ArcaMax

The year is 2002. I'm on a quick trip through Taiwan en route to Singapore to investigate Singapore's responses to 9/11-style Islamist terror. The Straits of Malacca are an international choke point. Osama bin Laden loves icon targets with economic pop and Singapore is a world trade center.

Back in Taiwan: I've met a stringer for a defense ...Read more

Vladimir Putin's war on Ukraine is a desperate bid to assemble a 21st-century Russian Empire. It is also an oil war -- or more accurately, a war to steal Ukraine's energy reserves.

The czarist and Soviet communist Russian empires were largely self-sufficient entities possessing the resources and millions of people required to field powerful ...Read more

When does a map become a diplomatic grenade primed to explode in the Indian and Pacific Oceans?

Answer: When Beijing's angry and a bit threatened Chinese Communist Party (CCP) dictatorship orders its Ministry of Natural Resources to issue -- get ready for the title -- the "2023 Edition of The Standard Map of China 2023" (SM2023) scant days ...Read more

U.S. military readiness may well become a major 2024 presidential campaign issue. It should be. Fielding a capable and "ready" military force is a vital national interest, for deterring war and, when necessary, fighting and winning a war.

It's definitely on the radar of Republican primary voters when Ukraine war materiel and financial support...Read more

August 2023. Eighteen months ago, Russia launched an all-out invasion of Ukraine. In six remarkable weeks (February-March), the Ukrainian people defeated Russia's brazen and inept armored and special forces attack.

In a 21st-century diplomatic and military lens, the following is also remarkable: The Ukrainian people have treated Vladimir ...Read more

The Biden administration's incompetent and needlessly hasty Afghanistan withdrawal led to disaster in August 2021.

The withdrawal became a humiliating rout, with the fear, death and departing C-17s at Kabul Airport a chaotic finale live and in color on global television.

America suffered a major diplomatic and psychological defeat that ...Read more

For three decades diplomats and foreign policy wonks have used the term "soft power" to describe employing nonmilitary persuasive operations to achieve American diplomatic goals.

Soft-power advocates in leftist academia and media would snarkily contrast what they regard as sophisticated and smart soft-power persuasion by Democrat ...Read more

Last week's column, titled "Confronting China's Rising Strength on the Seas," addressed China's military buildup with specific focus on the huge expansion of the Chinese Navy (PLAN -- Peoples Liberation Army Navy).

The column quoted Sen. Roger Wicker's May 3 speech addressing the U.S. Navy's ability -- or inability -- to deter a war with ...Read more

Donald Rumsfeld got scorched by media rubes for saying: "You go to war with the army you have, not the army you might want or wish to have at a later time."

But he was right, and his instant maxim certainly applied to America's response to 9/11's surprise attacks.

You certainly go to war with your navy as it is, not what it could be in eight...Read more

The Korean War Armistice agreement was signed July 27, 1953 -- 70 years ago this month.

It's a very iffy anniversary, for the Korean War remains unfinished business.

Internet factoids claim the armistice concluded the war with "a complete cessation of hostilities."

Dub those factoids "faketoids" -- disinformation posing as historical fact. ...Read more

Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine directly targets the Kiev government, but dismantling NATO has been another energizing mania.

NATO's Vilnius, Lithuania, summit confirms Putin has lost his NATO war.

Putin despises the alliance. NATO defeated his beloved Soviet Union (a Russian Empire hawking utopian Marxist pap). Further insult: NATO defeated...Read more

A suspect deal between Russian President Vladimir Putin and mercenary commander Yevgeny Prigozhin ended the short-lived but stunning Wagner Revolt.

Revolt it was. The Wagner force took Rostov, a major city and the site of the Russian Army's headquarters for the Ukraine War. A Wagner flying column with tanks and mechanized infantry rolled ...Read more