ArcaMax

Commerce Over Chaos!

That's Donald Trump's MidEast strategy expressed as a peace and prosperity sound bite.

Will the sound bite bumperstick in reality?

Historical hint it might: ARAMCO: Arabian-American Oil Company (now Saudi ARAMCO, but, as Shakespeare asked, what's in a name?).

ARAMCO's a wealth and energy-producing historical stick that...Read more

In a column written this past February, I listed four unsettled wars "frozen" under a nuclear shadow: 1) India vs. China in the Himalayas. 2) North Korea threatening South Korea and Japan -- speculating South Korea and Japan could have their own nuclear weapons in 72 hours. 4) Israel vs. Iran. Israel's nukes will work. Tehran currently calls ...Read more

On April 28, a critical "instability" disrupted electrical power grids in Spain, Portugal and parts of France. Extensive blackouts lasted for hours.

Initial reports speculated over-reliance on intermittent wind and solar electrical technologies share part of the blame.

Whatever the cause, the widespread power loss in three first-world ...Read more

In a column published June 12, 2019, I wrote, "I think 50 years from now, historians will argue that between 2000 and 2016, communist China decided to target America as an adversary ... Beijing saw America in retreat and entertained visions of global dominance."

Examples of American retreat: 1) continuing to offshore manufacturing industries,...Read more

Our murky, blood-soaked moment in time demands a new look at geopolitics -- specifically, what constitutes a strategically valuable position that in human terms is worth expending immense wealth and/or using violence to obtain or deny.

Understand the violence option means risking soldier sons' and daughters' lives in the struggle. Post-...Read more

The best time to fight a war is when you can win it.

Believing America is still economically innovative and its domestic market the world's biggest, the Trump administration has declared war on Big Debt (U.S. national debt). It is simultaneously pushing for the rapid revival and "reshoring" of the nation's withered, spotty and dangerously ...Read more

In mid-February, a firm representing a Democratic Republic of the Congo legislator contacted several U.S. officials. The recipients included Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The letter sketched a sub-Saharan version of President Donald Trump's Ukraine minerals peace initiative. Would the U.S. be interested in acquiring or investing in Congo's ...Read more

The news hook title isn't as crisp as World War II's "Loose Lips Sink Ships." It does send the relevant 21st-century message that digital communication systems have security flaws enemies can exploit to gather critical information.

WWII's brilliant rhyme warned that loose talk in a New York bar could tell Nazi spies where to position U-boats ...Read more

On the morning of March 16, U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth told Fox News the latest U.S. airstrikes on Yemen's Houthi terrorists is a campaign "about freedom of navigation and restoring deterrence. The minute the Houthis say, 'We'll stop shooting at your ships, we'll stop shooting at your (U.S. recon) drones,' this campaign will end. ...Read more

Late on March 11, the Trump administration announced Ukraine had agreed to a 30-day ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine War.

A joint American-Ukrainian statement said the U.S. will "immediately" resume full intelligence sharing and military-security aid to Ukraine. The Trump administration also said Ukraine had agreed to the strategic minerals ...Read more

During his remarkable March 4 address to Congress, President Donald Trump said this about his efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine War: "If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides."

That's the truth for would-be peacemakers in any era. For what it's worth, a 2002 peacemaking handbook sponsored by the Anglican Church of Kenya said as...Read more

The 21st century may well be the new age of privateers -- armed commercial sailors fighting pirates, terrorists and cartel criminals threatening offshore oil rigs.

Why hire private naval security? Because national navies and coast guards are stretched thin by lack of funding or threat of war. Or, in the case of the USA, vexed by short-sighted...Read more

The political hacks opposing the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) are laughable -- until you realize these hysterics present a serious threat to U.S. national security.

President Dwight Eisenhower's no longer with us, but we have his National Security Council 162/2 report, dated Oct. 30, 1953. Once top secret, it's now on the ...Read more