America’s military has been adrift for some time. President Donald Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, appears determined to set it back on the proper course. So far, he appears to be on track. He has largely deconstructed the corrosive DEI…
On April 9, 2025, President Donald Trump issued perhaps his most important executive order to date. It is titled “Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance,” and it seeks, in the words of Naval War College chair of maritime strategy James Holmes, to…
After the imbroglio over the leaked conversation about airstrikes on Houthis in Yemen dies down, there will be one issue unresolved. The United States will have found that the Houthis are still firing missiles into the Bab al Mandeb against…
In an important article in Foreign Affairs, Stephen Biddle, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, and Eric Labs, a naval expert at the Congressional Budget Office, warn U.S. policymakers that America is suffering from a “ship gap”…
Article I, Section 8, Clause 10 of the U.S. Constitution authorizes the U.S. government to “define and punish Piracies and Felonies on the high Seas and Offences against the Law of Nations,” while Clause 11 authorizes the government to “declare…
Dear Mr. Hegseth Congratulations. The good news is that unless something extraordinary happens, you will be confirmed to the post of secretary of defense in the next week or two. President Trump comes into office with a mandate to reverse…
Marine Corps legend Chesty Puller was fond of noting that the road to Hell is paved with the good intentions of 2nd lieutenants. If so, it is also littered with the overconfidence of generals and admirals who underestimated their adversaries….
In the featured article on the U.S. Naval Institute’s flagship Proceedings website, Lt. Commander Aaron Marchant of the Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (CNO) warns that while we rightly focus today on deterring a Chinese blockade, attack, or…
Eight-thousand souls are deployed in a single carrier strike group. The multitude is spread across the aircraft carrier as well as its satellite submarines and destroyers. Every night afloat, the 1MC, the announcement system, sounds. These speakers — which would…
