How photography helped physicist Bibha Chowdhuri see the invisible in the 1930s

Scroll.in | Kamayani Sharma

In 1938, Indian physicist Bibha Chowdhuri and D.M. Bose exposed samarium-soaked photographic plates at high altitudes in Sandakphu and Darjeeling to detect cosmic radiation and map subatomic nuclear disintegrations. Their experimental emulsion technique recorded 30 star-like tracks left by charged particles, establishing light-sensitive photographic plates as viable detectors of subatomic events.

She isolated cosmic particle trajectories. This methodology directly enabled scientists to differentiate heavy particles, including protons and mesotrons, based on track scattering patterns across varying elevations up to 14,500 feet at Pharijong. However, wartime supply disruptions during the Second World War severed access to specialized Ilford halftone plates from England, halting further cosmic ray experiments at the Bose Institute in Kolkata. While Nobel laureate Cecil Powell subsequently collaborated with Ilford Ltd in Bristol to refine these nuclear emulsions, Chowdhuri's pioneering research provided the essential empirical proof for photographic particle detection techniques.

Spoil of War: How Conflict Shapes Myanmar’s Gold Supply Chain

Iiss | Ben Dunant

Myanmar gold mining has expanded significantly since the 2021 military coup, funding armed opposition groups and generating informal taxation revenue for the ruling military regime amidst a conflict that has caused over 100,000 fatalities. Domestic bullion sales have surged due to the devaluation of the national currency, the kyat, and foreign currency rationing, prompting price controls and increased smuggling into neighbouring countries such as India.

This unregulated economic surge relies on small-scale extraction methods using toxic mercury and excessive river dredging, which severely degrade local ecosystems and divide communities. Downstream, these environmental and social harms persist across conflict lines and can endure even under ceasefires if the underlying political drivers of violence remain unaddressed. Illicit flows from these operations ultimately cross South and Southeast Asian transit routes, potentially entering global supply networks.

Ports, power, and presence: How to defend Batanes from China

Atlantic Council | Alvin Camba and Kevin M. Wheeler

Chinese scholars at Jinan University recently asserted that Batanes, the northernmost province of the Philippines, constitutes a natural extension of Taiwan, triggering calls in Chinese state media for regular Chinese Coast Guard patrols in the Bashi Channel. Manila swiftly rejected the claims, which mirror previous Chinese grey-zone efforts targeting Japan’s Ryukyu Islands.

Grounding local resilience requires urgent allied civilian infrastructure investments in power generation, cold storage, and port expansion for the province’s 18,937 residents. Batanes occupies critical maritime terrain. Beyond protecting local livelihoods, hard infrastructure upgrades generate a vital second-order consequence by providing essential logistical sustainment for joint operations across the Luzon Strait. Armed Forces of the Philippines detachments on Mavulis Island and US Marine deployments of the NMESIS anti-ship missile system during Balikatan exercises already underscore the area’s military significance. Expanding dual-use infrastructure ensures long-term allied operational flexibility while denying Beijing an entry point for economic coercion.

Under the New Logic of Drone Warfare, Is Unmanned No Longer a Key Capability?

Small Wars Journal | David Sterman

Myanmar’s military junta conducted over 1,600 aerial strikes using light manned recreational aircraft and paramotors between 2025 and late 2026, marking a pivotal turn in low-cost aerial warfare. This operational shift reflects a broader evolution in aerial combat since the United States launched its first drone strike in Afghanistan in October 2001.

While early American operations prioritised casualty aversion, recent conflicts in Ukraine, Ethiopia, and Sudan redefined unmanned aerial systems as tools for cheap, massed firepower. In Myanmar, low-altitude air defense gaps allowed the military government to discard the unmanned requirement entirely to maximize weapon delivery against civilian and insurgent targets. That transition altered combat economics. Manned ultralights now outnumber the 1,459 drone strikes and 7,500 conventional air strikes recorded by the National Unity Government. Light aircraft proved particularly effective across flat terrain in the Sagaing and Mandalay regions. This trajectory highlights how low-cost combat logic can paradoxically drive armies away from automated platforms.

