Myanmar’s New Administration: Military Consolidation, Not Transition

International Crisis Group

Myanmar military leader Min Aung Hlaing assumed the presidency on April 11, 2026, following stage-managed elections designed to consolidate junta rule under a nominally civilian façade. This scripted transition secured a decisive parliamentary majority for the military-backed Union Solidarity and Development Party, effectively excluding major opposition forces and disenfranchising large portions of the conflict-torn population.

Chinese Perceptions of Stealth: Shaping Defense Against U.S. Capabilities and Indigenous Developments

China Aerospace Studies Institute

Chinese military planners have spent four decades analyzing United States stealth platforms, including the F-117, B-2, F-22, and F-35, to systematically counter American aerial dominance and develop indigenous low-observable capabilities. This sustained observation of Western combat applications directly shapes Beijing's current air defense doctrines, radar technologies, and aerospace manufacturing priorities.

China and Rare Earth Supply Chains

RUSI  |  Henry Sanderson

China's rare earth export controls are actively reshaping global defense and security industries by restricting access to critical elements while sustaining its domestic manufacturing advantages. This strategic dominance directly threatens the defense industrial bases of the United Kingdom and its allies, exposing severe structural vulnerabilities in Western military supply chains.

China’s mobile electromagnetic catapult could transform drone warfare. All about the system

ThePrint  |  Kyra Menon, Bhuvan Gaur

A Chinese truck-mounted electromagnetic aircraft launch system catapult was demonstrated in a newly released social media video launching a fixed-wing drone, signaling a major advancement in runway-independent unmanned warfare. This modular configuration of linked all-wheel-steering trucks allows military forces to rapidly deploy and launch surveillance drones from remote, highly contested terrains.

China turns Russia’s drone war into a warning for U.S.

The Washington Times  |  David Harris

China is leveraging its massive industrial capacity to supply critical components to Russia, enabling Moscow to scale up the production of fiber-optic drones and overwhelm Ukrainian defenses. This rapid industrial mobilization demonstrates that manufacturing endurance can ultimately surpass battlefield innovation, systematically shifting the material balance of the Eastern European conflict.

PLA Aerospace Power: A Primer on Trends in China’s Military Air, Space, and Missile Forces

China Aerospace Studies Institute

China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has undergone extensive organizational restructuring and strategic modernization, as detailed in the China Aerospace Studies Institute’s fifth edition of the PLA Primer. This updated reference guide analyzes the Central Military Commission’s absolute authority, the operational mandates of the five joint theater commands, and the capabilities of individual service branches.

How Innovative Is China’s Space Industry?

Information Technology and Innovation Foundation | Ellis Scherer

China is rapidly expanding its space capabilities through state-directed investments and military-civil fusion to challenge United States dominance in the global space economy by 2030. This aggressive expansion leverages a vertically integrated manufacturing base of over 500 private companies to scale up satellite and rocket production, threatening America's long-standing technological leadership.

PRC’s devious ‘cognitive warfare’: Promote China rule while undermining Taiwan

The Washington Times  |  Piero A. Tozzi

The People’s Republic of China is actively waging cognitive warfare against Taiwan to achieve whole-of-society mind superiority and force annexation without triggering a high-risk maritime invasion. This psychological offensive systematically targets the island's population to erode domestic morale, exploit social divisions, and kindle deep skepticism regarding United States security commitments.

Lebanon: Fantasy And Reality

Eurasia Review  |  Neville Teller

A historic three-way agreement signed on June 26, 2026, by the United States, Israel, and Lebanon establishes a conditional ceasefire aimed at degrading Hezbollah and restoring Lebanese state sovereignty. Under this landmark accord, Israeli forces will withdraw from two southern sectors, allowing the Lebanese Armed Forces to establish exclusive security control.

The Architecture of Mourning: Inside the Six Days Iran Buries Ali Khamenei

Frame The Globe News 

Iran is burying its second supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, during a highly structured six-day mourning procession designed to navigate the deep national grief of a country attempting to bury its leader twice. This elaborate state funeral follows a devastating pre-dawn strike in February that disrupted the initial proceedings and left almost nothing of the original ceremony.

On the Strait of Hormuz, BBC finds seized ships and shark fishermen as uneasy calm returns

BBC  |  Nawal Al-Maghafi, Jasmin Dyer

The Strait of Hormuz remains highly volatile as Iran maintains a partial blockade and holds seized commercial vessels despite a fragile ceasefire with the United States. Following intense US-Israeli airstrikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and IRGC Navy commander Alireza Tangsiri, a tense calm has returned to the strategic waterway.

‘We Are Going to Regret How Irrelevant We Will Have Become,’ US General Says

Kyiv Post  |  Stepan Stepanenko

Retired US Army General Ben Hodges warned that Western political timidity and an excessive fear of Russian nuclear escalation are preventing a decisive Ukrainian victory. This hesitation, driven by transactional political calculations rather than shared strategic interests, risks rendering future American leadership globally irrelevant while severely undermining international democratic stability.

