#OTD in 1992, USS Missouri was decommissioned. Because Missouri was the site of Japan's formal surrender in 1945, she was moved to Pearl Harbor near the wreck of USS Arizona where the two battleships now symbolize the beginning and end of America's involvement in WWII.

Right, like when one country in the alliance threatens to invade another country in the alliance.

Bucha has come to symbolise the cruelty of Russia’s war. Of the civilians killed, many were shot at close range. Some with their hands tied behind their backs. Four years after these mass killings, we remember the victims. What happened here cannot be denied. (1/2)

I hope all those people who said the US had done no planning for war in Iran will now apologise. www.ft.com/content/744e...

If this is where the US ends up, the Trump administration is waving the white flag. Nothing about Iranian nukes, nothing about keeping the Strait open and free, nothing about regime change. A strategic waste and failure of historic proportions.

Civil Servants are obliged by the Public Records Act to keep proper records. But what happens when you cut the budget and let expertise go? Managing explicit knowledge in archives is one thing. But what about tacit knowledge? How does this shape statecraft?

I don't do any of these, I'd do a distant blockade (old naval theory meaning stop the ships I want to where I want to). I can control the Strait from way out in the Arabian Sea because I have a navy and I already sank theirs.

Now, let’s consider how Iran fits this framework. (Spoiler: It doesn’t) First, Iran did not attack NATO territory. Israel and the US attacked Iran, first in June 2025 and then again on February 28. There was no armed attack against NATO, nor an imminent threat against NATO. 10/

Ukraine was invaded by Russia. The US was not invaded by Iran. I hope this helps

Trump is back to threatening to abandon NATO rather than threatening to invade another NATO member. That's progress of a sort, I suppose.

Looking forward to talking about my current project on seapower & the FWW at @kcllnucsc.bsky.social on 28 May. Link here: www.kcl.ac.uk/events/the-w...

New review of Making Makers, this time in the Journal of Strategic Studies, and from the estimable pen of Greg Kennedy. It's a fascinating read and worth your time - read it at the link: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/QT4BR...

Writers! Have you joined @alcs.co.uk yet? This wonderful organisation collects copyright payments on your behalf and distributes it twice a year. It's like free money. I've just received a welcome payout of £220, for which I did very little except register my book titles - thank you - just do it!

On trade the Trump administration is failing to either change the global order or bring back manufacturing to the US. As a defence power it is currently losing a war with Iran and wants to concede some of Ukraine to Russia. Truly a symbolic passing of US hegemony.

“.. They have to treat the President like a child,” wrote Rep. Seth Magaziner. “So embarrassing for everyone involved.” @mediaite.com www.mediaite.com/media/news/m...

We (and various pseudo academics*) genuinely pretend there's no way to explain why NATO is so obviously popular with so many of our former colonies. Total, unexplainable mystery. Especially seeing as we don't whitewash these crimes at all and aren't repeating them right now.

Today’s ep is ‘Discussing ‘In Haig’s Shadow: Brig-Gen Hugo De Pree and the First World War’ with @profgsheffield.bsky.social A great insight into the consummate professional staff officer and commander of the First World War, now mostly forgotten Listen wherever you get your pods

UPDATE: History has not, in fact, been lying to you. www.marcmorris.org.uk/2026/03/king...

This week over 100,000 ALCS members will receive their share of £34m. Let's celebrate the value of human creativity, something that isn't going anywhere 💡📖🌳

He hasn’t ’uncovered’ anything of the kind. He’s made an argument based, on the whole, on one very debatable interpretation of *one word* in one document. He might be right; he might equally be wrong. But there’s absolutely nothing earth-shattering about this.

If you're replying to a post about torched ambulances in London with a point about Israel, you've crossed the line into antisemitism. And you're doing absolutely nothing to help any cause. Even if you consider yourself one of the good people. Maybe especially so. You've just caught racism.

The Air War College asked Kori Schake not to give a scheduled lecture on civil-military relations—a subject that she writes is “extremely relevant” in the current political climate. Here’s what she would have said:

So what? What’s the strategy? What is the political end to which military force is employed? What are you trying to achieve?

We’ve tried to make academic research entirely frictionless for our students — online reading lists with hyperlinks, individual book chapters scanned online, journal articles that never require learning what a journal is, online primary sources curated for them — and it’s just made them helpless.