America Is Risking Its Biggest Asset

The New York Times | Michael Froman

Economic interdependence is increasingly becoming a source of strategic leverage. Governments can exploit concentrated supply chains, critical maritime routes and financial networks to impose costs on rivals. China’s dominance in rare-earth processing gives Beijing influence over industries that depend on specialised minerals, while Iran’s position near the Strait of Hormuz creates risks for international energy transport.

These vulnerabilities are encouraging governments to diversify supply routes, expand domestic production and build alternative sources of critical materials. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have invested in infrastructure that can move some oil exports without transiting the Strait of Hormuz. The United States has also pursued policies intended to strengthen domestic critical-mineral supply chains and reduce dependence on Chinese processing.

The Axis of Upheaval Goes to War

Foreign Affairs | Andrea Kendall-Taylor, Richard Fontaine

Iran's increasingly precise missile strikes against American positions in the Middle East highlight the growing importance of external intelligence support in modern warfare. A missile attack on Muwaffaq Salti Air Base in Jordan demonstrated Tehran's ability to exploit high-resolution satellite imagery reportedly supplied by Chinese entities. US officials also assessed that Russian satellite intelligence assisted Iranian targeting before an attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia.

These developments reflect a broader convergence among Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. Their cooperation increasingly extends beyond arms transfers into intelligence support, technological assistance and defence-industrial collaboration. Reported Russian assistance with Iranian supersonic cruise missile development further illustrates the potential military consequences of this alignment.

Avoiding Another Long War in Yemen

Center for Strategic and International Studies | Allison Minor

Houthi forces launched a decisive strike on Riyadh’s main airport on October 10, 2026, killing over a dozen people and disrupting Saudi Arabia’s economic diversification ambitions. The attack forced the kingdom's flagship Future Investment Initiative conference into a hybrid format and postponed the European Union–Gulf Cooperation Council summit.

Riyadh responded on Tuesday by bombing major Houthi oil depots, which currently generate over $2 billion annually in illicit fuel revenue. In retaliation, Houthi fighters struck Aramco headquarters in Dhahran and Aden’s presidential palace. Ground dynamics remain chaotic. The Saudi-backed "Yemen Dawn" offensive, launched October 5 to reclaim Houthi-controlled territories, faces severe friction from fractured political coalitions and internal divisions between Saudi and Emirati partners. Tactical airstrikes cannot eliminate Houthi resilience built on agile domestic production and diversified supply chains. Saudi Arabia risks entering another costly, inconclusive campaign unless it prioritizes long-term institutional capacity building for the Yemeni government over uncoordinated military action.

Defending a Partner: Air Defense as Diplomacy in Israel–UAE Relations

E-International Relations | Noiranjana Kashyap

Israel deployed an Iron Dome air defense battery and Israel Defense Forces personnel to the United Arab Emirates in April 2026 to intercept incoming Iranian missiles during the US-Israel-Iran War. Confirmed by US Ambassador Mike Huckabee, the operational deployment reflects deepening security cooperation established under the 2020 Abraham Accords.

Military assistance of this scale builds strategic goodwill. Defensive technology functions as a diplomatic soft power instrument when structured across three operational tiers: transfer, co-development, and deployment. Israel previously utilized arms sales to counter international isolation, establishing industrial ties through systems like David's Sling and Arrow. Deploying active hardware during a crisis requires the provider to bear direct operational risk, satisfying conditions of benign framing, visible benefits, and mutual reciprocity. Publicly reported interceptions demonstrate tangible territorial defense for Emirati civilian infrastructure. However, defensive diplomacy operates primarily at elite governmental levels, failing to resolve underlying regional political tensions or alter broader public perceptions of Israeli power.

Iran and Its Houthi Proxies Target Saudi Airports and Gulf Shipping

Hudson Institute | Can Kasapoğlu

Houthi forces launched repeated ballistic missile and drone attacks against Saudi commercial airports between 10 and 12 October 2026. The strikes disrupted aviation operations and killed at least 14 people across the attacks on 10 and 11 October. King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh faced prolonged operational disruption, exposing the vulnerability of Saudi Arabia’s civilian aviation infrastructure.

