It has been a very hectic week of publishing articles for me.
I did not intend it this way. It just worked out that a range of different articles that I had been working on for some time all went live, through different outlets, over the course of five days.
I would note that this was an unusual occurrence. I don’t normally publish so much in a single week. Please, don’t expect it every week!
It started on Monday morning with my latest article published at Foreign Affairs.
Earlier this week my new article in Foreign Affairs went live. It explored the adaptation battle in the Ukraine War, and the difference between tactical adaptation (military learning and changing to win battles) and strategic adaptation (national learning and adapting to win wars).
It also explored how Russia is slowly but surely getting better at strategic adaptation, and it may well have an advantage over Ukraine in this regard at present.
You can read that article here.
Also earlier this week, the Special Competitive Studies Project in Washington DC published a report on uncrewed systems that I co-authored with retired USAF Lieutenant General Clint Hinote. A key finding of our report is that uncrewed systems alone are not what is currently transforming the character of warfare. Instead, the shape of modern war and conflict in the future is being transformed by the interaction and orchestration of three distinct yet connected systems. We described this in the paper as follows:
It is only when drones are combined with the democratization of digitized command and control systems and new-era meshed networks of civilian and military sensors that transformational change will occur. These three elements comprise a transformative trinity explored later in this paper, and it is only within this construct that drones will fully realize their potential for defense and other national security applications.
You can read the full report here.
Additionally, you can read the article in War on the Rocks on this topic written by Clint Hinote and I that was published Friday here.
Late in the week, I had three other articles published. The first was the War on the Rocks pieces, which is linked above. It was co-authored with Clint Hinote, and examines the key aspects of our report on uncrewed systems.
The next article published at the end of the week was a piece at Engelsberg Ideas. This is a wonderful blog which explores an array of contemporary national security issues, and I have published here several times before about the war in Ukraine, and the future of war more broadly. My article for Engelsberg Ideas this week was an analysis of the dismissal of General Zaluzhnyi by Ukrainian President Zelenskyy. It is a short piece, around 1200 words, and examines the key reasons why Zelenskyy may have felt he needed a new commander-in-chief for the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
You can read that article here.
I also published a piece with the Modern War Institute at Westpoint. This is a terrific institution which fosters the exploration and understanding of how war is evolving in the modern world, particularly from the perspective of land operations. I was an adjunct scholar at Modern War Institute a few years ago, and published a variety of pieces with them over several years. These included explorations of modern warfare as well as an annual reading list.
My piece with Modern War Institute at the end of last week was an examination of the Big Five operational problems which need to be solved in Ukraine this year. I have looked at this issue before, here at Futura Doctrina, but wanted to get into it in a little more detail. As such, the article examines the Big Five problems as well as lessons from other military institutional reform programs which might inform how Ukraine and its partners might address these Big Five challenges in 2024.
Your can read that article here.
Of course, I keep publishing original pieces here too. My most recent was an exploration of the implications of the dismissal of General Zaluzhnyi this week. You can read that article here.
Thank you for continuing to read my work, provide comments and support me through your subscriptions. I remain committed to providing useful insights into contemporary and future warfare and strategic competition.