In February 2024, Turkey successfully completed the maiden test flight of its prototype Kaan fighter. The plane’s name is taken from an ancient Central Asian royal title, and Turkish media declared that its performance made “the legacy of our ancestors proud.” This then naturally raises the question: is the Kaan really a king of kings or just a pretender...

Nick sat down with United States Coast Guard Commandant Adm. Linda Fagan to discuss the Coast Guard’s global activities, from the Arctic to the Indo-Pacific to the growing digital security challenges to America’s ports. Image Credit: Petty Officer 1st Class Travis Magee, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons The post From Polar Presence to Port Security:...

Welcome to Mid-Afternoon Map, our exclusive members-only newsletter that provides a cartographic perspective on current events, geopolitics, and history from the Caucasus to the Carolinas. Subscribers can look forward to interesting takes on good maps and bad maps, beautiful maps and ugly ones — and bizarre maps whenever possible. *** In recent weeks,...

While most people probably understand we live in dangerous times, it’s easy to get complacent with the repetitive warning signs coming from Russia and China and underestimate how dangerous. Phillip Zelikow, in a forthcoming article in the Texas National Security Review, warns of “a serious possibility of worldwide warfare” in the next two or three years....

In 2021, Claude Berube wrote “Is America Still Born to Rule the Seas?” for War on the Rocks, in which he argued that China has overtaken the United States in terms of naval balance of power. In response to a recent U.S. Navy report highlighting major delays in production of key ships and submarines, we asked him to look back on the article. Read more...

Editor’s Note: This is part of a short series examining maritime geography and strategic challenges in specific bodies of water, ranging from the Arctic Ocean to the Gulf of Guinea and the South China Sea. One Sea, Two Seas, Far Seas, Near Seas? For all the attention they receive as contested Indo-Pacific maritime regions, the strategic differences...