Washington Needs a Pressure Doctrine

Real Clear Defense  |  Mark Pfeifle

Iran’s drone attack on Al Udeid Air Base and disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz have exposed critical vulnerabilities in United States strategic planning, demonstrating how adversary counter-pressure moves rapidly through global markets to break systems far from the battlefield. This escalating crisis caused shipping insurance premiums to surge twelvefold, trapping 20,000 seafarers aboard 2,000 vessels.

Europe Finally Fears the Algorithm of War

E-International Relations  |  Muhammad Saad

The United States and Israel launched a joint military campaign against Iran on February 28, 2026, utilizing Palantir's Maven Smart System to strike over 13,000 targets. This unprecedented algorithmic offensive resulted in severe civilian casualties, including 165 deaths at a former military facility in Minab, exposing the lethal risks of machine-speed targeting.

Russian Blood and Treasure: The Ballooning Costs of Putin’s War

Center for Strategic and International Studies  |  Seth G. Jones, Riley McCabe

Russia has lost the military initiative in Ukraine as the immense human and financial costs of President Vladimir Putin's ongoing invasion continue to balloon. The Russian military has already suffered 1.4 million personnel losses, severely degrading its operational capabilities and stalling its offensive momentum across the entire theater of war.

Far From Kyiv and Moscow, Soldiers Stalk Ruins and Evade Drones on the Front

The New York Times  |  Carlotta Gall, Stanislav Kozliuk

Ukrainian forces are defending the eastern Donetsk city of Kostiantynivka against infiltrating Russian troops, denying a Kremlin claim that Moscow has captured the strategic gateway. The ongoing battle for this industrial hub represents a critical flashpoint as both nations escalate missile and drone strikes on major urban centers and frontlines.

Ukraine's war drone pilots must first survive the 'Killhouse'

Business Insider  |  Jake Epstein

Ukraine's elite 3rd Army Corps is preparing drone operators for high-stakes electronic warfare and tactical piloting at its specialized Killhouse Academy. This intensive training pipeline equips soldiers and foreign volunteers with the precise manual control skills required to navigate first-person-view quadcopters through intense Russian jamming and physical obstacles.

The Russian Threat: Now or Later?

Comment is Freed  |  Lawrence Freedman

The United Kingdom’s newly published Defence Investment Plan (DIP) has sparked intense political debate following months of disputes between the Ministry of Defence and the Treasury, culminating in high-profile ministerial resignations. This funding roadmap faces immediate criticism for providing insufficient resources to meet the nation's ambitious military commitments.

Why 2026 Is Ushering In A New ‘Civilizational’ World Order

Eurasia Review  |  Jose Mario Bautista Maximiano

The year 2026 marks the visible emergence of a new civilizational world order as the foundational assumptions of post-Cold War American primacy rapidly weaken. Power is dispersing to regional actors like India, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, and Brazil, while China expands its strategic influence and the war in Ukraine remains unresolved.

Will We Know if AI Takes Over? Q&A with Benjamin Boudreaux

RAND Corporation

RAND Corporation researchers Benjamin Boudreaux and Alvin Moon developed a mathematical model based on social choice theory to track how artificial intelligence could erode human agency over time. This gradual loss of control threatens collective decisionmaking through disenfranchisement, AI enfranchisement, and invisible agenda control. As automated systems increasingly shape the options presented to human decisionmakers, society risks crossing a critical threshold where independent human authority is quietly superseded.

From Project Maven to Operation Sindoor: AI's new role in war

Frontline | Saikiran Kannan

The United States military integrated advanced artificial intelligence systems into its operational stack during the recent US-Iran war to accelerate targeting cycles, map adversary command networks, and coordinate kinetic strikes. This deployment represents a critical shift from platform-centric to network-centric warfare, where software layers fuse multi-domain sensor data to shape command decisions.

Modern war and the systemic learning deficit in Western military institutions

Lowy Institute  |  Mick Ryan

Western military forces are failing to integrate critical battlefield lessons from Ukraine and Iran, creating a dangerous strategic vulnerability against rapidly adapting adversaries. This systemic learning deficit persists despite unprecedented visibility into modern drone warfare and autonomous systems, leaving democratic forces structurally unprepared for future high-intensity conflicts. Historically, rigid organizational schemas and risk-averse bureaucracies have prioritized the exploitation of existing competencies over the exploration of novel tactical solutions.

The Blue Helmet’s New Battlefield: Drones, Proxies, and Weak Intelligence

Small Wars Journal | Atif Choudhury, Drake Long, Nazmus Sakib

A deadly December 2025 drone strike on a United Nations facility in Kadugli, Sudan, killed six Bangladeshi peacekeepers, exposing the vulnerability of traditional peacekeeping force-protection assumptions to modern asymmetric threats. This attack highlights how the proliferation of inexpensive unmanned aerial vehicles and proxy forces has outpaced the capabilities of under-resourced global missions.

MOE as a Chimera: The Structural Limits of Army Campaign Assessment

Small Wars Journal | Jeremy S. Mushtare

The United States Army currently campaigns in strategic competition without the necessary analytical frameworks to measure operational effectiveness, leaving commanders unable to prove that their activities produce intended outcomes. This institutional deficiency forces Theater Army and Corps staffs to rely on subjective intuition, commercial vendor tools, and ad hoc judgments during high-stakes regional exercises.

