Back in Singapore.

Look, Zoom or Teams would be just fine for this www.defenseone.com/threats/2026...

"Within weeks of the United States launching its bombing campaign, SpaceX executives ​met Pentagon officials and argued the military had been paying about $5,000 for connection per terminal while effectively using a higher tier of service worth closer to $25,000" www.reuters.com/business/aer...

Spherical Earth continues to cause problems.

My @fpri.bsky.social @slair.bsky.social analyzed Dark Eagle's performance and how even a deployment in the CENTCOM AOR can hold Moscow at risk, giving the US flexibility the INF never allowed for: behindthefront.substack.com/p/dark-eagle...

New from me: a short preview for @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social of a broader rethink of US homeland missile defense policy that I expect to publish on in longer form later this year: think Golden Zones, not a Golden Dome www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-res...

"Foreign Minister Vivian Balakrishnan is visiting North Korea from Tuesday as part of a five-day trip from May 24 to May 28, according to Singapore’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs." www.theedgesingapore.com/news/news/si...

"Chinese Defence Minister Dong Jun is set to skip the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore for the second year in a row, according to two sources familiar with the matter." www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/shangri...

Also my takeaway: "Far from being chastened by the scale of the fighting, military planners in India and Pakistan have instead spent the last year drawing lessons about how to inflict greater damage on each other in future conflicts" www.foreignaffairs.com/india/why-ne...

"Too often, the debate slips into a zero-sum competition for American troops, presence, and political attention: We are the better allies, move the forces from them to us." warontherocks.com/europes-dang...

I think a papal encyclical on AI marks the official start of our cyberpunk age.

For anyone aspiring to a career in national security after this. Look on the bright side You never have to worry about having imposter syndrome.

Oh, no, the consequences of our own actions: US warns Japan of severe delays in Tomahawk deliveries due to Iran war www.ft.com/content/406b...

Another one of those unbelievably cruel and pointless things most people won't understand because they have no contact with our country's immigration system.

Europe’s secret Plan B to replace NATO www.economist.com/europe/2026/...

I feel bad for our country, but this is tremendous content.

This is a great piece from Ankit. Many similarities to the Nixon admin's stated justifications for shifting to Safeguard: point defense is more stabilizing than area defense, easier targets to defend, etc. One thing worth more investigation is whether this generates bargaining leverage, a la SALT

Want this type of urbanism back home (or, under the bridge downtown, I got some gains).

A group of classified Russian satellites, launched on April 17, perform propellant-hungry inclination-change maneuvers, which put them in proximity of a commercial bird known to provide all-weather, day-and-night imagery to Ukraine. Context: www.russianspaceweb.com/spacecraft-m...

StupidSuez, meet StupidCubanMissileCrisis

Useful analysis of the recent Belarusian non-strategic nuclear weapons exercise by @russianforces.org, including details on transporting Russian nonstrategic warheads from their storage sites, arming Iskander ballistic missiles, and transferring them to Belarusian control for launch.

Not looking forward to having to explain the consequences of this here in Seoul...

”The United States launched more than 200 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, interceptors in defense of Israel” www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Yes sure. Why not expend our most limited ABM capabilities in defense of a country that has their own ABM systems in a pointless war that achieved nothing?

TAQUITO Trump always questions US Indo-Pacific treaty obligations (Feel like this one has been staring us in the face)

New from me: a short preview for @atlanticcouncil.bsky.social of a broader rethink of US homeland missile defense policy that I expect to publish on in longer form later this year: think Golden Zones, not a Golden Dome www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-res...

Unfortunate, but unavoidable with AUKUS: "Australia will move ahead with plans to extend the lives of its Collins-class diesel electric submarines as an interim solution as it plans to transition to nuclear-powered submarines under the AUKUS pact." breakingdefense.com/2026/05/aust...

Good story here—but I wonder how much of this meaningfully disentangles into nuclear-specific community dynamics versus a more generic sort of NIMBYism. (I think there’s evidence here of both!)

This is ... funny.

Book authors need to ensure their contracts are specific on how AI may or may not be used in editing. Within the last week, I’ve heard multiple stories on 300+ page manuscripts being returned within <3 days with edits completed—obviously only possible with AI use.

People really need to remember they get just one reputation.

Xi Jinping told Donald Trump that Putin might ‘regret’ invasion of Ukraine giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

A provocative and useful post by Decker here. I had him on my podcast to discuss in depth. Should be out soon for @warontherocks.bsky.social.

Off to Seoul again.

Defence groups clamour to delay US ban on Chinese rare earth magnets giftarticle.ft.com/giftarticle/...

Looking forward to this tomorrow.

"In country after country the birth rate plunged after the introduction of smartphones, no matter what the previous trend was. The younger the age group, the more pronounced the downturn" www.ft.com/content/fba3...

"Graham Allison came to me with tears in his eyes and said, sir, no one has ever understood my work the way that you have"

wow — the preprint host, arxiv, is banning authors for a year if they submit papers with hallucinated citations 🤖

DoJ set to drop fraud charges against a billionaire from India after the defendant hired one of President Trump’s lawyers and offered to invest $10 billion in the US economy. www.nytimes.com/2026/05/14/n...

📖📖Commissioned Book Review: @nktpnd.bsky.social The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon📖📖 By Kalviri Bahram ✨✨The book’s analytical clarity and historical range make it essential reading...✨✨ Full review: journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.... @polstudiesassoc.bsky.social

Pakistan allowed Iran to park military aircraft on its airfields despite mediator role in conflict with U.S. www.cbsnews.com/news/pakista...

Putin's statement on the latest Sarmat test mentions a "suborbital" trajectory (all ballistic trajectories are suborbital). Plausible he means fractional orbit en.kremlin.ru/events/presi...

"The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors" www.nytimes.com/2026/05/12/u...

BBGN is truly a cursed hull classification.

@zackcooper.bsky.social has more patience than I do.

CBO estimate on Golden Dome: "A national missile defense system possessing capabilities broadly consistent with those outlined in the executive order would cost about $1.2 trillion to develop, deploy, and operate for 20 years" www.cbo.gov/publication/...

"This first-hand account by then-US Under Secretary of Defence for Policy, Colin Kahl, recalls how he helped manage the Fall 2022 Crisis with Russia." www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

"According to Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun on Tuesday, NATO recently asked South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand to join the Starlift project." en.sedaily.com/internationa...