Eastern Europe is a specific region in the European continent because it has been a testing ground of grand geopolitics throughout the last three hundred years. The concepts of partition, spheres of influence, buffer zones, division lines, cordon sanitaire, and limitrophe were not only developed in theory...

The Times of the Troubles has one additional feature: the erection of an enormous and sophisticated system of fortifications and military bases along the entire geopolitical zone of contact, that stretched hundreds of kilometres. The concentration of defence lines and fortifications was maybe the greatest in Europe...

December 2024. Chancellery of the Prime Minister, Warsaw, Aleje Ujazdowskie. A few days before Christmas. One o’clock in the morning. The outgoing President of the United States is trying to call the Prime Minister of the Republic of Poland to let him know that war has broken out in the Western Pacific...

The invasion of Ukraine became a serious trigger for the development of military writings inside Russia. Since the beginning of the war, many books have been published that describe the Russian military and geopolitical mindset and conduct...

The invasion of Ukraine became a serious trigger for the development of military writings inside Russia. Since the beginning of the war, many books have been published that describe the Russian military and geopolitical mindset and conduct. These books were often published for propagandist purposes, but the old Western school of Sovietology teaches us that to win over the enemy, we must grasp his way of thinking and find his weaknesses...

The Cossack naval asymmetric strategy and tactic was a unique historical phenomenon that provided not only bright stories for contemporary Ukrainians but was one of the geopolitical factors that reshuffled the balance of power in the Black Sea region and allowed the creation of the first Ukrainian state, the Cossack Hetmanate...

"Where goest..." presents a list of requirements and considerations that should guide NATO's new Strategy aimed at deterring future Russian aggression...

The naval and maritime factor in the Russo-Ukrainian War has a multidimensional expression and it will play a more important role due to the geopolitical and existential importance to Ukraine and Russia of the Black Sea, the Sea of Azov, the Dnieper River and some other big rivers...

Structural issues, i.e. a set of conflicting interests between the United States and China, prevent them from getting out of the spiral of growing rivalry in the summer of 2023...

It may sound like a paradox but the primary beneficiaries of the multipolar world are the countries of the Global South...

The great geopolitical game for the Heartland of Eurasia (Central Asia) has begun, but this time things are more complicated than in the times of the Han or Tang dynasties or the times of the Great Game in the 19th century...

Italy’s invasion of Ethiopia before World War II was the first serious opportunity to test the effectiveness of economic sanctions, the economic weapon of the then “international community” — the League of Nations. Specifically, how these sanctions worked in practice against a large state with an industrial base and a real army.

The decision of Beijing to publicly propose a peace resolution plan for the war in Ukraine was determined by many factors, however, the key component was that China decided to act as a global-scale arbiter...

Together with its One Belt One Road initiative, in 2012, China presented the Community of Common Destiny for Humankind. Initially, the very phrase was used to express China-Taiwan relations...

This three-part series examines the Chinese global factor in international conflict resolution and will try to answer the question - Is China a Global Broker or an Anti-System Power?

On March 5, 2022, the Government of the Russian Federation approved the decree “List of foreign states and territories that are committing unfriendly actions towards the Russian Federation”. There were proposed three categories of the states: ‘friendly’, ‘unfriendly’ and ‘neutral states’...

Australia has entered into an alliance with the US and UK called AUKUS, which we at S&F refer to as the alliance of the nations of the World Ocean, aimed at preventing the consolidation of the Eurasian landmass under the sceptre of China...

The war in Ukraine continues. Its course emphasises the very significant influence of the USA on the political system of Europe...

Despite receiving enormous military, economic, social and financial assistance from the West, the Ukrainian economy and social situation are going to deteriorate...

Ukraine and Russia are facing a completely new stage in the escalation of hostilities. The war is gradually changing its shape, form and perspective. It has become more aggressive and unpredictable...

Almost exactly sixty years ago, in October 1962, the Cuban crisis took place...

After the Debacle in Kharkiv, the Russian Army forced the Russian leadership to search for the proper answer to the new military challenges...

The Russian political and military leadership is facing a dilemma in Ukraine...

