI)
The essay warns that Western reliance on the Internet is underpinned by Amphibious Critical and Defensive Infrastructure (ACADI)—the global network of undersea and landing‑station fiber‑optic cables. Roughly 900,000 miles of cable move $22.4 trillion of data daily, and a 24‑hour outage...
Call for Papers (Due 3/27/26): Call for Special Operations Papers | Joint Special Operations University
The Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) has reopened its Call for Special Operations Papers, targeting concise, high‑impact research that bridges education and operational practice. Submissions must focus on one of ten technology‑centric topics, ranging from AI‑driven targeting to space‑cyber‑STRATCOM integration,...
AI and PCVE: A Practitioner’s Guide From the United Nations
The United Nations Office of Counter‑Terrorism released a 2026 Practice Guide on artificial intelligence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE). It warns that extremist groups are exploiting AI to produce multilingual propaganda, deepfakes, and synthetic media, while only about...
Operationalizing Hemispheric Defense: What the 2026 National Defense Strategy Means for Latin America
The United States unveiled its 2026 National Defense Strategy, placing the Western Hemisphere at the forefront of homeland defense and branding the approach as a “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine. The strategy calls for merging U.S. Southern Command and...
Harnessing the People: Mapping Overseas United Front Work in Democratic States
Cheryl Yu’s report maps more than 2,000 organizations in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Germany that are linked to the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department. The dataset classifies 2,294 groups into eight functional types, with...
2/21/26 National Security and Korean News and Commentary
David Maxwell’s latest commentary offers a sweeping roundup of current national security and Korean Peninsula developments. Highlights include the U.S. deploying MQ‑9 drones to track China’s Pacific maneuvers, a looming Trump decision on Iran that could define his legacy, and...
From Readiness to Resilience: Two Decades of Extreme Weather Impacts on US Military Infrastructure
Over the past two decades extreme weather events have surged in frequency and intensity, directly threatening U.S. military installations across coastal, inland, and western regions. Hurricanes such as Katrina, Sandy, and Michael have inflicted multibillion‑dollar damage, while wildfires, floods, and...
China, Afghanistan, and Critical Minerals: Options for U.S. Strategic Competition Below the Threshold of War
Afghanistan has re‑emerged as a venue for great‑power competition below the threshold of war, with China pursuing cautious economic engagement focused on mineral extraction and limited infrastructure projects. U.S. analysis shows Chinese contracts have underperformed and remain exploratory, leaving a...
CSIS Panel Discussion | United States and Iran on the Brink: What’s at Stake?
The Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted a panel examining the escalating crisis between the United States and Iran after Tehran’s harsh suppression of recent protests. President Trump responded by dispatching an aircraft carrier strike group to the Persian...
The Principle of Distinction in the Autonomous Age | Texas National Security Review
The Texas National Security Review podcast features Nathan Wood discussing how the principle of distinction must evolve for autonomous warfare. Wood argues that debate should shift from abstract concerns to the legal and operational specifics of existing systems, ensuring human...
Where Power Begins: The Strategic Return of the Homeland
The 2026 National Defense Strategy re‑elevates homeland defense from a background condition to a contested, central mission. It argues that securing the interior—through legitimacy, endurance, and protection of economic lifelines—is essential for sustaining power projection abroad. The article draws on...
AI Racing Drone Beats Human Controlled FPV Racing Drones on Aerial Racetrack: An Overlooked ‘AlphaGo Moment’ with Future War Implications
In April 2025, an autonomous racing drone equipped with a neural‑network AI outperformed three human FPV champions at the A2RL Drone Championship in Abu Dhabi. The AI‑controlled craft completed the complex aerial course faster than the pilots, marking the first...
Mapping the Human Terrain: The Enduring Role of Human Intelligence in the U.S. Army
The article argues that U.S. Army human intelligence (HUMINT) collectors remain essential despite a post‑GWOT shift toward interrogation‑only roles. It highlights how the Army has fragmented and down‑scaled its HUMINT training pipeline, risking a loss of scalable, mid‑level “human sensors”...
Special Operations News – Feb 17, 2026
The February 17, 2026 Special Operations News roundup highlights a photo of candidates completing a ruck march during the U.S. Army John F. Kennedy Special Warfare Center and School’s Special Forces Assessment and Selection (SFAS) at Camp Mackall. The three‑week...
Attributing Russian Information Influence Operations: Testing the Information Influence Attribution Framework with Real-World Case Studies
The NATO Strategic Communications Centre of Excellence released a report that tests the Information Influence Attribution Framework (IIAF) against real‑world Russian information influence operations aimed at Ukraine, neighboring states, and European pro‑Kremlin groups. Using data from the Ukrainian Centre for...
The Institutional Battlefield: Why Irregular Warfare Must Contemplate Path Dependence
Ian Murphy’s Spring 2026 commentary argues that irregular‑warfare analysis overlooks institutions, treating them as a secondary concern. Using Russia’s occupation of the Donbas, the piece shows how governance tools—passportization, education reform, and economic extraction—function as bureaucratic weapons that reshape identities and...
AI-Intelligentized Naval Mines and U.S. Subsea Access in the Paracel Islands
China’s People’s Liberation Army Navy is modeling AI‑intelligentized seabed mines that could hide in the Paracel Islands’ acoustic shadow zones, creating a persistent anti‑access/area‑denial (A2/AD) field. The concept builds on an estimated 50,000‑100,000 existing Chinese naval mines, adding adaptive target...
Chemical Weapons by Violent Non-State Actors in Combat
The paper reviews chemical weapon use by violent non‑state actors, highlighting the Tamil Tigers’ 1990 chlorine attack and Islamic State’s 76 documented chlorine and mustard strikes between 2014‑2017. It notes the relative ease of acquiring industrial chemicals and the primitive...
WEBINAR (2/24/26): The Revolutionists: The Story of the Extremists Who Hijacked the 1970s
Veteran journalist Jason Burke will discuss his new book, *The Revolutionists*, in a New America webinar on Feb. 24, 2026. The book chronicles the surge of international terrorism in the 1970s, from plane hijackings to hostage crises, and traces the ideological...
Transnational Organized Crime in Mexico: Continuity, Change, and Uncertainty Under the Sheinbaum Administration (Part I)
The Sheinbaum administration inherits a record‑high homicide baseline of over 190,000 deaths, reflecting entrenched violence from the López Obrador era. While the Sinaloa Cartel and CJNG remain the dominant criminal coalitions, organized crime has diversified into extortion, fuel theft, kidnapping, and...
Mapping Weaponized Drone Attacks Attributed to Mexican Drug Cartels
The NCITE research center documented 221 weaponized drone incidents in Mexico between 2021 and 2025, with 27 attacks killing 77 people. The Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) accounted for the largest share, linked to 42 attacks, while La Nueva Familia...
Cognitive Warfare Fails the Cognitive Test
The article critiques the emerging label “cognitive warfare,” arguing it is merely a re‑branding of traditional political warfare. It traces the concept’s roots to Cold‑War era strategies and highlights a persistent “Maginot mentality” that over‑emphasizes military solutions while sidelining diplomatic,...