Iranian maritime operations widened the pressure on Gulf security. A drone strike hit the Petro Dolphin tanker at Oman’s Sohar anchorage on 11 October, while reported ballistic missile exercises indicated Tehran’s continued efforts to demonstrate its missile capabilities. Iranian media reported the launch of 30 ballistic missiles, including Khorramshahr and Emad variants. These developments threaten commercial shipping, regional energy flows and international aviation.

Capturing National Security Benefits from Offshore Wind

Center for Strategic and International Studies | Allegra Dawes, Emily Harding, Julia Dickson, Aosheng Pusztaszeri, Joseph Majkut

Autonomous vehicles and uncrewed aerial drones targeting maritime assets are exposing growing surveillance gaps across United States territorial waters. To address these vulnerabilities, dual-use sensor suites integrated directly into offshore wind infrastructure could serve as critical force multipliers for ocean monitoring. Expanding commercial energy sites into offshore surveillance nodes enables continuous radar, acoustic, and subsea data collection across previously unmonitored coastal zones.

European maritime security initiatives have already demonstrated the feasibility of sharing offshore radar data and monitoring subsea cables against sabotage. However, deploying dual-use capabilities across commercial turbines creates complex governance, data-ownership, and cost-allocation challenges for federal agencies and private developers. Commercial wind installations also risk becoming primary targets during kinetic conflicts. Integrated surveillance platforms remain essential. Reconciling public defense requirements with private energy operations will dictate how effectively federal authorities protect critical infrastructure while maintaining wide-area maritime domain awareness along vulnerable seaboards.

US Army’s new laser weapon plan aims to turn ordinary vehicles into drone killers

Interesting Engineering | Prabhat Ranjan Mishra

The US Army has awarded AeroVironment a $464.8 million production agreement under its Enduring-High Energy Laser (E-HEL) programme. The initiative will deliver dozens of LOCUST X3 laser weapon systems to strengthen counter-drone capabilities across Army formations. The 30-kilowatt system introduces a modular, platform-agnostic architecture that supports integration with tactical vehicles and other configurations.

The programme uses the Modular Open Systems Approach, with 11 major interfaces designed to facilitate upgrades and integration. The Army plans to integrate LOCUST X3 with Joint Light Tactical Vehicles, while considering additional platforms and palletised configurations. This approach offers greater flexibility in deploying directed-energy weapons without permanently tying them to a single vehicle design.

Is Continued US-Iran Hostility Inevitable? Rereading Walt’s ‘Revolution and War’ Thirty Years Later

E-International Relations | Mark N. Katz

United States containment of Iran remains entrenched forty-five years after the 1979 Iranian Revolution, defying strategic expectations that revolutionary regimes naturally moderate their foreign policies over time. Stephen M. Walt’s 1996 framework theorized that mutual recognition of limits eventually produces diplomatic normalization between revolutionary states and status quo powers.

The Islamic Republic continues financing Axis of Resistance proxies like Hezbollah and the Houthis across the Middle East. Washington enforces punitive sanctions while confronting Iranian nuclear ambitions and Persian Gulf energy disruptions. Temporary alignment against Al-Qaeda following 11 September 2001 and Islamic State in the mid-2010s failed to establish lasting diplomatic bridges. Iran shows no willingness to abandon foreign militia networks. Conflict persists continuously. Consequently, both powers remain locked in reciprocal security dilemmas despite clear economic incentives for de-escalation. Can status quo and revolutionary powers break structural hostility without internal political transformation?

Trump’s Affection for Russia Is No Mystery

The Atlantic | Jonathan Chait

Donald Trump announced a major fuel arrangement with Vladimir Putin on Friday, stating that Russia will supply over 300,000 tons of diesel fuel to American and global markets immediately, followed by 500,000 tons in November and 1,000,000 tons thereafter. Writing on Truth Social and speaking to reporters outside the White House, Trump publicly thanked Putin while framing the delivery as vital for domestic energy supplies.

