The Vandenberg Coalition brings you weekly roundups of news media pieces displaying honest candor in the foreign policy space. Subscribe below to receive the latest updates.
4 Myths About Ukraine that Might Sound Right But Are Actually Wrong | The ‘Cold War’ as We Know It Is a Myth, Yet Its Underlying Conflict Never Ended | Israel’s Reasonable War Aims and Strategy | China Circumvents U.S. Tariffs by Shipping More Goods via Mexico | Ending the Houthi Threat to Red Sea Shipping | Moscow’s Aggression, Moldova’s Defiance | Give Marines the Sea-Going Tools They Need To Pack a Punch
The U.N. Is Failing Women and the Cause of Human Dignity | The Taiwan Catastrophe | Most of the Money in the ‘Foreign Aid’ Bill Would Stay in the U.S. | A Most Predictable Death | The Shifting Balance of Power in the Black Sea | Worrywurst at the Munich Security Conference
America’s Maritime Policies Need a Reboot | True North: Canadian Politics, the Tory Alternative, and the United States | The Cuban Regime’s Triple Threat | China, Russia & Iran: How U.S. Can Deter and Defeat the Axis of Autocracy | National Review | Asset or Adversary? Qatar Looks Worryingly Like Both to the U.S. | The Empty Sloganeering of a ‘Two-State Solution’ | How the War in Ukraine Shapes Iran’s Strategic Gains and Ambitions
Americans Need Domestic Unity for Effective Foreign Policy | A New Strategy Can Save Ukraine | The Two-State Delusion | Countering Iranian Aggression in Jordan & Beyond | The Only Way to Stop Hamas Is to Stop Iran from Rebuilding It
How America Can Still Cripple TikTok | Biden’s Moment of Truth in Venezuela | It’s Time for a U.S.-Taiwan Free Trade Agreement | A Port Deal Puts the Horn of Africa on the Brink | President Joe Biden’s Got Blood on Hands After Appeasing Iran for Years
Towards Achieving a Better Understanding of the Nation’s Defenses | America’s Incredible Shrinking Navy | Delusional in Davos | Debt Distress on the Road to “Belt and Road” | Bougainville: The U.S. Needs a Proactive Approach Toward the Potential New Country in the Pacific
How Civics Education Can Help Solve the Military Recruitment Crisis | What to Do About Coups | Iran’s Strategy of Proxy Encirclement | Ukraine’s Long-Term Path to Success: Jumpstarting a Self-Sufficient Defense Industrial Base with U.S. and E.U. Support | Six Ways for the U.S. to Put Democracy Back on the Global Agenda in 2024
Netanyahu’s ‘Saudi Bind’ Muddles Planning for ‘The Day After’ | The United States Needs to Play Hardball With Turkey | What to Make of Kim Jong Un’s Latest Threats of War | The Biden Doctrines | Can Republicans Find Consensus on Foreign Policy? | Improving U.S. Disaster Relief at Reduced Risk and Cost
The Peace Processors Return | U.S. Navy Helo Crews Kill Houthi Assault Boat Teams After Red Sea Attack | Avoiding America’s Suez Moment | The Impact of Ending Military Aid to Ukraine: Gradual Decline, Then Collapse | How the U.S. Can Push Back Against Authoritarianism in China and Beyond
The High Price of Losing Ukraine | The U.S. Defense Industrial Base | What’s Wrong With Biden’s Venezuela Policy | Pentagon To Launch ‘Operation Prosperity Guardian’ To Reopen Red Sea Passage | America Needs a Bipartisan Shipbuilding Deal
Congressional Inaction on Defense Budget Weakens Deterrence in Asia | Why We Should be Wary of China’s Pledges of a Fentanyl ‘Crackdown’ | The U.S. Must Use Its Export Controls | The Case for Conservative Internationalism | What the U.S. Must Do to Restart Israel-Saudi Talks | The Shortest Path to Victory in Ukraine Goes Through Crimea
President Biden Must Face Reality: It’s Time to Act vs. Iran | Ukraine Aid’s Best-kept Secret: Most of the Money Stays in the U.S.A. | Stasis is Not Stalemate in the Ukraine War | The United States Must Defend Critical Infrastructure | Save the Military–Industrial Complex | China’s Economic Weakness and Challenge to the Bretton Woods System: How Should the US Respond? | China Enslaves People at Sea and We Don’t Have the Wherewithal to Stop It
The Importance of Rebuilding the ‘Arsenal of Democracy’ | Will America Lose its Next War? National Defense in a Dangerous Era | How the United Nations Became an Enabler for Terrorism | The Real Reason Iran Hates Israel | Putin’s Alignment In Middle East Should Signal To Israel It’s Time For A Change Of Allegiance | Central Asia Could Be the Graveyard of the Russia-China Alliance | Bolivia’s Descent into Deep Chaos and the Implications for the Region
The Vandenberg Coalition wishes you and your family a Thanksgiving filled
with love, family, and gratitude. Thank you for your continuing support, and
your dedication to the mission of a strong, proud, and principled United
States. This Thanksgiving, we are grateful for precisely these lights—the men and
women around the world, many who receive this very newsletter, who have
shown true moral courage.
