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Friday, September 24, 2021

Issue 75

America After Afghanistan
Background Essay
Background Essay

Our Revels Now Are Ended

by Ralph Petersvia Strategika
Friday, September 24, 2021

It’s hard to win a war when you refuse to understand your enemy. It’s harder still when you cannot realistically define your strategic mission. You lame yourself further when you reduce a complex history to a single inaccurate cliché; i.e., “Afghanistan is the graveyard of empires.”

Featured Commentary
Featured Commentary

Afghanistan Post-Mortem

by Peter R. Mansoorvia Strategika
Friday, September 24, 2021

The United States has lost its longest war. After twenty years of conflict and nation building in Afghanistan, the U.S.-backed Afghan regime collapsed like a house of cards in just a few weeks after the announced departure of American and NATO troops from the country. A final flurry of activity by the U.S. military managed to rescue 123,000 people from Kabul, but as Winston Churchill once said of Dunkirk, “Wars are not won by evacuations.”

Featured Commentary

Dented, Not Damaged: The American Empire After Afghanistan

by Josef Joffevia Strategika
Friday, September 24, 2021

When small, even middle-sized powers make grievous mistakes like fighting a losing war or ignoring deadly threats, they risk their place in the global hierarchy or, worse, their existence. Thus did France and Britain when they failed to fight Nazi Germany in the Thirties while still in position of strategic superiority. 

E.g., 12 / 3 / 2021
E.g., 12 / 3 / 2021
Friday, April 29, 2016

Issue 31

U.S. Military Readiness

Background Essay

by Thomas Donnelly Friday, April 29, 2016
article

Featured Commentary

by Admiral Gary Roughead Friday, April 29, 2016
article
by Admiral James O. Ellis Jr. Friday, April 29, 2016
article

Related Commentary

by Thomas Donnelly Friday, April 29, 2016
article
by Ralph Peters Friday, April 29, 2016
article
by Bing West Friday, April 29, 2016
article
by Miles Maochun Yu Friday, April 29, 2016
article
Tuesday, March 15, 2016

Issue 30

After the end of sanctions by the West, will Iran succeed in its efforts to find state legitimacy with Europe and the United States?

Background Essay

by Kori Schake Monday, March 14, 2016
article

Featured Commentary

by Angelo M. Codevilla Monday, March 14, 2016
article
by Max Boot Monday, March 14, 2016
article

Related Commentary

by Bruce Thornton Wednesday, March 16, 2016
article
Monday, February 1, 2016

Issue 29

Does ISIS really differ from other terrorist groups; if so, how does its singularity complicate U.S. efforts to defeat it?

Background Essay

by Mark Moyar Monday, February 1, 2016
article

Featured Commentary

by Peter R. Mansoor Monday, February 1, 2016
article
by Raymond Ibrahim Monday, February 1, 2016
article
Friday, December 4, 2015

Issue 28

Why is Germany a non-nuclear power and will it ever become one?

Background Essay

by Thomas Donnelly Friday, December 4, 2015
article

Featured Commentary

by Josef Joffe Friday, December 4, 2015
article
by Russell A. Berman Friday, December 4, 2015
article

Related Commentary

by Josiah Bunting III Friday, December 4, 2015
article

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Related Commentary

Beijing Fears COVID-19 Is Turning Point For China, Globalization

by Michael R. Auslinvia Real Clear Politics
Wednesday, March 18, 2020

While the world fights the coronavirus pandemic, China is fighting a propaganda war. Beijing’s war aim is simple: shift away from China all blame for the outbreak, the botched initial response, and its early spread into the broader world. At stake is China’s global reputation, as well as the potential of a fundamental shift away from China for trade and manufacturing. 

Related Commentary

China Boomeranging

by Victor Davis Hansonvia National Review
Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Its bad behavior in the wake of COVID-19 will leave it in its weakest global position in memory. And the U.S. will emerge stronger.