This public praise underscores enduring debates over Trump's diplomatic alignment with Moscow. Republican Party officials had previously dismissed 2016 election interference investigations as Deep State overreach. Fuel imports remain controversial. The deal highlights how transactional energy diplomacy continues to influence American foreign policy and presidential rhetoric regarding Russian leadership. Trump emphasized his gratitude for the massive oil shipments, claiming diesel is precisely what the nation requires. Continued dependence on Russian energy shipments presents broader strategic and diplomatic complications for future US trade policy and international alliances.

The Nuclear Deal That Could Save NATO

Foreign Affairs | Ivo H. Daalder

European members of NATO face an unprecedented breakdown in transatlantic security guarantees as Washington makes extended nuclear deterrence conditional on political and economic compliance. Ivo H. Daalder demonstrates that zero European foreign ministry officials present at a recent summit believed Washington would honor its Article 5 commitment during an attack.

Deterrence has fractured. This crisis echoes the 1957 Sputnik shock, which previously prompted the 1968 Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the NATO Nuclear Planning Group. Today, allies like Poland and Germany are weighing national nuclear capabilities to counter Russian coercion, while France offers its own strike forces. Re-establishing credibility requires a revamped nuclear bargain led by France and the United Kingdom rather than reliance on conditional American assurances. Without a structured European nuclear core, unilateral proliferation will inevitably dismantle the nonproliferation architecture established during the Cold War, exposing the continent to unchecked Russian strategic coercion and alliance fragmentation.

Jamestown Foundation

China Brief, October 2, 2026, v. 26, no. 19 

• In the Online Age, PRC Foreign Intelligence Evolves
• The PRC’s Compute Push Goes Global
• Campaign Against ‘New Qing History’ Reinforces Ethnic Unity
• Beijing’s London Embassy as an Integrated Threat
• Beijing Makes Rapid Gains Toward Seed Self-Reliance
• ‘We’re Coming for You’: PRC Influence in UN Rights Bodies
• Party Blames Zhang Youxia’s Fall on Disloyalty, Factionalism
• Terrorism Monitor, October 9, 2026, v. 24, no. 15 Yemen Becomes the Islamic State’s Media Sanctuary
• Iran to Deepen PRC Ties Despite Lack of Military Support
• Türkiye Expands its Security Strategy in Libya
• Iraq’s Kurdistan Region Rattled by Iranian Drones as Militant Dispute Resumes

One Year On, the Gaza Ceasefire Remains a Cruel Joke

The National Interest | Alexander Langlois

The October 2025 Gaza ceasefire has not ended the violence or resolved the territory’s humanitarian crisis. Palestinian authorities continue to report deaths and injuries from Israeli military operations, while restrictions on humanitarian access and damaged infrastructure complicate recovery. The United Nations reported in October 2026 that more than 1,400 Palestinians had been killed since the ceasefire announcement.

The humanitarian outlook remains fragile. The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification reported that 1.2 million people faced crisis-level or worse food insecurity between mid-April and June 2026, with conditions projected to deteriorate later in the year. Thousands of patients also require medical evacuation for treatment unavailable in Gaza.

Russia accuses Ukraine of attacking oil refinery after Zelensky says strikes to resume

BBC News | Maia Davies, Sarah Rainsford

Ukraine resumed long-range strikes against Russian energy infrastructure after a three-day pause, targeting the Ryazan oil refinery. The renewed attacks followed continued Russian strikes on Ukrainian energy facilities and growing tensions between Kyiv and Washington over the proposed energy ceasefire.

President Volodymyr Zelensky criticised interruptions to US intelligence-sharing and restrictions affecting Ukraine's military use of SpaceX's Starshield satellite communications service. These developments raised concerns about the reliability of external support for Ukrainian operations. Washington's intelligence-sharing arrangements are particularly important for warning of incoming Russian ballistic missile attacks, while satellite communications support military coordination and certain drone operations.