Triad Weed: How Chinese Marijuana Grows Took Over Rural Maine | Placating Xi Won’t Change China’s Behavior | Irregular Warfare: Undermining the CCP’s Dangerous and Illegal Activities in the Indo-Pacific | The Fragility of Civilization | Here’s What China’s Foray Into The Middle East Could Mean For Taiwan
Why Do Young Americans Support Hamas? Look at TikTok. | AI Is a National-Security Danger | Why the Philippines is Exiting the Belt and Road | In Israel vs. Hamas, China Backs Iran vs. America | Only the U.S. Can Restore World Order | The Fourteen Facts about US Aid to Ukraine | Iran’s Ever-Expanding Ring of Fire
The U.S. Needs A Special Envoy for Arab-Israeli Normalization | Zero Tolerance for Terrorism & Its Supporters | Blood Money: Stopping the Cash That Underwrites Terror | A Reagan Doctrine for Today | A Pacific Budget Supplemental to Prevent the Next War | The Sinking Submarine Industrial Base | How America Can Beat China In A War
A World Without American Deterrence | The Biden Administration Should Stop Funding America’s Enemies | Has Iran Compromised The Biden Administration? | Why the U.S. Must Break China’s Emerging “String of Pearls” in the Arabian Gulf | The Land That Geopolitics Forgot | Why Sending Ukraine ATACMs Will Help It Win in the Long Term
SPECIAL EDITION: Israel Under Attack | The Hamas Attack Changes Everything | Israel War: Hamas Should No Longer Have a Safe Haven—Anywhere | Hamas Terrorists’ 21st-Century Pogrom | What Comes Next in Gaza | The Yom Kippur War’s Lessons for Ukraine—and Biden | Iran and Its Network of Nineteen Terrorist Organizations on Israel’s Borders
Vandenberg Open Letter to Conservatives in Congress | Ukraine’s War of Drones Runs into an Obstacle: China | Iran Hostage Deal Has Nuclear Implications | Taiwan’s Big Stakes in Washington’s Budget Battles | Weakness is Lethal: Why Putin Invaded Ukraine and How the War Must End | The U.S. Government Should Stockpile More Critical Minerals
New Series: Countering CCP Regional Influence
How China Uses Shipping for Surveillance and Control | The West Has a Massive Chinese Spy Problem | Avoid a Sequester and Fully Fund a Preeminent Military | With Russia Distracted in Ukraine, U.S. Reaches Out to Central Asia | U.S. and Israeli Policy Aligned Regarding Saudi Arabia | Strategic Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific: U.S. and Indian Perspectives | Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: What to Know About Nagorno-Karabakh
Rethinking Geopolitics: Geography as an Aid to Statecraft | The U.S. Must Help Curb Cartel Violence in Mexico | Why the U.S.-Mexico Relationship Could Get Even Worse | Iranian Drone Proliferation is Scaling Up and Turning More Lethal | A Renewed Axis: Growing Military Cooperation Between North Korea and Russia
Perseverance and Adaptation: Ukraine’s Counteroffensive at Three Months | By Skimping on the Budget for Competition with China, Washington Makes War More Likely | Rob Malley’s Legacy of Failure: Undermining American Interests in the Middle East | The China-India Border | Japan Fisheries Become China’s Newest Geopolitical Target
Iran Will Continue Taking Hostages if the Money Keeps Flowing | Biden’s Asia Diplomacy is Incomplete | Attacking Foreign Corruption Blunts China’s Malign Economic Influence | Winning the Influence War Against China | America’s Military-Industrial Base Needs a Revival | A Compound Problem: Dialing in U.S. Semiconductor Strategy
Ever Since the Afghanistan Withdrawal, Biden’s Foreign Policy Has Been One Big Mess | Iran-Russia Collaboration Makes a Mess of Biden’s Foreign Policy | The Aftermath of Biden’s Dishonorable Afghanistan Exit is Still Unfolding | You Go to War with the Industrial Base You Have, Not the Industrial Base You Want | In Tanzania, Beijing is Running a Training School for Authoritarianism | Why Taiwan’s Defense is in the American National Interest
The Disastrous Implications of the $6 Billion Iran Hostage Deal | Closing Washington’s China Gap with Middle East Partners | NATO’s Northern Flank Has Too Many Weak Spots | Since the Pelosi Visit, China Has Created a New Normal in the Taiwan Strait | India Embraces America’s Vision for Outer Space