Related Commentary

The Coronavirus Is A Stress Test For Xi Jinping

by Elizabeth Economyvia Foreign Affairs
Monday, February 10, 2020

[Subscription Required] On February 4, Cui Tiankai, China’s ambassador to the United States, prepared to address an audience of students, scholars, and businesspeople in San Diego, California. Before the ambassador could speak, a young Chinese man stood up and yelled, “Xi Jinping, step down!” Security quickly whisked the man away, and the event went on.

Related Commentary

From Washington To Wuhan, All Eyes Are On Xi

by Michael R. Auslinvia The Wall Street Journal
Friday, February 7, 2020

China’s leader knows that his reputation for competence is on the line.

Related Commentary

How Important Is the Mediterranean in American Strategic Thinking?

by Bing Westvia Strategika
Friday, January 10, 2020

In posing this question, the Hoover Institution advanced both a major and a minor subject. The major issue is defining what passes as strategic thinking in America; the minor subject is the role of the Mediterranean within that context.

Related Commentary

China in the Mediterranean and Implications for the United States and Europe

by Nadia Schadlowvia Strategika
Friday, January 10, 2020

Two decades ago, the strategist Mac Owens wrote a seminal essay on classical geopolitics. He described geopolitics as “the study of the political and strategic relevance of geography to the pursuit of international power,” adding that it involved the control of spatial areas that have an impact on the security and prosperity of nations. 

Related Commentary

Implications of the Ascendant Chinese Presence in the Mediterranean for Europe and the United States

by Hy Rothsteinvia Strategika
Friday, January 10, 2020

The growing Chinese presence and activism in the Mediterranean, an area beyond Beijing’s core interest areas in the East and South China Seas, are raising new questions about China’s conception of the future world order. The key question is whether China’s economic expansion is a case of the flag following international trade, or is trade a mechanism to expand global presence, influence, and control. The answer to this question may adversely impact the way of life for Europeans and Americans.

Related Commentary

The Mediterranean: Britain’s Lake, America’s Burden, and U.S. Strategic Thought

by Ralph Petersvia Strategika
Friday, January 10, 2020

The salient point about U.S. strategic thought and the Mediterranean is that, for most of our history, we didn’t think about it. Between our feud with the Barbary pirates and our World War II engagement in that wine-dark sea, we accepted that the Med was a British lake, in which the Royal Navy would guarantee security for trade and wartime dominance. 

Related Commentary

Competition in the Mediterranean

by Mark Moyarvia Strategika
Friday, January 10, 2020

During the Cold War, and for more than two decades after the Cold War, the United States was the dominant power in the Mediterranean. Barack Obama’s reduction of the U.S. military presence in the Mediterranean and the ensuing Russian intervention in Syria in 2015 allowed Russia to gain in influence at the expense of the United States. 

Related Commentary

To what degree has the importance of the Mediterranean waxed or waned in American strategic thinking?

by Peter R. Mansoorvia Strategika
Friday, January 10, 2020

The United States has a long history with the Mediterranean littoral. The first American overseas military expedition, the war against the Barbary pirates, took place in the Mediterranean in the first decade and a half of the 19th century. Although U.S. naval operations and Marine expeditions against the North African states of Morocco, Tripoli, Algiers, and Tunis did not immediately end piracy against American vessels, they did signal the willingness of the United States to use military force in the furtherance of its national security interests beyond its shores.

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The Working Group on the Role of Military History in Contemporary Conflict strives to reaffirm the Hoover Institution's dedication to historical research in light of contemporary challenges, and in particular, reinvigorating the national study of military history as an asset to foster and enhance our national security. Read more.

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Strategika is an online journal that analyzes ongoing issues of national security in light of conflicts of the past—the efforts of the Military History Working Group of historians, analysts, and military personnel focusing on military history and contemporary conflict.

Our board of scholars shares no ideological consensus other than a general acknowledgment that human nature is largely unchanging. Consequently, the study of past wars can offer us tragic guidance about present conflicts—a preferable approach to the more popular therapeutic assumption that contemporary efforts to ensure the perfectibility of mankind eventually will lead to eternal peace. New technologies, methodologies, and protocols come and go; the larger tactical and strategic assumptions that guide them remain mostly the same—a fact discernable only through the study of history.

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The opinions expressed in Strategika are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.