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Barrio 18 gang attacks in Guatemala expose government impotence in the face of organized crime | Small Wars Journal by Arizona State University wpDiscuzInsert

By CDR Chase E. Harding, USN Introduction The balance of power in the Indo-Pacific is shifting rapidly as China’s shipbuilding hegemony endures. With the U.S. shipbuilding base in decline, the United States must take bold action to remain a credible maritime power and uphold the rules-based order that has underpinned peace and prosperity in Asia for decades. This order could be strengthened by a trilateral collaboration that unites the United States, Japan, and South Korea in co-developing and mass-producing a new class of fast-attack missile corvettes. From the outset, these vessels would be designed with a clear value proposition for…

In 2021, U.S. Navy Admiral Philip Davidson, then the commander of the Indo-Pacific Command, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services that Beijing had set a serious goal of controlling Taiwan before 2027. “Taiwan is clearly one of their ambitions before then,” he warned. “And I think the threat is manifest during this decade, in fact, in the next six years.”This prediction, which gained so much attention in Washington that it came to be known as the Davidson Window, quickly spurred action. Within the year, Congress authorized $7.1 billion for the newly created Pacific Deterrence Initiative, designed to…

NEW TAIPEI CITY, Taiwan – Taiwan’s government may be facing a fight to find the funding to pay for planned military spending, including announced arms purchases from the United States.Taipei said last month it would buy a large $11.1 billion arms package from the United States including HIMARS rocket systems. A month earlier Taiwanese President William Lai announced a roughly NT$1.25 trillion ($39.5 billion) special defense budget to start now and last through 2033 on top of routine annual military expenditures.Taiwan’s government, though, may need to fight to find funding because of the sheer size of the expense and bottlenecks…

The number of operational U.S. military satellites has nearly doubled since the Space Force was created in 2019. Now its leaders want to double the size of the service itself. The Space Force, which consists of about 10,000 guardians and 5,000 civilians, is adding about 500 troops a year—but that’s not enough, Gen. Shawn Bratton, the vice chief of space operations, during an Intelligence and National Security Alliance event late Wednesday evening. “We’ve got to pick up the pace. We need to grow on the military side, probably around 1,000 a year, something like that, for the next decade,” Bratton said. “I…

Air Force officials are reviving a deployment scheme introduced in the mid-1990s and abandoned three years ago. But while the original Air Expeditionary Wing concept quickly assembled airmen and aircraft from across the service to deploy for conflicts, AEW 2.0 aims to give the team up to 18 months to train together. “AEW 2.0 builds upon successes and lessons learned from previous [Unit of Action] evolutions,” an Air Force spokesperson told Defense One on Friday evening. “It also accounts for dynamic operational requirements and aligns with senior leader priorities.”The move, announced in a Friday-evening press release, is the latest Trump-administration shift…

Former Secretary of Defense and Marine Corps General James Mattis once observed that “the most important six inches on the battlefield is between your ears.” Yet, recent efforts to foster intellectual depth remain fragmented. The recent release of the Marine Corps commandant’s annual professional reading list features Allan Bloom’s The Closing of the American Mind. A cultural thunderclap upon its 1987 release, the University of Chicago professor’s tome raced to the top of the bestseller lists. The book’s scathing indictment of higher education’s lack of focus, leading to relativism, is a curious entry in the strategy category of the reading list.…

Welcome to The Adversarial. Every other week, we’ll provide you with expert analysis on America’s greatest challengers: China, Russia, Iran, North Korea, and jihadists. Read more below.***IranOnly days ago, the United States appeared poised to make good on President Donald Trump’s threat to intervene if the Iranian regime responded to widespread anti-government unrest with violence. However, while stepping up economic pressure via tariffs and additional sanctions, Washington held off on military action even as Tehran ferociously cracked down. The precise death toll is impossible to determine, given the extensive internet blackout in Iran, but multiple reports indicate that it runs in…

The Typhoon is expected to remain in UK service until at least the 2040s. Credit: Crown/Royal Air Force. The UK government has awarded a £453m ($609m) contract to BAE Systems, Leonardo UK and Parker Meggitt to upgrade the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) Typhoon fighter jets with new ECRS Mk2 radar systems.   The investment is part of a combined package exceeding £650m announced this week, aimed at enhancing both the operational capabilities and long-term support of the Typhoon fleet.  Discover B2B Marketing That Performs Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms. Find out more As part of this upgrade, the RAF will…

In college athletics, attention gravitates toward the visible: the head coach pacing the sideline, the star player under stadium lights, the results posted on scoreboards and social feeds. What rarely makes headlines is the work happening quietly in the background—the conversations without cameras, the mentorship without metrics, the leadership that doesn’t announce itself until years later. Yet it’s often this unseen work that determines whether a program merely wins or truly endures. Robby Emery has spent much of his life operating in that space. A pastor, public speaker, and Michigan Football’s Director of Character Development, Emery doesn’t measure success in…