Strategika

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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
Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Issue 39

New Military Technologies

Background Essay

by Thomas Donnelly Wednesday, March 15, 2017
article

Featured Commentary

by Joseph Felter Wednesday, March 15, 2017
article
by Kiron K. Skinner Wednesday, March 15, 2017
article

Related Commentary

by Max Boot Wednesday, March 15, 2017
article
by Angelo M. Codevilla Wednesday, March 15, 2017
article
by Peter R. Mansoor Wednesday, March 15, 2017
article
by Bing West Wednesday, March 15, 2017
article
Thursday, January 26, 2017

Issue 38

Revitalizing America’s Security

Background Essay

by Peter R. Mansoor Thursday, January 26, 2017
article

Featured Commentary

by Angelo M. Codevilla Thursday, January 26, 2017
article
by Bing West Thursday, January 26, 2017
article
Thursday, December 8, 2016

Issue 37

Putin and Russian Nationalism

Background Essay

by Ralph Peters Thursday, December 8, 2016
article

Featured Commentary

by Josef Joffe Thursday, December 8, 2016
article
by Miles Maochun Yu Thursday, December 8, 2016
article

Related Commentary

by Victor Davis Hanson Wednesday, December 7, 2016
article
by Josef Joffe Tuesday, January 24, 2017
article
by Michael McFaul Saturday, July 30, 2016
article
by Williamson Murray Tuesday, January 24, 2017
article
by Ralph Peters Tuesday, January 24, 2017
article
by Miles Maochun Yu Tuesday, January 24, 2017
article
Monday, October 31, 2016

Issue 36

The Legacy of the Obama Doctrine

Background Essay

by Mark Moyar Monday, October 31, 2016
article

Featured Commentary

by Thomas H. Henriksen Monday, October 31, 2016
article
by Barry Strauss Monday, October 31, 2016
article

Related Commentary

by Angelo M. Codevilla Monday, October 31, 2016
article
by Thomas Donnelly Monday, October 31, 2016
article
by Andrew Roberts Monday, October 31, 2016
article

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Strategika

Strategika Issue 65: U.S. Recognition Of Taiwan

via Strategika
Friday, May 29, 2020

Strategika Issue 65 is now available online. 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.

Strategika

Strategika Issue 64: China After The Pandemic

via Strategika
Thursday, April 23, 2020

Strategika Issue 64 is now available online. 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.

Background Essay

The Coronacrisis Will Simply Exacerbate The Geo-Strategic Competition Between Beijing And Washington

by Michael R. Auslinvia Strategika
Thursday, April 23, 2020

Even before the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China late last year, the Sino-U.S. relationship had been in a period of flux. Since coming to office in 2017, President Trump made rebalancing ties with China the centerpiece of his foreign policy. Claiming that it would no longer be business as usual with Beijing, Trump began to respond more forcefully to what he had long claimed were unfair Chinese trade practices, cyberespionage, military intimidation, and global propaganda campaigns.

Featured Commentary

China Is Flailing in a Post-Coronavirus World

by Gordon G. Changvia Strategika
Thursday, April 23, 2020

Beijing’s propagandists believe the coronavirus pandemic will bring about the end of U.S. hegemony, “the American Century” as they call it. They are right in one narrow sense. The disease, which has reached almost every country and crippled societies across continents, has the feel of an epoch-ending event. What is likely to end, however, is not U.S. leadership. It’s Beijing’s audacious grab for global dominance.

Featured Commentary

China Lies, China Kills, China Wins

by Ralph Petersvia Strategika
Thursday, April 23, 2020

As a plague compounds our political divisions, it’s essential to recall that the cause of the global carnage is not across the congressional aisle or parliamentary divide. This pandemic came courtesy of the breathtaking (literally, in this case) ruthlessness of the Chinese dictatorship, whose policies nurtured, hid, and fostered the spread of the COVID-19 virus currently killing our citizens by the tens of thousands and crippling economies worldwide.

Related Commentary

Elizabeth Economy: After COVID-19: China's Role In The World And U.S.-China Relations

interview with Elizabeth Economyvia Council on Foreign Relations
Monday, April 20, 2020

Hoover Institution fellow Elizabeth Economy discusses China and the US-China relationship in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Related Commentary

How China Sees The World

by H. R. McMastervia The Atlantic
Monday, April 20, 2020

And how we should see China.

Related Commentary

A Coronavirus Strategy Memo To Chairman Xi

by Jakub Grygielvia National Review
Thursday, April 16, 2020

How China can use the aftermath of coronavirus to its strategic advantage.

Related Commentary

Victor Davis Hanson: COVID-19 and the Lessons of History

interview with Victor Davis Hansonvia Hoover Virtual Policy Briefings
Thursday, April 9, 2020

A Hoover Virtual Policy Briefing with Victor Davis Hanson: COVID-19 and the Lessons of History 
Thursday, April 9, 2020 at 11AM PT/ 2PM ET.

Related Commentary

Geopolitical Jockeying In A Time Of Pandemic

by Michael R. Auslinvia Spectator
Tuesday, April 7, 2020

You might think a global pandemic and the worst crisis since World War Two would lead to a welcome, if temporary tamping down of military activity in already tense and contested environments. Yet even as the novel coronavirus ravages the world, old fashioned geopolitical jousting continues in Asia, reminding us that the passing phase of COVID-19 will simply return much of the world to the status quo ante of great power competition.

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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.