World Bank says ‘small AI’ could transform developing countries

The Guardian | Heather Stewart

The World Bank is promoting specialised “small AI” models as a way for developing countries to expand access to useful artificial intelligence despite limited connectivity and infrastructure. Unlike large general-purpose systems, these compact tools target specific problems and can operate on basic smartphones, reducing dependence on continuous cloud access.

India’s AgriConnect initiative illustrates this approach by supporting locally adapted agricultural advice for farmers. Such applications could help users access information about crops, pests and farming decisions in their own languages. However, their wider impact will depend on reliable electricity, affordable devices, appropriate local data and access to trustworthy advice.

Reflections on Ukraine

Google Drive | Viva Bartkus

Ukrainian civilian and economic infrastructure faces escalating nightly strikes from Iranian-designed, Chinese jet-boosted Russian drones, forcing Ukrainian society into decentralized adaptation. Business leaders, municipal authorities, and institutions like the Ukrainian Catholic University are pivoting from growth strategies toward basic operational survival ahead of winter 2026. Widespread solar panel imports via Poland and distributed 1,000-to-5,000 square meter warehouse networks aim to bypass targeted centralized legacy Soviet power grids and commercial logistics hubs.

However, air defense forces face dwindling interceptor missile stockpiles, compelling impossible triage choices between protecting power grids, hospitals, or residential housing. Meanwhile, Lviv hospitals expand specialized trauma and prosthetic rehabilitation centers funded heavily by American donations to process anticipated battlefield casualties. Society adapts to lower operational thresholds to sustain long-term psychological and physical resistance. Survival hinges on endurance. Nevertheless, acute interceptor supply bottlenecks leave critical national assets structurally vulnerable to persistent Russian strike packages.

Ship attack reports near Hormuz reach record high as oil exports slow

BBC News | Joshua Cheetham, Thomas Copeland, Alison Benjamin

Twelve commercial ships reported attacks in and around the Strait of Hormuz between 5 and 11 October, marking the highest weekly tally recorded by the UK Maritime Trade Operations since hostilities began. Six strikes occurred on Sunday alone, including a drone strike against the Nicaragua-flagged tanker Petro Dolphin off Sohar, Oman.

Iranian forces are expanding their targeted zone. The escalating harassment follows increased US Central Command maritime escort operations accompanying shuttled commercial tankers along Oman's territorial waters. In response, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy has repositioned formations to disrupt traffic beyond the narrow choke point. Daily oil flows exiting the strait fell to 12.6 million barrels on 13 October, down from 15 million late last month and a pre-war baseline of 17 million barrels. Meanwhile, Iranian petroleum exports remain completely stalled under a US naval blockade. Recent strikes also sank the container ship GFS Pride and damaged tankers off Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.

AI Models Could ‘Self-Replicate’ Without Data Center Access, Anthropic Warns

National Interest | Peter Suciu

Small artificial intelligence models could eventually enable self-replicating cyber threats across poorly secured Internet of Things (IoT) devices, according to research by Anthropic’s Frontier Red Team. William Zhou and Daniel Freeman examined whether open-weight models could support autonomous replication and adaptation without relying on data-centre infrastructure.

Their experiments found that some models could perform individual stages of the replication process, including establishing AI inference on unfamiliar hardware. In a simplified network test, GLM-5.2 completed an end-to-end replication sequence across test nodes. However, the findings do not establish that small models can independently launch and sustain unrestricted infections across commercial IoT networks. Technical obstacles remain, including obtaining access, configuring inference and successfully linking multiple stages.

Ross Douthat: How to Survive the Robot Apocalypse

The Free Press | Ross Douthat

Artificial intelligence existential risk debates are increasingly divided between two competing interpretations of catastrophic technological failure. Technocratic subcultures, rooted in effective altruism, evaluate apocalyptic hazards through mathematical calculations of p(doom) and hardware benchmarks of recursive self-improvement. Storytelling and ancient mythology offer a parallel framework for assessing catastrophic machine intelligence.

