{ "count": 50, "items": [ { "id": 19619, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cheap-drones-dry-taps-the-iran-war-opens-a-new-era-of-water-infrastructure-risk", "title": "Cheap Drones, Dry Taps: The Iran War Opens a New Era of Water Infrastructure Risk", "summary": "Water and energy infrastructure have become one of Iran’s main levers of deterrence against the United States. Iranian Foreign Minister Aragchi recently made it clear to Gulf states that if the U.S. military renewed large-scale strikes on Iran, their critical infrastructure would be struck. Iranian forces’ operational history over the past six months confirmed the threat’s credibility.Kuwait first reported damage near a desalination plant early in Operation Epic Fury, when debris from an interce", "authors": "Gabriel Collins", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security,environment", "published_at": "2026-08-14T07:30:30.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/19619" }, { "id": 19341, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/the-commercial-space-race", "title": "The Commercial Space Race", "summary": "A strong commercial space industry is an important partner for the U.S. government, as it contributes to building more robust space and defense capabilities and facilitates innovation more broadly. As competition between the United States and China heats up, both countries look to the commercial space sector to help them get ahead in both the space race and defense technologies. We asked five experts: What is a crucial step for the United States to take now to stay ahead in commercial space comp", "authors": "Rebekah Reed", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-13T18:14:06.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/19341" }, { "id": 19342, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/the-true-cost-of-cheap-chips", "title": "The True Cost of Cheap Chips", "summary": "Given the relentless demand for computing power, electronic components are in scarce supply. Prices for certain memory chips, known as DRAM, have surged by more than 50 percent in a single quarter this year, and have roughly quadrupled since last fall. Because DRAM supply is tight, Apple, Dell, and HP are currently evaluating memory from ChangXin Memory Technologies (CXMT), a company the Pentagon has designated as a Chinese military company. Apple, in particular, has sought assurances from the U", "authors": "Faisal Akhter", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-13T08:00:29.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/19342" }, { "id": 19343, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/2026-and-all-that-another-benchmark-year-in-royal-navy-decline", "title": "2026 and All That: Another Benchmark Year in Royal Navy Decline", "summary": "The 1930 comic history, 1066 and All That, made famous the British habit of reducing national history to a sequence of memorable dates. The modern Royal Navy has its own unhappy version of that calendar. Since 1945, a series of ostensibly practical political decisions has steadily reduced Britain’s ability to sustain a globally relevant fleet: the 1956 failed Suez expedition, the 1966 retreat from “East of Suez,” the 1981 Nott Review, the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, and the 2010 review that f", "authors": "Steven Wills", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-13T07:30:49.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/19343" }, { "id": 18947, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/hyman-rickover-and-the-birth-of-nuclear-power", "title": "Hyman Rickover and the Birth of Nuclear Power", "summary": "Editor’s note: This is the eighth article in a limited series celebrating American defense technologies born from wartime and their effects on broader national security, politics, and society. This series will run for several weeks to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, and winners will be selected by a reader vote undertaken through our newsletter later this summer. Prior installments can be found at the Arsenal of Innovation page.For more than 70 years, nuclear power has propelled America", "authors": "Thane C. Clare", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-12T08:00:51.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/18947" }, { "id": 18948, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/the-next-school-of-war-educating-for-tomorrows-battlefield", "title": "The Next School of War: Educating for Tomorrow’s Battlefield", "summary": "When war changes, schools change. New technology, the politics of mass mobilization and campaign design, and novel tactics that defined Napoleonic warfare led to Gerhard von Scharnhorst’s reforms and the idea of lifelong education as a professional obligation. The pattern repeated itself in the interwar period. In 1929, James Carson Breckinridge, a Marine officer, published “Some Thoughts on Service Schools” in the Marine Corps Gazette, calling for a new educational paradigm consistent with John", "authors": "Brig. Gen. Matthew Tracy", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security,children-education", "published_at": "2026-08-12T07:30:12.