Defense | RCP Story Stream

Political Fighting in Taiwan Stalls Part of Defense Budget Rise March 21, 2025

Europeans Lacking Manpower in Its Militaries March 21, 2025

One of the biggest problems in today’s politics (at least in the West) is the tendency by politicians to compartmentalise everything. Now the optimist could say this is clear evidence that they are not totalitarian....

defense

Europe Launches Defense Push Amid Russia Threat, U.S. Worries March 20, 2025

Russia

The Pentagon’s War on Wasted Dollars March 19, 2025

So far, Elon Musk’s DOGE has swept through government agencies like USAID, brushing off cobwebs and uncovering skeletons as it goes. Now, DOGE is set to enter a much bigger agency whose shortfalls demand reform: the Department of Defense (DoD). ...

Pentagon

Hegseth Is Closing a Pentagon Office That Wins Wars March 19, 2025

Amid the institutional carnage of the first two months of the Donald Trump’s return to the presidency, few Americans will notice the demise of the Office of Net Assessment. That small outfit occupied a nearly windowless space in the Pentagon. Its wor...

Trump Calls Canada to Action March 19, 2025

The U.S. is beating up on Canada.The friendship between the U.S. and Canada is historic but has fallen into an inexplicable confrontation. Bizarrely, President Trump has proposed that a fellow member of the powerful Group of Seven major economic powe...

canada

Donald Trump

economics

Noncitizen Voting in U.S. Elections March 19, 2025

Disputes about how America votes have raged since the 2020 pandemic-driven expansion of vote-by-mail.While mail balloting has continued to stir controversy, now noncitizen voting has taken center stage. Debate surrounding the issue will likely soon c...

voting

Elections

Germany Set to Vote on Historic Increase in Defense Spending March 18, 2025

Russia

How Spain Is Trying to Dodge Spending More on Defense March 15, 2025

Russia

Don’t Write Off Europe Just Yet March 15, 2025

It is hard to exaggerate the shock that has been administered to Europe over the past month. First, there was Vice President JD Vance’s provocative speech at the Munich Security Conference. What offended the delegates wasn’t Vance’s remarks about the...

Europe

European Militarism on Steroids Is Not Good, Either March 14, 2025

Lacking in any strategic thinking, a new bellicism has swept up the elites and gone into cataclysmic overdrive in recent weeks ...

EU Defense Proposal Isn't a Course Correction March 14, 2025

It is not entirely without irony that the “The Most Successful Peace Project in the History of Mankind” is currently planning the continent’s most ambitious armaments programme since the end of World War Two. ...

European Union

defense spending

The Baltics Adapt to Trump March 14, 2025

The Baltic states have had the US as a steadfast ally since the end of Cold War but may now have to build regional defenses as Washington turns away. ...

U.S.-Saudi Cooperation Could Fortify Critical Mineral Supply Chains. March 13, 2025

President Trump returned to office facing a weakened defense industrial base, strained by the Ukraine war and threatened by China’s grip on critical inputs. Dependence on competitors like China for materials that power essential commercial and milita...

Colombia’s Defense Minister Vows To Reclaim Land Lost to Rebels March 12, 2025

Americas

Trump’s Shock Therapy Is Working On Europe March 12, 2025

On March 6, during one of his impromptu news conferences in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump was asked whether he was considering any changes to U.S. policy on NATO, the U.S.-led transatlantic alliance that has kept the peace in Europe for mor...

Donald Trump

NATO

America’s and Ukraine’s Interests Don’t Align March 11, 2025

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s blowup in the Oval Office was the end of what should have been an obvious chain of events. The press has reported for the past two months on what increasingly dire relations between ...

U.S. Picked the Wrong Side in Central Africa March 11, 2025

The United States and the United Kingdom responded to the outbreak of war in eastern Congo late last month by slapping sanctions on Rwanda‘s defense minister and the spokesman for Congo’s M23 insurgent group. The State Department’s move was counterpr...

Europe Has Just Become a More Dangerous Place March 10, 2025

Last time military Keynesianism was back in fashion we were well down the road towards a world war. This time European rearmament is principally geared towards restructuring its ailing economy. Its advocates have decided that defense is a better focu...

Germany

Poland and Ukraine Are Europe’s Defensive Backbone March 10, 2025

As uncertainty hangs over US-Russian and US-Ukrainian brokering for Ukraine’s future, the fundamental, often overlooked underpinning for European security in the heart of Europe – the Poland-Ukraine bridge for stability – remains essential. ...

Trump Is Snatching the Cards From Ukraine March 10, 2025

Ukraine

Dealmaker, Peacemaker, President March 09, 2025

“What the f— are we doing here?” asked President Trump in the summer of 2017.Nearly a year into his first term, Trump’s national security adviser had just proposed sending an additional 3,000 to 5,000 troops to Afghanistan, prompting his boss’s frust...

EU Summit on Ukraine: Europe Seems Ready To Spend on Defense March 07, 2025

Russia

Europe Is Still Dithering About Defense March 07, 2025

For nearly three years, European leaders have done what they do best — talk....

European Union

Investor Beware of Robust European Defense Spending March 06, 2025

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, has proposed that Europe increase its defense spending by 1.5% of GDP over the average 2.0% European countries are currently spending. ...

Europe