https://nationalinterest.org/feature/reading-fiction-leads-good-strategic-thinking-39077

Advance look at the thesis and layout of Red Star over the Pacific, second edition, which debuts tomorrow:

https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/book-excerpt-red-star-over-pacific-chinas-rise-and-challenge-us-maritime-strategy-38617

A foray into non-naval seafaring in the age of sail, courtesy of Steven Ujifusa’s Barons of the Sea, about the race to build the fastest clipper ships for the China and California runs:

https://blog.usni.org/posts/2018/12/12/behold-the-clipper-ships

Remember, commerce is king in sea power. The navy is just an enabler and protector.

A slightly tongue-in-cheek take on a solemn subject: the origins and aftermath of Pearl Harbor:

https://nationalinterest.org/feature/blame-alfred-thayer-mahan-pearl-harbor-and-thank-him-its-failure-38037

Historians and philosophers of yore pay tribute to President Bush. Rest your oar, sailor.

https://nationalinterest.org/print/feature/forceful-yet-magnanimous-foreign-policy-george-h-w-bush-37897

What French Army soldiers and thermodynamics professors can teach us about Russia and Ukraine:

https://blog.usni.org/posts/2018/12/04/an-offbeat-take-on-putin-and-the-sea-of-azov

Some musings about the maritime clash between Russia and Ukraine in the Kerch Strait –

Goodbye Grotius, Hello Putin

My effort at a heartening take on the balance between China and Japan: https://nationalinterest.org/print/blog/buzz/what-world-war-i-tells-us-about-china-japan-war-today-36847.

Things in Northeast Asia are not as bad as we often assume. Do not despair.

Last week the National Defense Strategy Commission published a study criticizing the 2018 National Defense Strategy (as the commission was constituted and instructed to do). The report is worth your while, but the coauthors fall prey to some of the troubles they find in the strategy: https://nationalinterest.org/blog/buzz/us-military-strategy-must-return-basics-36382.

Over at The Hill, I endorse this week’s proposals from German and French leaders to create a pan-European army. The more American allies and friends take responsibility for their own affairs, the better for them—and for us. But I urge them not to launch into a project of this magnitude out of petty spite at President Trump’s manner or negotiating style. Founding a European force would be a huge and costly step. Europeans should undertake it for strategic reasons, not frivolous ones.

https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/416976-a-pan-european-army-makes-sense-but-not-because-of-trump