Aid to Ukraine from 2022-2026 was a rounding error. We used more in the first two weeks of the Iran war than we provided in the 4 years of aid to Ukraine.

Watching Trump teeter on the edge of blowing up the world economy because of a combination of hubris, strategic incoherence, mendacity and outright stupidity, might be the most extraordinarily depressing thing I have observed in my entire life, or read about in any other period.

Wyden to Gabbard: "Last year, your agencies testified 'Iran's large conventional forces are capable of inflicting substantial damage to an attacker, executing regional strikes & disrupting shipping, particularly through Hormuz.' In other words, every problem were seeing now was predicted"

It's weird, the argument in history is the at the other end. "Just let the AI figure out the question and do the research, then you have all the free time to write, write, write." But the flaw of the theory is the same - these two activities are inextricably linked.

Trump does not think strategically, historically, geographically, or even rationally. He does not connect actions he takes on one day to events that occur weeks later. Allied leaders know that if they help him in the Gulf, he won't be grateful, or even remember www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Lots has been made about the impact of the Iran war on the Indo-Pacific in terms of the use of munitions, and the shifting of kit such as THAAD and the MEU. This clearly matters, but what should be worrying policy makers in Canberra, Seoul & Tokyo is the quality of US decision making. 1/3

Yes because focusing heavily on a tactical/operational/staff-focused education really helped the Prussians!

"I’m very worried about what is being destroyed. We’re all extremely worried, because what we’re seeing is the ad hoc closure and drastic cutting of many, many departments across the country." Historian Lyndal Roper in today's THE: bit.ly/4sqsfJ2 #Skystorians 1/2

I think we are having the wrong conversation about defence spending. Not just wrong - harmful. So I wrote about it and the Spectator have kindly published. spectator.com/article/defe...

Donald wants to be on Russia's side in our war to destroy NATO, but have NATO on his side in the war to destroy Iran. That he says he's already won.

War is not, "behold our tactical accomplishments, now you must make something of them."

This isn't exactly news but it really does seem remarkable how each bad, poorly considered decision the administration takes opens up space for other, worse decisions, like a ripple of foolishness slowly expanding to undermine eight decades of American security policy across the globe.

A short take of the DOD's war against the English language. Warfighter? Warrior? GMAFB. Soldier, sailor, airman, & marine are more than sufficient descriptors & speak to their higher calling, one more so than the self-actualization of making war & bullshit of those terms so beloved by so many.

Economic warfare, even of the most “kinetic” blowing up bits of your opponent’s economy sort, works slowly. It adds cumulative costs to the enemy’s ability to fight. It is not about knock-out blows. Seizing or destroying the facilities at Kharg does not instantly end Iran’s ability to fight.

There's a hauntingly beautiful irony in these morons thinking that carefully crafted American hegemony was actually weak and woke, and they would be the ones who would do Power and Dominance properly, and immediately bringing everything crashing down

I served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Force Education and Training for three years before the office was disestablished last year. I owned the policy on professional military education for all five services. I have listened to Secretary Hegseth's announcement. I have thoughts. 🧵

My guy, the overwhelming majority of college professors I know think AI is utter garbage. We are NOT the ones driving this train.

In all seriousness, sincerely concerned for how Hegseth is going to mess up PME now that his gin-soaked gaze has turned upon it. Imposing political litmus tests on PME instructors - the likely plan - will meaningfully damage the institutions and thus US security in the long term.

I'm willing to bet that, given how the campaign is running - an airpower, stand-off fires event to attempt strategic effect - that SecDef/POTUS were warned Hormuz would be in play, and that defense would be highly difficult to impossible, and those warnings were ignored.

The Russians might want to be careful or Trump might get rid of even more sanctions on them.

Dear Friends Who I Have Been Shitting All Over, Please bail me out of the mess I made. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Trump to the UK, 6 March: "We don't need them any longer... We don't need people to join wars after we've already won!" Trump six days later: Publicly begs for the UK to send warships.

Framing the First World War explores how perceptions shaped military decisions. On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6lqHGPVUv7NS0ykwvb4Xgt Learn more: https://kansaspress.ku.edu/9780700640560/ #WorldWarI #MilitaryHistory #UpKansas @mpmfinch.bsky.social @draefox.bsky.social