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/18948" }, { "id": 18568, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/who-pays-for-americas-research-and-development", "title": "Who Pays for America’s Research and Development?", "summary": "When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik in 1957, the U.S. government was the unrivaled patron of American science. It funded nearly two-thirds of the nation’s research and development — much of it for defense — defining the early Cold War. In a phenomenon that’s been widely explored in our Arsenal of Innovation series, for several decades federal dollars pushed the technological frontier, and the private sector followed.Today, that arrangement has been inverted. Industry now funds roughly three-q", "authors": "Cogs of War Staff", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-11T08:00:32.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/18568" }, { "id": 18569, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/putting-armageddon-on-autopilot-how-artificial-intelligence-could-make-nuclear-threats-more-effective", "title": "Putting Armageddon on Autopilot: How Artificial Intelligence Could Make Nuclear Threats More Effective", "summary": "Nine countries now possess nuclear weapons. Arms control agreements painstakingly built over decades have collapsed. Geopolitical competition is intensifying rivalries between nuclear-armed powers. North Korea continues expanding its arsenal and delivery systems. China is on a trajectory to go from roughly 600 warheads today to around 1,500 by 2035. Meanwhile, Russia bears most of the responsibility for the expiration of New START and is developing an array of exotic new nuclear delivery systems", "authors": "Joshua Schwartz", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-11T07:30:08.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/18569" }, { "id": 18570, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/the-white-house-is-right-on-ai-now-let-defenders-use-it", "title": "The White House Is Right on AI. Now Let Defenders Use It.", "summary": "The White House has the right instinct on AI. Its June 5 National Security Presidential Memorandum commits the government to putting the most capable models in the hands of national security professionals “without delay.” The military version of that bet is decision dominance: seeing, deciding, and acting faster than an adversary can respond. Recently, we saw a live test of how far the commitment reaches.An AI system built by OpenAI escaped its test lab and broke into the servers of Hugging Face", "authors": "Cory Ondrejka", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-11T07:00:52.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/18570" }, { "id": 18156, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/what-america-learned-about-democracy-when-it-gained-stealth", "title": "What America Learned About Democracy When It Gained Stealth", "summary": "Editor’s note: This is the seventh article in a limited series celebrating American defense technologies born from wartime and their effects on broader national security, politics, and society. This series will run for several weeks to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, and winners will be selected by a reader vote undertaken through our newsletter later this summer. Prior installments can be found at the Arsenal of Innovation page.On the night of 24 March 1999, U.S. pilots flying 15,000 f", "authors": "T. Nelson Collier", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-10T08:00:41.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/18156" }, { "id": 18157, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/why-military-cooperation-in-the-indian-ocean-still-falls-short", "title": "Why Military Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Still Falls Short", "summary": "The United States has bluntly signaled a deprioritization of the Indian Ocean at a peculiar time. The reversion of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to its former name, U.S. Pacific Command, signifies no material change in force posture or organizational responsibilities, but it unavoidably signals less focus on the Indian Ocean, presumably in favor of its consistent top priority in the western Pacific, although it’s not clear anyone really knows.The recent closure and persistent uncertainty over the St", "authors": "Rebecca Strating", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-10T07:30:32.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/18157" }, { "id": 17585, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/warlords-of-greece-warfare-in-homers-world", "title": "Warlords of Greece: Warfare in Homer’s World", "summary": "The Iliad and Odyssey have shaped Western ideas of heroism for nearly three millennia. Yet despite centuries of debate over whether they reflect historical reality or poetic fantasy, the Homeric world remains an internally consistent universe worth studying on its own terms. This isn’t about separating fact from fiction: it’s about understanding the warrior ethos that dominated the ancient Greek and Roman imagination, and how battles were truly fought in the world of Achilles, Hector, and Odysse", "authors": "Josho Brouwers", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-07T07:30:12.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/17585" }, { "id": 17586, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/how-can-u-s-special-operations-forces-help-defeat-china-on-taiwan", "title": "How Can U.S. Special Operations Forces Help Defeat China on Taiwan?", "summary": "It is conceivable that in one blistering campaign, the People’s Republic of China could invade, occupy, and forcibly annex Taiwan. One question would dominate the post-occupation debate: “What more could have been done?” The obvious answers will be better intelligence, bigger exercises, more weapons. One underexamined answer is a different model for U.S. special operations forces advising.The United States has spent decades using rotational military teams to train foreign partners. This approach", "authors": "Brian Petit", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-07T07:00:55.