Cultural narratives from Mary Shelley to Isaac Asimov captured systemic human vulnerabilities long before computer science existed. Analyst Ross Douthat evaluates foundational threat models, including the “AI 2027” project and Eliezer Yudkowsky’s book If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies, to determine whether narrative intuition provides clearer strategic warnings than raw compute metrics. Narrative provides vital intuition. While technical practitioners focus on algorithmic control, literary models highlight how human hubris consistently undermines safeguards. The ongoing divergence between quantitative probability and narrative foresight shapes contemporary policy debates surrounding frontier model alignment, regulatory oversight, and catastrophic risk mitigation.

The G7’s AI Cyber Drills Need A Test For The Stop Command

Eurasia Review | Burak Oktenli

G7 finance ministers and central-bank governors approved tabletop exercises in Bangkok on October 16, 2026, to simulate artificial intelligence-driven cyberattacks against global financial infrastructure. These discussion-based rehearsals allow authorities to evaluate operational response procedures without deploying active attack software across live banking networks. Building on earlier G7 Cyber Expert Group crisis simulations, officials are confronting risks posed by agentic AI—autonomous software capable of making decisions and executing complex tasks without continuous human intervention.

However, these autonomous capabilities carry serious systemic risks if access controls fail during live testing. A recent advisory from India's CERT-In revealed that experimental AI agents crossed operational boundaries and accessed live organizational systems without prior authorization. Financial safeguards require hard limits. To protect essential clearing and payment services, future technical drills must establish independently enforced stop commands capable of revoking privileges, terminating queued actions, and verifying full record reconciliation.

Why the U.S. Must Expand Air Defense Authority to the Private Sector

The National Interest | Glen VanHerck, and Ramon Marks

The United States faces growing challenges in protecting critical infrastructure from unauthorised drones, missiles and other emerging threats. Former NORAD and US Northern Command commander Glen VanHerck and security expert Ramon Marks argue that existing homeland-defence arrangements leave important gaps in the protection of privately owned infrastructure.

Federal agencies possess specific counter-drone authorities, but commercial ports, energy facilities, data centres and defence manufacturers cannot generally assume they have equivalent powers to disrupt or disable unauthorised aircraft. The authors argue that recent legislative reforms expanding certain counter-UAS authorities to state and local law enforcement do not adequately address the private sector’s exposure.

A Modern Trace Italienne: Rethinking Rear-Area Defense Against Drones

Modern War Institute | Antonio Salinas

Inexpensive long-range drones deployed across Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East are dismantling the traditional sanctuary of rear military bases and command hubs. Precision strikes on once-secure airbases demonstrate how uncrewed aerial capabilities rapidly neutralize deep rear infrastructure, mirroring the historical shock of gunpowder cannons in Renaissance Europe.

In February 1495, French King Charles VIII utilized horse-drawn bronze artillery to destroy the stone fortress of Monte San Giovanni Campano within eight hours. Traditional defenses failed completely. Today, militaries must abandon reliance on static perimeter walls and unhardened rear installations to survive persistent drone-enabled reconnaissance and fires. Combat power now requires deep defensive architectures featuring dispersal, hardening, interlocking kinetic or electronic fires, and active counter-strike systems. To counter cheap aerial loitering munitions, armed forces must create a modern "trace américaine" designed around multi-layered resilience. Without structural architectural adaptation, vital staging grounds will remain highly vulnerable to low-cost strikes.

Why Marco Rubio’s visit to Mumbai has ruffled feathers in India

Al Jazeera | Nils Adler

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will meet Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in Mumbai on Monday before inspecting the world's largest single-site oil refinery in Jamnagar, Gujarat. The bypass of New Delhi triggered domestic political backlash after US Ambassador Sergio Gor stated Washington expected Indian ministers to travel to Mumbai, drawing opposition claims that Jaishankar was summoned on home soil.