Americans Are Not Embracing Isolationism | How the Ukraine Counteroffensive Can Still Succeed | If Ukraine Is Any Barometer of Expenditure Rates in Modern War, America is Gonna Lose Taiwan | Suit Against Tech Giant Shines Light on U.S. Complicity in Chinese Torture | The Wagner Group in Africa Serves Putin’s Global Ambitions
Washington Must React Realistically to the Coup in Niger | Niger’s Coup is a West African Disaster in the Making | America’s Military Trails Russia and China in Race for the Melting Arctic | Italy Intends to Leave China’s Belt and Road Initiative | What We Learned from the Korean War
America’s Reactive Foreign Policy | We Should Not Be Cavalier About Declining Public Confidence in the Military | The Long Shadow of Oppenheimer’s Trinity Test | Why You Should Care About the Afghanistan War Commission | Washington Lays Mines in Black Sea to Block Ukrainian Ports
The Myth of Neutrality | Iran’s Shadow War | How America Can Escape China’s Rare Earth Pincer | How One U.S. Government Agency is Helping China Win the Tech Race | Understanding the Implications of No Black Sea Grain Deal
On Foreign Policy, the New Populists are the Old Declinists | ‘NATO Lake’ Receives Major Boost | Two Options to Prevent the Next Invasion of Ukraine | Buying Power is the Invisible Shortfall of the 2024 Defense Budget Request | China, Latin America, and the New Space Race
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment | Biden, Modi Hail New Era for US-India Ties and Tout Deals | President Raisi Visits Latin America | The Global South is Forging a New Foreign Policy in the Face of War in Ukraine, China-U.S. Tensions: Active Nonalignment | U.S. Influence in the Pacific Requires Congressional Action | The Netanyahu Invitation and West Bank Settlement Expansion
To Prepare for War at Sea Over Taiwan, Look to the Land War in Ukraine | Time to Wean Ourselves from Chinese Semiconductors | China’s Real Military Budget is Far Bigger Than it Looks | Saudi Arabia, China Undermine U.S. Influence in the Middle East | How the U.S. is Pushing China Out of the Internet’s Plumbing
Russia’s Improved Weaponry and Tactics Challenge Ukraine Offensive | History Repeats Itself: Cuba, China, and the New Cold War | U.S. Must Expose China’s Hidden Hand in America’s Deadly Fentanyl Crisis | Spend More on Defense? Let’s Focus on Spending Better | America’s Power Competition Goes Awry in Lula’s Brazil
Early Stages of Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Appear to be Underway | Key Ukrainian Dam Blown Up, Kyiv Blames Russia | The Enemy Next Door | Thinking About Post-War Ukraine | What if Putin Loses the War in Ukraine? | Don’t Delay Ukraine’s Path to NATO Membership | Ukraine’s Survival is Vital to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
Memorial Day is More than Just the Start of Summer | China’s Latest Cyberattack is an Active Threat to Critical U.S. Infrastructure | Decoupling is Already Happening—Under the Sea | Decoding China’s Escalation of the Chip War | Hizbullah and Russia’s Nascent Alliance
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment | Putin’s Accidental Restoration of NATO | Why Xi is Ghosting Biden | ‘In a Lot of the World, the Clock has Hit Midnight’ | Why is the Chinese Communist Party Educating Children in American Classrooms? | What a Debt Default Would Mean for National Security
The Case for American Global Leadership | If China Targeted Canada’s Elections, America Must Act | Insulate, Curtail, Compete: Sketching a U.S. Grand Strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean | How Title 42’s Expiry Will Upend the Immigration System | The Pentagon Needs a Real Budget, Not Stop-Gap Solutions
Reframing the U.S. Policy Debate on a ‘Long War’ in Ukraine | David vs. Goliath: Southeast Asia Can Resist China’s Gray Zone Aggression in the South China Sea…with Help | Xi Jinping Can’t Handle an Ageing China | Sudan’s Double Crises | How Sanctions Can Help Bring Home American Hostages | What Will Happen if China Blocks Black Sea Grain Ships?