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/17586" }, { "id": 17236, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/does-latent-nuclear-deterrence-really-work", "title": "Does Latent Nuclear Deterrence Really Work?", "summary": "In 2025, Matthew Fuhrmann wrote, “U.S. Allies and Adversaries Are Attempting Nuclear Deterrence Without Weapons – Will It Work?,” where he argued countries don’t always need to go as far as actually building nuclear weapons to reap the benefits of nuclear deterrence. A year later, we asked Matthew to revisit his arguments.Image: MidjourneyIn your 2025 article, you argued countries don’t necessarily have to follow through with building nuclear weapons to reap the benefits of nuclear deterrence, a", "authors": "Matthew Fuhrmann", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-08-06T15:00:27.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/17236" }, { "id": 17237, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/the-arsenal-and-the-statehouse-new-defense-firms-venture-capital-and-state-industrial-policy", "title": "The Arsenal and the Statehouse: New Defense Firms, Venture Capital and State Industrial Policy", "summary": "When Anduril announced a $910 million drone production facility in Ohio, it was not politics as usual. The main message came from Ohio’s governor, Mike DeWine, while Representative Mike Carey’s press release thanked the governor. Members of Congress usually take substantial credit for defense industrial jobs, but Carey did not because he could not. Anduril sited Arsenal-1 near Columbus partially because of state subsidies.New defense firms backed by venture financing and state economic developme", "authors": "Joshua Alley", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,jobs-economy,military-security,finance-investment", "published_at": "2026-08-06T08:00:09.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/17237" }, { "id": 17238, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/the-blood-price-in-israel-military-sacrifice-is-becoming-political-power", "title": "The Blood Price: In Israel, Military Sacrifice Is Becoming Political Power", "summary": "In late June, cadets at the Israeli military’s officer training school sat through a lecture by Ofer Winter, a retired brigadier general and a polarizing figure in the Israel Defense Forces. According to Haaretz, Winter told the future officers that “there are no uninvolved civilians in Gaza” and accused two former chiefs of staff of politically blocking his career. Regulations prohibit political activity in training programs, and the Israeli military later called the episode a failure. The cade", "authors": "Guy Ziv", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,military-security,children-education", "published_at": "2026-08-06T07:30:42.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/17238" }, { "id": 16818, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/beyond-the-output-trap-haiti-and-the-future-of-international-stabilization", "title": "Beyond the Output Trap: Haiti and the Future of International Stabilization", "summary": "Five years after the assassinations in Haiti of Monferrier Dorval, Diego Charles, and Antoinette Duclaire, justice remains elusive. Four years after the assassination of President Jovenel Moïse, accountability is still incomplete. Yet international reporting on Haiti continues to foreground outputs: workshops on gender and youth participation, deployments, and decrees. International organizations, including the United Nations, and the donor community measure what they do. Meanwhile, the Haitian", "authors": "Philippe de Bard", "category": "news", "topics": "transparency", "published_at": "2026-08-05T07:00:33.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/16818" }, { "id": 16447, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/a-conversation-with-the-pentagons-chief-buyer-under-secretary-michael-p-duffey", "title": "A Conversation with the Pentagon’s Chief Buyer, Under Secretary Michael P. Duffey", "summary": "Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment Michael P. Duffey joins Jonathan to discuss the Pentagon’s ongoing acquisition transformation. Their conversation spans the recent munitions agreements, industry investments, the shift to portfolio acquisition executives, allied coproduction, and more.Image: Cpl. Sarah Grawcock via DVIDS. The post A Conversation with the Pentagon’s Chief Buyer, Under Secretary Michael P. Duffey appeared first on War on the Rocks .", "authors": "Michael P. Duffey", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security,finance-investment", "published_at": "2026-08-04T08:00:41.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/16447" }, { "id": 16448, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/is-washington-rewriting-the-north-american-trade-agreement-around-china", "title": "Is Washington Rewriting the North American Trade Agreement Around China?", "summary": "Washington has repeatedly used trade policy and U.S. market access over the past decade to advance broader economic security priorities with its trading partners. The Trump administration’s decision not to renew the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement on July 1, during a mandatory six-year review, is the latest example of this approach. Despite the inclusion in the U.S. trade representative’s announcement that deficits were a prevailing concern, conversations with industry sources and past statements b", "authors": "Daniel Rechtschaffen", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation", "published_at": "2026-08-04T07:30:43.