Since becoming the largest arms exporter during the Cold War, the United States has used the sale of fighter jets, artillery, tanks, and small arms as a tool to influence the outcome of wars and the global balance of power. For the Cold War, it was done to counter the spread of Soviet influence of communism in conflicted countries. Under the Raegan administration, arms export was a key component to the Iran-Contra Affair and the Soviet-Afghan War. Arguably the tactic was successful for both the Contras in the Nicaraguan civil war and the mujahideen in Afghanistan against the Soviets, but the c ..read more

 The Russian-Indian diplomatic and strategic relationship has been critical to both countries historically and up to the present day. While questions arose as to the degree of support Russia would receive from India after the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, India has, to date, resisted signing on to Western sanctions, while simultaneously growing business ties with Russia. In fact, the Indian Foreign Minister Jaishankar recently called the relationship the “‘steadiest’ in global relations.” In many ways, India has served as a release-valve for Russia as Western sanctions pile on and fo ..read more

 European countries' chronically low defense spending caught the continent off-guard for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Europe needs to shore up its defense industry in order to be better prepared for conflicts like Ukraine and others on the horizon. The European industry is fractured among the constellation of different countries in the EU, none of them superbly-coordinated for general European defense, simply national concerns. This has left the continent over-reliant on U.S. military force for its security, a drag on the U.S.'s desire to pivot to Asia. The strengthening of the Europe's ..read more

 It has transpired that many of the world's large powers are increasing their defense spending the US, China, India, Russia, Japan, South Korea, and certain countries in Europe. This may very well be a common trend, however, it does not disprove the trajectory the world faces. It is well established that US global hegemony is deteriorating from both internal and external factors. Such a decline, albeit slow, may be measured in how other countries increase their own dependence on on self-defense. Defense budgets are an obvious metric to observe (but canno ..read more

 Like everyone else, the defense industry is taking advantage of new artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) powered writing tools to improve efficiency within the defense industry. ChatGPT-4 has proven that it can write at a college level and pull knowledge from all corners of the web. People have been experimenting with how far AI can go by testing it with contract writing. A recently published YouTube video shows ChatGPT writing a government contract proposal, which can significantly improve efficiency for small to medium sized businesses. The Chief Digital and AI Office ..read more

In talking about defense budgets, it is important to address why nations spend so much money on defense.  In addition to explicit goals such as ensuring national security and deterrence by investing in military capabilities to protect citizens and defend sovereignty, other reasons also exist.  For instance, a strong military can enhance a country's geopolitical influence as the power of the military can be used to influence the actions and behaviors of other nations.  Certain economic benefits can also be identified, such as the creation of jobs through both military positions a ..read more

  The war in Ukraine has seen a significant shipment of US military stockpiles, resulting in some shortages of US equipment and munitions. For example, CSIS identified in its report Rebuilding U.S. Inventories: Six Critical Systems that 155-mm ammunition, Javelins, HIMARS, GMLRS, and Stinger have been used to such an extent that at current production rates, it will take years to rebuild stockpiles. Specifically, the replacement rate at current levels is estimated to take anywhere from 2.5 to 18 years, depending on the specific weapon or munition. Not only does this present a national secu ..read more

 Japan, which has a constitution that bans land, sea, and air forces, is planning on doubling its defense budget within five years. The spending increase would bring Japan to the world's third-highest spender behind the U.S. and China. Analysts see the change in defense spending as largely due to Japan's anxieties about Russia growing closer to China. Japanese officials still say they are abiding by their constitution by forswearing preemptive strikes. Japan will also have to pay for this defense spending, a fact which Japanese officials haven't sorted out yet ..read more

 In light of the leak of US and Ukrainian documents, there's been much talk about the contents of the documents, yet, out of curiosity, I had attempted to find images of these original files but a thorough scan of the internet via computer browsers have yielded little to no results and search results are flooded by commentaries, media reports and other miscellaneous results.  My first reaction to this finding (or lack thereof) was disappointment. But a bigger question emerged from this and that is: despite these documents already being leaked, there appears to be much toil to scrub t ..read more

 The Air Force crushed the other services in the U.S. military's first-ever service-wide video game tournament in Halo Infinite last summer. Perhaps their dominance was due to 86% of airmen between 18 and 34 identify as gamers, maybe their win was because they were more comfortable sitting at desks for extended periods of time than the other branches. While this competition may not be novel (interservice sport competition has a long history), it highlights the fact that the different services are seen as separate entities, between which inherent competition arises.  Sometimes this co ..read more