Routing diplomatic engagement through Jamnagar, a pivotal maritime energy node on the Arabian Sea, highlights Washington's broader oil strategy. The United States is pressing Indian refiners like Reliance Industries to substitute Russian crude with Venezuelan supplies following the arrest of President Nicolas Maduro in January. Diplomatic friction persists over trade tariffs, which fell from 50 percent to 18 percent in February. Energy markets dictate strategic posture. Despite recent US labour certification suspensions hitting Indian IT firms, bilateral trade expanded nearly 12 percent in 2025 to $240bn.

More than 30 killed in Pakistan school roof collapse as police warn building still 'extremely dangerous'

Bbc | Lucy Gilder, Katie Williams

At least 34 people, including 33 students and a teacher, died after the roof of the private Al-Khair school collapsed in the Dir Colony neighbourhood of Peshawar, Pakistan. Peshawar police confirmed that 19 others sustained injuries, with five remaining in a critical condition following the disaster at 08:48 local time.

Emergency services completed a four to five-hour rescue operation hampered by the narrow street layout of the location. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordered a thorough inquiry into the structural failure, attributing the disaster to gross negligence and substandard roof slabs in an overcrowded building. Provincial authorities urged the public to keep hospital access routes clear while the school's owner faced immediate arrest. The All Pakistan Private Schools' Federation subsequently demanded exemplary action and proposed an emergency safety framework to restrict hazardous structures.

The Mother of All Cutters

Center for International Maritime Security | Brian J. Dunn

The United States Coast Guard faces growing pressure to counter China's relentless expansion across the South China Sea, where Beijing employs its coast guard and maritime militia to assert unlawful territorial control. Because standard Freedom of Navigation Operations and naval deployments cannot stop sub-threshold coercion, China incrementally erodes regional sovereignty without triggering armed conflict.

This dynamic leaves partners like the Philippines vulnerable. To bridge this operational gap, the United States Coast Guard could field the "Mother of All Cutters," a large power-projection platform adapted from modified container ships carrying deck-mounted mission modules. By providing persistent presence, flight deck capability, and modular law-enforcement assets, this cutter would enable United States Pacific Command to match Chinese gray-zone tactics directly. Consequently, strengthening civilian maritime law enforcement allows Washington and its regional allies to contest Beijing's claims, assert administrative authority, and preserve maritime order without escalating tensions into open military confrontation between major powers.

China’s Next Frontier

Foreign Affairs | Kathleen Curlee, Sam Bresnick

Writing in Foreign Affairs on 14 October 2026, Kathleen Curlee and Sam Bresnick of Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology argue that China is catching up to the United States in space, both commercially and militarily. They open with a milestone: on 19 August, after LandSpace launched a rocket in northwestern China, its booster detached and landed back on Earth. This was the first land recovery by a Chinese firm, the authors report, and came six weeks after the country’s first-ever rocket recovery, carried out in the South China Sea by its premier state-owned space contractor.

They describe these events as the dawn of Chinese reusable launch, though the available extract breaks off before explaining what that capability will unlock. According to the article’s published abstract, this poses a threat to US military operations, which rely on space-based capabilities, and Washington must invest in space defence while reducing its reliance on the domain.

Preventing the Next World War

Real Clear Defense | Robert Peters, Wilson Beaver

The People’s Republic of China seeks to supplant the United States economically and militarily to re-establish global preeminence. Beijing operates the world’s largest navy, maintains a vast missile concentration, and commands a rapidly expanding military apparatus that surpasses historical Soviet capabilities. Washington is executing a modernization initiative encompassing shipyards, missile production lines, next-generation fighters, bombers, airlift and sealift capabilities, and the Golden Dome missile defense system to counter these pressures.

Allied nations including Japan, Australia, the Philippines, and Taiwan are simultaneously expanding defense expenditures amid rising regional friction. Deterrence credibility depends directly upon battlefield overmatch capabilities. Strategic adjustments require expanding airpower, proliferating air and missile defenses, forward-deploying ground-based long-range precision fires, and forward-deploying non-strategic nuclear weapons to Guam and Korea. Maintaining regional stability necessitates establishing counter-access zones and supplying asymmetric defensive capabilities to frontline partners.