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/16448" }, { "id": 16025, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/how-to-stop-china-from-freeriding-on-american-ai", "title": "How to Stop China from Freeriding on American AI", "summary": "The release of the Chinese open-weight AI model Kimi K3 has compressed a year’s worth of unresolved AI policy debate into a single news cycle. On July 21, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent threatened sanctions against Chinese labs found to have built their models on “theft,” reporting that the government is “finding watermarks of our U.S. large language models on many of the Chinese models.” The following day, White House science advisor Michael Kratsios clarified that the Chinese AI lab behind K", "authors": "Ryan Fedasiuk", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation", "published_at": "2026-08-03T08:00:32.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/16025" }, { "id": 16026, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/possible-is-not-plausible-how-nightmare-scenarios-hijack-unconventional-weapons-policy", "title": "Possible Is Not Plausible: How Nightmare Scenarios Hijack Unconventional Weapons Policy", "summary": "Current conversations surrounding unconventional weapons — chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear — have become so fantastical as to be unserious. As the Chinese military fundamentally rethinks biological warfare and Russia continues to use chloropicrin in Ukraine, hypothetical scenarios of AI-enabled bioweapons dominate the headlines. If national security leaders and unconventional weapons experts continue to prioritize latent potentialities of emerging technology over current trends,", "authors": "April Arnold", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,military-security,biotech", "published_at": "2026-08-03T07:30:16.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/16026" }, { "id": 15091, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/can-cyber-operations-be-deterred-what-wargames-reveal", "title": "Can Cyber Operations Be Deterred? What Wargames Reveal", "summary": "The most successful deterrent threats leave no evidence behind. No missiles fly. No networks go down. No troops cross borders. Nothing happens. For policymakers, that is often the desired outcome. For researchers, it is a nightmare. Imagine, however, being able to observe a decision-maker preparing to attack, receiving a deterrent threat, and then changing their mind. That moment — the instant deterrence succeeds — is arguably the most important observation in international security. It is also", "authors": "Ruby Booth", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-30T07:30:39.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/15091" }, { "id": 14722, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/how-mexico-locked-in-its-militarized-police-state", "title": "How Mexico Locked In Its Militarized Police State", "summary": "In 2021, Andrew Ivey wrote, “‘I Have Other Data’: The Guardia Nacional and the Entrenchment of Mexico’s Militarization’,” where he warned Mexico was headed toward a militarization trap. Five years later, amidst increased pressure from the Trump administration and the election of a new Mexican president, we asked Andrew to revisit his arguments.Image: Sitio Oficial de Andrés Manuel López ObradorIn your 2021 article, you warned that Mexico was headed toward an entrenched militarization trap. In 20", "authors": "Andrew Ivey", "category": "news", "topics": "misinformation", "published_at": "2026-07-29T17:30:17.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/14722" }, { "id": 14723, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/parsing-trumps-decision-to-maybe-give-uranium-enrichment-to-saudi-arabia", "title": "Parsing Trump’s Decision to (Maybe) Give Uranium Enrichment to Saudi Arabia", "summary": "On June 22, the United States announced that it had signed a nuclear cooperation agreement with Saudi Arabia. This type of agreement broadly authorizes trade in nuclear technology, equipment, and materials, but only if the agreement and the country in question meet defined nonproliferation requirements. They are called Section 123 agreements for the section of the 1957 U.S. Atomic Energy Act that lays out the specific conditions for them. But the legal terms of Section 123 are only the minimum r", "authors": "Richard Nephew", "category": "news", "topics": "environment", "published_at": "2026-07-29T07:30:23.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/14723" }, { "id": 14348, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/key-areas-where-water-scarcity-intensifies-risks-of-conflict", "title": "Key Areas Where Water Scarcity Intensifies Risks of Conflict", "summary": "Water disputes can directly drive conflict, but more often, water scarcity acts as a catalyst — one that, combined with other pressures, raises the risk of conflict. This is nothing new; water has shaped human conflict for millennia. What’s changed is the accumulation of stress, as climate change, population growth, human migration, and the intensive demands of agriculture and industry are converging to strain water systems in ways that threaten to exacerbate instability. However, examples of go", "authors": "David Michel", "category": "news", "topics": "environment", "published_at": "2026-07-28T17:30:22.