Why You Can't be an Iran Hawk and a Russia Dove

Moscow and Tehran have formed a military bloc with the aim of defeating the United States and its allies in the Middle East, Europe, and around the world.

America’s Stark Choice in Ukraine and the Cost of Letting Russia Win

The current US debate about providing additional military assistance to Ukraine is based in part on the assumption that the war will remain stalemated regardless of US actions. That assumption is false.

Denying Russia’s Only Strategy for Success



By Nataliya Bugayova and Frederick W. Kagan with Kateryna Stepanenko

Positional Warfare in Alexander Svechin’s Strategy



By Pieter Garicano, Grace Mappes, and Frederick W. Kagan

Taliban Governance in Afghanistan

The Taliban achieved its primary objective by taking over Afghanistan in 2021. It now presides over a weak state that is unable to address long-term socio-economic and security challenges.

By Peter Mills

Latest from ISW

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 12, 2024

May 12, 2024 - ISW Press

Russian President Vladimir Putin replaced Sergei Shoigu with Andrei Belousov as Russian Minister of Defense on May 12, moving Shoigu to the position of Security Council Secretary in place of Nikolai Patrushev. These high-level reshuffles following the Russian presidential election strongly suggest that Putin is taking significant steps towards mobilizing the Russian economy and defense industrial base (DIB) to support a protracted war in Ukraine and possibly prepare for a future confrontation with NATO.

Iran Update, May 12, 2024

May 12, 2024 - ISW Press

Israeli forces continued a "precise operation" targeting Hamas in eastern Rafah on May 12. The IDF Givati Brigade located and destroyed several tunnel shafts and rockets that Palestinian fighters had prepared to fire into Israel. The IDF 401st Brigade identified ten armed Hamas fighters and directed an airstrike targeting them. Israeli soldiers posted photos of the IDF inside the Rafah crossing.

Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, May 11, 2024

May 11, 2024 - ISW Press

Russian forces are conducting relatively limited offensive operations along the Russian-Ukrainian border in northern Kharkiv Oblast and continued to make tactically significant gains in likely less defended areas. The reported sizes of the Russian elements committed to these limited operations and of the Russian force grouping deployed along the border in northeastern Ukraine indicate that Russian forces are not pursuing a large-scale operation to envelop, encircle, or seize Kharkiv City at this time.

Iran Update, May 11, 2024

May 11, 2024 - ISW Press

The IDF continued its limited operation into eastern Rafah on May 11. The IDF 401st Brigade, which seized the Rafah border crossing with Egypt on May 7, destroyed a Hamas rocket launch site on May 10. Israeli ground and air elements destroyed Hamas tunnel shafts. The IDF Givati Brigade also continued operations in eastern Rafah. Hamas fighters fired an anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) at an Israeli armored personnel carrier near the Rafah crossing.

China-Taiwan Weekly Update, May 10, 2024

May 10, 2024 - ISW Press

The Chinese Coast Guard (CCG) has normalized patrols around Kinmen, a Taiwan-controlled island with a large military garrison roughly 3 kilometers from the coast of the PRC. The CCG began patrols in Kinmen’s territorial waters in February after two PRC fishermen drowned while fleeing from a Taiwanese Coast Guard pursuit on February 14. The PRC pledged after the incident to strengthen law enforcement activities around Kinmen. The PRC has increased the frequency of CCG patrols in Kinmen’s waters and the volume of ships per event since it began routine violations in late February.