Function Before Structure: Why Do Brigades Exist?

Modern War Institute  |  Michael Carvelli

The United States Army currently fields armored, Stryker, and mobile brigade combat teams without doctrinally defining their distinct operational purposes, risking severe tactical failures in close combat. This structural ambiguity forces force development, training, and equipment acquisition to rely on arbitrary design assumptions rather than defined operational necessity in combat.

The Middle East Has a New Saudi-Led Axis

Foreign Policy  |  Anchal Vohra

The Iran war has catalyzed the formation of a new Saudi-led bloc in the Middle East, comprising Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey, notably excluding the United Arab Emirates. This grouping emerged as some member states became "clear winners" or developed "new resilience," despite the conflict inflicting substantial pain on Persian Gulf states through declining exports and a diminished sense of safety.

BIMSTEC, Northeast India, and an Overlooked Pillar of the Act East Policy

The Diplomat  |  Shubham Kashyap Kalita

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced a 21-point action plan at the 6th BIMSTEC Summit in Bangkok on April 4, 2025. Two less-noticed memoranda of understanding (MoUs) were signed: one between India’s Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (MDoNER) and Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and another between India’s North Eastern Handicrafts Development Corporation (NEHDC) and Thailand’s Creative Economy Agency (CCAT).

Troubled Straits: Analyzing Trade Chokepoints in the South China Sea

CSIS | Brian Hart, Matthew P. Funaiole, David Peng, Jasper Verschuur, Bonny Lin, and Leon Li

The South China Sea is the world’s most consequential maritime corridor, handling trillions of dollars in goods annually, with geopolitical tensions threatening global commerce. New CSIS analysis provides granular insight into trade flows through eight chokepoints, challenging existing notions of their importance. In 2024, nearly $6.4 trillion worth of goods transited these straits, with the Malacca and Taiwan Straits each moving over $2.4 trillion, representing 21 percent of global maritime trade.

Myanmar to Push Ahead With Suspended Myitsone Dam Project, Officials Say

The Diplomat  |  Sebastian Strangio

Myanmar's new military-backed government plans to revive the controversial China-backed Myitsone dam project, expecting completion within roughly eight years. This $3.6 billion project, located in Kachin State at the confluence of the Mali and N’Mai rivers, was suspended in 2011 due to widespread public opposition. Concerns centered on significant environmental and social impacts, alongside reports that 90 percent of the generated electricity would be exported to China.

While America Drained Its Oil Reserve Fighting Iran, China Quietly Sat on 1.4 Billion Barrels — and Won the War Without Firing a Shot

National Security Journal  |  Brandon Weichert

The Iran War's outcome saw China emerge as a principal strategic beneficiary, despite being the world's largest energy importer. Beijing utilized its vast Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), which held 1.4 billion barrels of oil in December 2025, to comfortably withdraw from global oil markets for two months as prices spiked.

China’s EUV Lithography Progress: Parsing Signal From Noise

The Diplomat | Noah Tan

Reuters reported in December 2025 that researchers in Shenzhen secretly built a prototype for an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography machine, a critical piece of equipment for producing advanced semiconductors. This development sparked debate on when China can overcome this last obstacle to manufacturing its own advanced chips.

Charting the course: developments in China’s PLAN aviation

IISS  |  Olivia Parker, Dzaky Naradichiantama

China has significantly advanced its carrier aviation capabilities under President Xi Jinping, commissioning the Liaoning and two additional carriers, with more planned, including a nuclear-powered Type-004 by 2035. This development, a prestigious part of China's military modernization, involves prioritizing carrier aviation through unit transfers and expanding carrier air wings with advanced aircraft like low-observable combat aircraft and ASW helicopters.

What to Know About Chinese AI Models

Center for Strategic and International Studies  |  Yasir Atalan

Chinese open-weight AI models, including Qwen, DeepSeek, GLM, and Kimi, are rapidly expanding global market share, surpassing U.S. models in downloads on platforms like Hugging Face. This rapid diffusion threatens American technological leadership by establishing de facto technical dependence on Chinese model families across Europe, Southeast Asia, and Latin America.

What Hormuz and Chinese Sources Reveal About Beijing’s Energy Strategy

The Diplomat  |  Joseph Dellatte

China's energy system, despite being the world's largest in electricity production, renewable technologies, and EV markets, exhibits a critical paradox: increased vulnerability to external energy shocks. Over 70 percent of its oil consumption, significant natural gas supplies, and expanding nuclear sector uranium depend on foreign imports. The Hormuz crisis starkly exposed this reliance on external energy resources and supply chains beyond Beijing's control.

China Is Practicing ‘Sinking’ US Carriers—but Doesn’t Like Japan Doing the Same

The National Interest | Peter Suciu

China has constructed an elaborate test range in Xinjiang, featuring a full-size 3D mockup of a US Navy Arleigh Burke-class guided missile destroyer, for anti-ship practice. This development comes despite Beijing's public outrage over Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) drills simulating an attack on China's Type 001 CNS Liaoning aircraft carrier.