As U.S.-mediated efforts to manage the Russia-Ukraine conflict have continued alongside other global crises, what realistic paths remain for de-escalation, and how are the war’s ongoing costs affecting European security and U.S. domestic priorities?

Johannesburg, South Africa Correspondent South Africa has spent four years declining to take a side in this war, which the Americans and the Europeans have found infuriating and which I have found instructive, because a country that is not a party to a negotiation can see the shape of it more clearly than the parties … Continue reading As U.S.-mediated efforts to manage the Russia-Ukraine conflict have continued alongside other global crises, what realistic paths remain for de-escalation, and how are the war’s ongoing costs affecting European security and U.S. domestic priorities?

Should the United States maintain its current network of security commitments in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, or begin a more explicit process of prioritization?

Dayton, OH Correspondent — Commitments exceed comfortable capacity measured against simultaneous requirements in multiple theatres. The production numbers are still the argument. Artillery expansion took three years to approach the consumption rate of a single conflict, and the interceptor stocks used in the Middle East this year are on multi-year replacement schedules. Prioritisation is recognition … Continue reading Should the United States maintain its current network of security commitments in Europe and the Indo-Pacific, or begin a more explicit process of prioritization?

Gastonia, NC Correspondent — Open-ended isn't a strategy. It's a feeling that resembles one on television. Kyiv holding is a condition of geography and will. It isn't a definition of done. Without a picture of done and a European factory attached, we're running a magazine as a moral subscription. Condition it, and not as a … Continue reading Should the United States condition further Ukraine aid on a defined end-state and on European ammunition production, or treat support as open-ended for as long as Kyiv holds?

Gastonia, NC Correspondent — Two serious countries joining a treaty isn't two more names on a mailing list. Finland has an artillery culture, conscription it never abandoned, and eight hundred miles of border with the problem. Sweden has industry and a navy that already knew the Baltic. That's strengthening if we mean mass, geography, and … Continue reading Should Finland and Sweden’s move toward NATO be treated as a durable strengthening of the alliance, or as a new set of defense obligations the United States is not ready to resource?

Prescott Valley Correspondent-Russia always poses some kind of threat to the world, whether real or imagined, simply because of its espionage capabilities as well as its land mass, nuclear power arsenal, and geographical location in conjunction with the Middle East, Europe and other countries that have separated from the old Soviet Union. There is a … Continue reading Does Russia pose any real threat to the world or is it like “Dennis The Menace” just an annoyance?