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/14348" }, { "id": 14349, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/the-octane-revolution-how-jimmy-doolittle-catalyzed-a-wartime-industry", "title": "The Octane Revolution: How Jimmy Doolittle Catalyzed a Wartime Industry", "summary": "Editor’s note: This is the sixth article in a limited series celebrating American defense technologies born from wartime and their effects on broader national security, politics, and society. This series will run for several weeks to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, and winners will be selected by a reader vote undertaken through our newsletter later this summer. Prior installments can be found at the Arsenal of Innovation page.The impact of chance and poor logistics on warfare is especi", "authors": "Aidan Poling", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-28T08:00:30.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/14349" }, { "id": 14350, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/how-orbans-fall-changed-serbias-political-future", "title": "How Orbán’s Fall Changed Serbia’s Political Future", "summary": "In the speech announcing his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Vladimir Putin took only minutes to arrive at the original sin in his catalogue of Western crimes. Before Iraq, before Libya, before Syria, came Belgrade: “First a bloody military operation was waged against Belgrade, without the U.N. Security Council’s sanction but with combat aircraft and missiles used in the heart of Europe.” The placement was not incidental, as Putin was telling Serbs that Russia’s war in Ukraine and NATO’s b", "authors": "Liudmila Listrovaya", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-28T07:15:25.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/14350" }, { "id": 13959, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/taiwans-tech-hurdles-threaten-military-capability-and-potential-coalition-defense", "title": "Taiwan’s Tech Hurdles Threaten Military Capability and Potential Coalition Defense", "summary": "Taiwan produces the world’s most advanced semiconductors, yet the island’s own military is only in the opening stages of adopting artificial intelligence systems. This mismatch bears directly on Taiwan’s ability to deter Chinese aggression.Beijing is pushing to develop and field sophisticated AI-enabled military capabilities. Given China’s focus on “reuniting” with Taiwan, the Taiwanese military could be the first to contend with the People’s Liberation Army’s emerging defense technologies durin", "authors": "Fanny Chao", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-27T08:00:25.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/13959" }, { "id": 13960, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/why-norway-and-finland-should-preserve-two-of-europes-most-important-demilitarized-zones", "title": "Why Norway and Finland Should Preserve Two of Europe’s Most Important Security Arrangements", "summary": "Svalbard is a stark archipelago of glaciers and coal mines lying 650 kilometers (403 miles) north of Norway’s North Cape, roughly halfway between the Norwegian mainland and the North Pole. It belongs to Norway but is governed under a 1920 treaty that grants nationals of more than 40 signatory states sweeping economic rights while barring Oslo from constructing naval bases or using the archipelago for “warlike” purposes. Far to the south, in the Baltic Sea between the Finnish and Swedish coasts,", "authors": "Douglas Peifer", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation", "published_at": "2026-07-27T07:30:26.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/13960" }, { "id": 13350, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/before-a-cyber-force-fix-cyber-governance", "title": "Before a Cyber Force, Fix Cyber Governance", "summary": "Let’s not start picking out uniforms just yet. The chorus calling for a Cyber Force continues to grow by the day, but the debate has its priorities backward. In June, an amendment from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) calling for the creation of a cyber service within the Department of the Army failed in the Senate Armed Services Committee by a single vote. Support is popular on both sides of the aisle, with Rep. Pat Fallon (R-TX) quoted as saying that a “Cyber Force is inevitable.” The highly ant", "authors": "Justin Hardy", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-24T07:30:15.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/13350" }, { "id": 13351, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/chaotic-progress-european-natos-quest-for-stronger-defense", "title": "Chaotic Progress: European NATO’s Quest for Stronger Defense", "summary": "In 2024, Max Bergmann wrote, “NATO Missed a Chance to Transform Itself,” where he argued NATO’s leadership needs to facilitate a strong European pillar of the alliance through structural reforms in European institutions. Two years later, we asked Max to revisit his arguments.Image: The White House via Wikimedia CommonsIn 2024, you argued NATO’s own leadership should facilitate a European pillar. Two years later, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told the European Parliament that anyone who think", "authors": "Max Bergmann", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-23T20:00:19.