War on the Rocks
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War on the Rocks is a platform for analysis, commentary, debate and multimedia content on foreign policy and national security issues through a realist lens. It features articles and podcasts produced by an array of writers with deep experience in these matters: top notch scholars who study war, those who have served or worked in war zones, and more than a few who have done it all.
This is what sets us apart from similar web publications: experience. In fact, we are confident that there is no other web-based publication on war and foreign policy out there that has been blessed with this much experience from its collection of regular contributors.
Among our 70+ regular contributors are people who have worked on every continent in the world (aside from Antarctica, so far). They have commanded ships, bargained with militias, led patrols, managed alliances, called for fires (ten of them are combat veterans), and negotiated treaties. They include former diplomats, officers, NCOs, intelligence professionals, and some of the most established scholars in the world studying war, conflict, and international politics. We have seen the worst battlefields of our times. And we have studied war at some of the world’s greatest institutions of higher learning. Source
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| Scope | National |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Country | United States of America |
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Recent Articles
Search ArticlesWhen the world's at stake, go beyond the headlines.
For eight years I helped decide whether American counter-terrorism money was working. As a programs advisor in the State Department’s Bureau of Counterterrorism from 2018 to 2025, I oversaw about 20 projects in East Africa worth roughly $80 million a year. None of that money moved without a performance monitoring plan. We established baselines before work started and agreed on indicators in advance. When a project underperformed, or the reporting came late, we withheld funding.
When the world's at stake, go beyond the headlines.
In 2019, Steve Fetter wrote “A Cheaper Nuclear Sponge,” in which he argued that building a new intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) was unnecessary for strengthening U.S. land-based deterrence.
American Envoys Talk “Peace” with the Kremlin and Kyiv
Sign up now and start listening to "The Warcast!" Already a member? Sign In to have access to our podcasts American envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held high-level talks in Moscow and Kyiv with Presidents Putin and Zelensky. While the meetings produced little of substance toward ending the war, Nicole and Peter Dickinson use them as a springboard to unpack where each side's strategic interests really stand. Image: kremlin.ru via Wikimedia Commons
When the world's at stake, go beyond the headlines.
As a naval shipyard commander, my mandate from Navy leadership is straightforward: return warships to the fleet as quickly as possible. Neither my shipyard nor many other public and private shipyards are consistently fulfilling that mission. Public shipyard availabilities — the scheduled periods during which nuclear-powered warships are taken out of operational service for maintenance, repair, or modernization — are often delayed well beyond their original timelines.
AI, Nuclear Command and Control, and Competitive Dynamics
Sign up now and start listening to "Thinking the Unthinkable with Ankit Panda!" Already a member? Sign In to have access to our podcasts Philip Reiner, CEO of the Institute for Security and Technology, joins Ankit to discuss how AI could reshape nuclear command and control across all nine nuclear-armed states. Together, they explore what happens as AI races ahead of a nuclear culture built on caution. Image: Midjourney
When the world's at stake, go beyond the headlines.
On Jan. 5, 2025, my volunteer platoon attached to the 23rd Special Purpose Battalion of the Presidential Brigade entered a 1-kilometer-long tree line called CHAI, on the outskirts of Kotlyne, a few kilometers west of Pokrovsk, Ukraine. Our task was to occupy a position whose status on DeepState, an open-source map tracking military operations in the Russo-Ukrainian war, had been shifting out of gray for five days.
When the world's at stake, go beyond the headlines.
Collective-defense pacts are meant to make war less likely. Poorly designed ones can do the opposite. If allies make sweeping promises without the military integration, decision-making mechanisms, and escalation controls needed to carry them out, they may invite adversaries to test the boundaries of these promises. The Mecca Joint Defense Agreement between Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Pakistan, signed on Aug.
Stories from the Smoke Deck: Overextended Sailors, Overstretched Fleet
Sign up now and start listening to "Sailor Pulse!" Already a member? Sign In to have access to our podcasts Steve is joined by co-host Jay to launch a new monthly segment modeled on the smoke deck or smoke pit, the enlisted gathering spot where sailors trade unfiltered takes on what's really going on in the fleet.
When the world's at stake, go beyond the headlines.
Welcome to The Ukraine Compass, a weekly digest of Ukrainian commentary and analysis from across the political spectrum, only for War on the Rocks members. Each Monday, we bring you a curated selection of articles from Ukrainian media offering insight into how Ukrainians themselves debate the issues shaping their country.American coverage often narrows the view to the battlefield — these pieces widen it, revealing the texture of daily life, politics, and public argument in a nation at war.
When the world's at stake, go beyond the headlines. Original
China’s marine scientific research ships are expanding their operations around Taiwan, and they are not just there to advance the frontiers of human knowledge. Their operations serve to undermine Taiwan’s independent political status and to force international acceptance of Beijing’s claim of sovereignty over the island and its surrounding waters. This pressure campaign by the People’s Republic of China began intensifying in 2022.