Volume 10, Issue 4
Winter 2026
AI Command and Staff—Operational Evidence and Insights from Wargaming
Aaron Blair Wilcox, Chase Metcalf
The uncritical integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) into command-and-control poses a fundamental strategic risk: disrupting the application of violence from command. The danger of the current technological trajectory is an overemphasis on perfecting the science of control leading to the atrophy of the art of command and the misalignment of force.
ReadAttacking Russia’s Center of Gravity: A Clausewitzian Answer
Antulio J. Echevarria II
This article applies Carl von Clausewitz’s center of gravity concept to the ongoing war in Ukraine. It identifies Russia’s and Ukraine’s centers of gravity and offers several ways to attack the former, taking into account Moscow’s higher cost ceilings.
ReadWarfare of Position: When the Decisive Struggle Precedes the First Shot
Douglas S. Wilbur
This article argues that war of position constitutes a distinct philosophy of warfare in which information warfare and sociocultural struggle, rather than physical violence, form the decisive effort. Drawing on Gramsci, contemporary strategic theory and historical and modern cases, it demonstrates how actors shape legitimacy, identity and interpretation within civil society to determine whether violence will succeed, fail, or become unnecessary. By situating war of position within a broader meta-theory of war, the article shows how militaries oriented toward wars of maneuver risk strategic surprise when adversaries win the decisive struggle long before the first shot is fired.
ReadBritish Special Forces in the 2030s: UKSF, ‘Special Operations’ and ‘NATO First’
Simon Anglim
The UK’s Special Forces are arguably its one remaining world-class military asset. The paper examines their current shape, employment, and whereabouts they sit in current UK defence strategy, especially in relation to the ‘Special Operations Forces’ formed recently by the British Army and Royal Marines.
ReadHow the Congolese Wazalendo Illustrate the Importance of Strategy
Jonathan R. Beloff
The war against the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) led to the creation of the Wazalendo, a loose coalition of other rebel forces. However, the Wazalendo, alongside the Congolese military, Forces Armées de la République Démocratique du Congo (FARDC), has not only been unable to stop the M23 but also created new strategic problems for the Congolese government.
ReadInformational Coercion and the Defense of Democracy
Gonzalo Javier Rubio Piñeiro
Information manipulation no longer seeks merely to confuse, but to undermine the freedom of action of democratic states. This article shows how coordinated campaigns can influence political costs, social cohesion, and strategic will, and proposes a Western framework for responding with discipline, proportionality, and verifiable results without compromising democratic legitimacy.
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