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/13351" }, { "id": 13352, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/america-needs-an-off-ramp-between-doing-nothing-and-shutting-ai-down", "title": "America Needs an Off-Ramp Between Doing Nothing and Shutting AI Down", "summary": "For 18 days in June, two of America’s most capable AI models went dark worldwide, not for technical or business reasons, but because the U.S. government ordered it. On June 12, 2026, the Commerce Department informed Anthropic that its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models could no longer be provided to any foreign person without a license, and the company concluded that compliance meant shutting the models down for everyone. Public access to Fable 5 was restored on June 30.The United States doesn’t have a", "authors": "Martijn Rasser", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation", "published_at": "2026-07-23T08:00:26.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/13352" }, { "id": 13353, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/the-king-of-cool-mobile-refrigeration-and-the-remaking-of-global-logistics", "title": "The King of Cool: Mobile Refrigeration and the Remaking of Global Logistics", "summary": "Editor’s note: This is the fifth article in a limited series celebrating American defense technologies born from wartime and their effects on broader national security, politics, and society. This series will run for several weeks to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, and winners will be selected by a reader vote undertaken through our newsletter later this summer. Prior installments can be found at the Arsenal of Innovation page.Have you ever wondered how the United States transitioned fr", "authors": "Caitlan Fealing", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-23T07:45:53.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/13353" }, { "id": 12858, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/total-war-on-taipei-china-explores-elevating-cognitive-effects-into-its-vision-of-warfare", "title": "Total War on Taipei: China Explores Elevating Cognitive Effects into Its Vision of Warfare", "summary": "In March 2025, China’s military researchers published a concept describing how to rapidly capture and subdue the city of Taipei. Distributed in restricted military channels, this approach argues Beijing can achieve victory “by blocking the city’s ability to receive external assistance, restricting its ability to enable operations, breaking its operational system, collapsing cognitive cohesion, and eliminating its ability to recover.” Its objective is to break the Taiwan people’s will to fight.Wh", "authors": "Howard Wang", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-22T07:30:49.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/12858" }, { "id": 12506, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/how-ukraine-put-russia-on-the-backfoot", "title": "How Ukraine Put Russia on the Backfoot", "summary": "Ukraine’s expanding use of drones at all ranges has changed the war’s momentum. This episode examines how Kyiv is reaching deeper into Russian territory, disrupting operations and logistics as well as energy infrastructure. How is Russia adapting (or not)? Can these strikes produce lasting advantages on the battlefield? Will this force Russia to escalate? Mike Kofman and Dara Massicot join Ryan to discuss.This episode is brought to you by Booz Allen. Learn more at warontherocks.com/boozallen.Ima", "authors": "Michael Kofman", "category": "news", "topics": "environment", "published_at": "2026-07-21T18:43:04.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/12506" }, { "id": 12507, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/how-the-war-with-iran-is-shaping-key-u-s-relations-beyond-the-middle-east", "title": "How the War with Iran is Shaping Key U.S. Relations Beyond the Middle East", "summary": "The U.S. war with Iran has had political, economic, and military implications that spread far beyond the Middle East. We asked five experts to assess how the war with Iran has affected U.S. bilateral relations with key countries that illustrate some of the global ramifications: South Korea, India, Ukraine, France, and the United Kingdom.Read more below. Jenny Town Senior Fellow at the Stimson Center and the Director of 38 NorthSouth Korea has resisted aiding U.S. military operations to forcefull", "authors": "Jenny Town", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-21T17:30:04.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/12507" }, { "id": 12508, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/rebuilding-americas-critical-minerals-base", "title": "Rebuilding America’s Critical Minerals Base", "summary": "There’s a clear consensus that America hollowed out its critical minerals base. How to rebuild it is less settled. Alex Grant of Magrathea Metals and Wes Spurlock of Principal Mineral join Jonathan to discuss the processing technology, labor force, and how government can catalyze private capital investment in the sector rather than replace it.Image: U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission via Wikimedia Commons. The post Rebuilding America’s Critical Minerals Base appeared first on War on the Rocks .", "authors": "Alex Grant", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,jobs-economy,finance-investment", "published_at": "2026-07-21T08:00:31.