Great Powers Don’t Default | The Incomplete Evacuation of Sudan | Island Nations Key to Maintaining U.S. Position as a Pacific Power | U.S. Must Prepare for Chinese Sabotage | ‘Bleeding to Death’: The Russian Military Looks Stuck in Ukraine
Companies Thought They Could Ignore Geopolitics. Not Anymore. | Jordan’s Threat to the Middle East Order | Ukraine Shows the Need for Speed | Why the U.S. is Losing the Race for the Arctic | China’s Proxy War Against Faith
Defunding the Deadly Fentanyl Drug Trade | Back to the Future in U.S.-Mexico Relations | U.S. Defense Industry Plans First Trip to Taiwan in Four Years | The Imperative to See Food Security as Integral to Maritime Strategy | Prepare for Iran’s Nuclear Breakout | The State Department Should Provide Congress the Dissent Channel Cable on the Afghanistan Withdrawal
Paying the Defense Bill: Financing American and Chinese Great Power Competition | Russia’s New National Security Concept | Biden’s Weakness on Russia’s Hostage-Taking Puts Americans Abroad at Risk | Macron Has Made a Fool of Himself in China | Taiwan Needs More than Weapons to Thwart China’s Ambitions
The Future of the U.S.-China Nuclear Arms Race | All Talk, No Action on China | Biden Needs to Broaden Semiconductor Sanctions on China | An Arsenal of Democracies Can Best the China-Russia-Iran Axis | ‘Sinking Our Future’: Budget Cuts Funds to U.S. Navy as China Ramps Up Shipbuilding | Bitcoin and Geopolitical Rivalry
Congress United Against Chinese Atrocities | U.S. Needs an Assertive Eurasia Strategy | In a New Cold War, Diplomacy Matters More Than Might | Xi and Putin Meeting Signals the Return of the China-Russia Axis and the Start of a Second Cold War | How Iran Won the Iraq War
How the War in Iraq Changed the World | The Saudi-Iran Deal Reflects a New Global Reality | Defeat Putin, Defeat Xi | Little Giants, Single Champions: China’s Blueprint for Asymmetric Industrial Advantage | America Needs to Grow its Capacity to Produce Weapons
They Make a Desert and Call it Peace | Biden’s Military Budget: Better Never Than Late | The Age of American Naval Dominance is Over | How Beijing Boxed America Out of the South China Sea | China’s Three Roads to Controlling Taiwan | The Black Sea
GOP Gears Up for Afghanistan Probe | A United States-Pakistan Rapprochement? | Four Nuclear States Can Ruin Your Whole Strategy | Russia-China-South Africa Naval Exercises & Indian Ocean Geopolitics | Will Russia’s Global Influence Continue to Decline? | Waking Up to the Threat of the Chinese Communist Party: A Call to Action from Congress
How Biden Missed a Chance to Use the State of the Union to Illuminate a Foreign Policy | Israel Must Prepare to Save the World from a Nuclear Iran | Confrontation with Russia and U.S. Grand Strategy | What Pentagon Leaders Say They Have Learned One Year On from the Battle in Ukraine | Lessons from Germany’s Visit to South America’s Lithium Triangle | Philippines Eyes South China Sea Patrols with U.S., Australia
Biden’s Failure to Lead on Ukraine | Of Strategy And Schnitzel: Munich Security Confence 2023 | Faces of Ukraine’s Dead Haunt the West | Reflecting on One Year of War: Is America the Arsenal of Democracy | Continuing U.S. and Allied Support to Ukraine | Russia’s Shadow Fleet of Tankers to Beat Western Sanctions | Russia’s War in Ukraine: Myths and Legends
We Still Don’t Know the Truth About COVID | The New Warsaw Pact | How Moscow Bought a New Sphere of Influence on the Cheap | Russia’s New START Breach Means U.S. Nuclear Weapons Modernization is a Must | China’s Spy Balloon Could Be America’s Awakening
Biden Bungles China Spy Balloon Challenge | America and China: Whose Timeline is it Anyway? | Global Energy Scarcity and the South China Sea | Minefield of Dreams: Finding the Critical Minerals Needed to Get to Net Zero | Who are the Real ‘Realists’ on Ukraine? | Tanking Up: Understanding the Materiel—and Moral—Implications of the New Armor Heading to Ukraine
What Turkey Really Wants from Sweden | Protecting America’s Financial Assistance to Rebuild Ukraine | The New Word for the Western Strategy in Ukraine is ‘Scholzing’ | Gauging the Efficacy of Western Sanctions Against Ukraine | Why Russia’s War in Ukraine Today is So Different from a Year Ago
If Women are the Taliban’s Kryptonite, Let’s Send Our Best and Brightest | Are the Sanctions on Russia Working? | Mike Gallagher’s China Challenge | Is there a Biden Doctrine | Stocking Ukraine Could Generate Foreign Military Sales
Ukraine, Japan, and the Korean War’s 21st Century Parallel | Japan Shifts to a War Footing | Let Ukraine Defeat the Russian-Iranian War Machine | Russia’s Quest for Polar Power | Defense and Inflation: Roosevelt to 2023