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/12508" }, { "id": 12124, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/before-q-day-the-race-to-quantum-first", "title": "Before Q-Day: The Race to Quantum First", "summary": "Somewhere, a hard drive is filling up with secrets no one can read yet, and its owner is waiting for the machine that opens them all at once. On March 30, 2026, that wait got shorter.Two independent research teams lowered the public estimates for breaking the encryption that secures banking, communications, and classified traffic. One showed that Shor’s algorithm, the quantum method for factoring the large numbers behind public-key encryption, could run at cryptographically relevant scale with a", "authors": "Mauritz Kop", "category": "news", "topics": "finance-investment", "published_at": "2026-07-20T08:00:11.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/12124" }, { "id": 12125, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/the-make-or-buy-line-has-moved", "title": "The Make-or-Buy Line has Moved", "summary": "The secretary of defense’s November announcement on acquisition reform laid out an unprecedented vision across the entire acquisition spectrum to improve the delivery speed of critical capabilities to our warfighters. One foundational pillar is the implementation of a commercial first policy, which laid out several initiatives: leveraging existing but less often used acquisition authorities, maximizing non-traditional contract vehicles, and increasing the use of more flexible solicitations. Most", "authors": "Jacob Green", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-20T07:30:44.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/12125" }, { "id": 11520, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/the-blood-bank-and-the-logistics-of-wartime-medicine", "title": "The Blood Bank and the Logistics of Wartime Medicine", "summary": "Before the twentieth century gave armies antibiotics, the leading killer of American soldiers in wartime was neither enemy fire nor shrapnel. Two-thirds of the roughly 620,000 deaths in the U.S. Civil War came from diseases like typhoid and dysentery. Spread through contaminated water and crowded camps, they were eventually controlled through inoculation and field sanitation rather than the antibiotics that would not arrive until the following generation. Later in World War I, American forces lo", "authors": "Naveen Krishnan", "category": "news", "topics": "environment", "published_at": "2026-07-17T08:00:21.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/11520" }, { "id": 11521, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/broken-drone-far-from-home-the-case-for-overseas-autonomous-system-sustainment", "title": "Broken Drone, Far from Home: The Case for Overseas Autonomous System Sustainment", "summary": "It’s 2028, and the Fujian carrier strike group has just left Yulin, China, for an unknown destination. The U.S. Navy’s “Hedge Strategy” has let commanders disperse unmanned systems across regional choke points as forward-deployed scouts. But days before contact with Fujian, an unmanned undersea vehicle in the Banda Sea transmits an error code and must head back to Yokosuka for repairs — a 3,000-mile, 15-day trip. A second platform, an unmanned surface vehicle, is overdue for a routine oil filter", "authors": "Dan Justice", "category": "news", "topics": "agents-autonomy", "published_at": "2026-07-17T07:30:31.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/11521" }, { "id": 11183, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/reading-through-the-lines-of-the-fy2027-ndaa", "title": "Reading through the Lines of the FY2027 NDAA", "summary": "The relationship between Congress and the Pentagon over the past year has been marked by public disagreements and frustrations over lawmakers’ concerns about the Iran War, and by what some lawmakers view as politically motivated firings of top military leaders. In many ways, the House and Senate versions of the Fiscal Year 2027 National Defense Authorization Act reflect lawmakers’ efforts to check the Pentagon’s policy power.Innovation efforts are generally a bright spot in these political battl", "authors": "Madeline Field", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-16T08:00:11.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/11183" }, { "id": 11184, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/academias-critical-role-in-developing-an-economic-security-workforce", "title": "Academia’s Critical Role in Developing an Economic Security Workforce", "summary": "Editor’s note: This is the tenth article in an 11-part series examining how the United States should organize, lead, and integrate economic statecraft into strategy, defense practice, and the broader national security ecosystem. The special series is brought to you by the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and War on the Rocks. Prior installments can be found at the War by Other Ledgers page.The United States is fighting a new kind of global competition — over supply chains, chips, and sanctio", "authors": "Jennifer Buss", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,jobs-economy,military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-16T07:15:51.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/11184" }, { "id": 10799, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/molle-pals-and-the-empty-loops-of-americas-civil-military-divide", "title": "MOLLE, PALS, and the Empty Loops of America’s Civil-Military Divide", "summary": "Editor’s note: This is the third article in a limited series celebrating American defense technologies born from wartime and their effects on broader national security, politics, and society. This series will run for several weeks to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary, and winners will be selected by a reader vote undertaken through our newsletter later this summer. Prior installments can be found at the Arsenal of Innovation page. In the half-century since the Gates Commission established ", "authors": "Jim Perkins", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-15T08:00:05.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/10799" }, { "id": 10800, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/before-the-next-mythos-moment-the-case-for-an-ai-threat-fusion-center", "title": "Before the Next Mythos Moment: The Case for an AI Threat Fusion Center", "summary": "Earlier this spring, Claude’s developers found the cyber potential of Anthropic’s model, Mythos 5, hazardous enough to pump the brakes on model release, creating the Project Glasswing collaboration to give cyber defenders the upper hand through controlled access to the model. Despite these efforts, the U.S. government stepped in on June 12, 2026, and forced Anthropic to take down Mythos and its safeguarded form, Fable 5 — an action the company disputed, calling the trigger a narrow, nonuniversal", "authors": "Rebecca Hersman", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-15T07:30:14.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/10800" }, { "id": 10238, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/natos-unity-on-paper-and-fractures-beneath-the-surface", "title": "NATO’s Unity on Paper and Fractures Beneath the Surface", "summary": "On July 7-8, NATO held its 36th official summit in Ankara, Turkey. There were several consequential topics to discuss at this year’s meeting, chief among them the wars in Ukraine and Iran and the uncertain future of European defense and security. We asked five experts to assess the outcomes of the summit for the various parties involved.Liviu HorovitzAssociate Researcher at German Institute for Security and International AffairsThe key takeaway from Ankara is that even President Donald Trump is ", "authors": "Liviu Horovitz", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-14T18:00:17.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/10238" }, { "id": 2685, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/outgunned-but-not-outplayed-irans-theory-of-victory", "title": "Outgunned, But Not Outplayed: Iran’s Theory of Victory", "summary": "Nineteen weeks ago, Iran faced the combined might of the most powerful country in the world and the most advanced military in the Middle East. Today, it is dictating the terms of the peace.When the memorandum of understanding was signed last month, President Donald Trump declared, “The Deal with the Islamic Republic of Iran is now complete. Congratulations to all!” and told the ships of the world to start their engines. Iran’s response was to keep striking and impose toll collection on the world", "authors": "Pnina Shuker", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-14T07:15:54.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/2685" }, { "id": 2687, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/an-unlearned-lesson-the-sorry-record-of-regime-change-operations-in-the-middle-east", "title": "An Unlearned Lesson: The Sorry Record of Regime Change Operations in the Middle East", "summary": "On Feb. 28, 2026, President Donald Trump announced the commencement of Operation Epic Fury, a joint U.S.-Israeli military operation against Iran. Among the mission’s goals was the overthrow of the Islamic Republic. “When we are finished,” Trump told the Iranian people, “take over your government. It will be yours to take.” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu echoed Trump’s message, saying: “Our joint action will create the conditions for the brave Iranian people to take their destiny into ", "authors": "Galen Jackson", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-13T07:30:35.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/2687" }, { "id": 2689, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/going-over-the-brink-how-hizballahs-risk-strategy-made-lebanon-impossible-to-ignore", "title": "Going Over the Brink: How Hizballah’s Risk Strategy Made Lebanon Impossible to Ignore", "summary": "When the United States and Iran announced their framework agreement on June 15, attention focused on the direct U.S.-Iran dimensions of the deal, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, the lifting of the U.S. naval blockade, and the fate of Iran’s nuclear program. But the agreement also included a commitment to the “immediate and permanent termination of military operations on all fronts, including Lebanon.” Washington had spent months treating Lebanon as a separate issue in negotiatio", "authors": "Kelly A. Grieco", "category": "news", "topics": "military-security", "published_at": "2026-07-10T07:30:12.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/2689" }, { "id": 2691, "url": "https://warontherocks.com/cogs-of-war/the-pentagons-ai-strategy-has-a-funding-problem", "title": "The Pentagon’s AI Strategy Has a Funding Problem", "summary": "In the span of two weeks, the White House issued two of the most ambitious artificial intelligence directives in American history. On June 2, President Donald Trump signed an executive order mandating rapid AI adoption and hardened cyber defense across the government. Three days later, National Security Presidential Memorandum 11 directed every element of the national security enterprise to accelerate AI adoption, anchored by four pillars: adoption, adaptation, assurance, and accountability.The ", "authors": "Adam Lackey", "category": "news", "topics": "regulation,military-security,transparency", "published_at": "2026-07-09T07:45:44.000Z", "source": "War on the Rocks", "ethics_ai_record_url": "https://ethics.ai/record/2691" } ], "attribution": "via ethics.ai" }