When Putin stated in July that Moscow had barely started its campaign in Ukraine, daring the west to try to defeat it on the battlefield, it was considered a sign of Russia's readiness to continue its military campaign in Ukraine...

Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan begins a new era of confrontation between the US and China, and with it, marks the beginning of an already open conflict over Eurasia...

The war in Ukraine is escalating from one stage of the escalation ladder into another, but much higher than the previous, and no end is feasible on the horizon...

The war in Ukraine unleashed by Russia represents the most serious challenge that has been faced by the United States since the end of the Cold War...

Space is the mother of war in the 21st century. Without space technologies, war would immediately be brought back to the first half of the 20th century. Armies would be myopic compared with contemporary armies. Modern logistics, communications and cybersecurity fully depend on the space domain...

Now, with the war in Ukraine raging, and an open challenge to the international order being laid down by Russia in a way not witnessed in Europe since the end of the second world war we believe it is critically important...

The war in Ukraine is study time for military strategists throughout the world, who have been closely observing, learning and examining every move made on both sides of the battlefield...

My attention was drawn towards the following poem during Easter whilst reading Professor Andrzej Nowak’s latest book, the chapter describing Poland’s dependence on the Soviet empire after World War II...

Interdependence is not a sufficient guarantee of peace, but breaking interdependence makes peace even more fragile and insecure. This is how one could define the essence of the strategic dilemma into which the democratic West has faced Russia since the outbreak of the war in Eastern Europe...

The geopolitics of the Russo-Ukrainian War has historical, security and ideological implications, but we shouldn’t avoid the environmental factor of this war...

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has predictably fixed a substantial proportion of the Russian Armed Forces...

On the night of February 23rd to 24th, 2022, everything seemed to be going as Putin had planned. At the same time, the course of events was the nightmare of Halford Mackinder’s worst dreams...

Autonomous systems are a dangerous element of future warfare. Especially taking into account the prospect of so-called Lethal Autonomous Weapons (LAWs), controlled by machine learning and AI...

The main take-away points from the events in Belarus from the summer of 2020 (the unrest of the pro-Western factions of Belarusian civil society) until the current refugee crisis on the Belarusian border with the EU are the following...

The current crisis on the Polish-Belarusian border suggests that Eastern Europe won’t see peace and stability in this decade. The Ukrainian crisis together with the Belarussian crisis gives enough evidence that processes are occurring within the region that can affect the entire European continent, much more than was the case in 2014...

The speed and manoeuvrability of combat with the use of robotic systems is increasing so quickly that for humans it will soon be difficult to compete with autonomous robotic systems...

It is possible to predict that the system of Command and Control in the armies of the future will be based upon intertwined cooperation or assistance of AI/ML. The consequences of this cooperation have geopolitical and directly-military aftermaths...

The Russian Armed Forces implemented many reforms after the 2008 Georgian War, consolidating military districts, streamlining command-and-control structure, and switching from a division- to a brigade-centric order of battle...

It seems that 2022 may not be easy, bringing many challenges to the world and Poland. We at S&F will list a few of them, focusing on the absolute most important issues...

India and their strategic thinking are generally unknown to us. Their classic Kautilya is not as popular as Sun Tzu or Clausewitz. Furthermore, modern Indian geostrategists or geopoliticians also remain beyond our interest...

The battlefield for superiority has always been value chains and the resulting global division of labour. They determine new technology and investment cycles...

Shamanov in his interview does not mention the role of the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade during the war on the Abkhazian front.  However, many sources indicate that the 45th Guards Spetsnaz Brigade undertook the most dangerous operations during the war in the Abkhazian TVD...

The costs of designing, developing and producing weapons increase with the need to find a remedy for the enemy’s means of combating these weapons. And so the race between defence and attack is in full swing...

Enshrined in doctrine, operational phasing dominates U.S. and NATO thinking on operational art...

Following Mike Pence’s 2018 Hudson Institute speech, the wider narrative around China began to change — just as it started to become clear how much of China’s wealth had been ploughed back into infrastructure and the military...

Let us abstract away from what is happening now in the world and concentrate on the historical importance of the events in Afghanistan. What follows here is my humble attempt to forecast the near future which is already just over the horizon...

For the first time mankind has reached the frontiers of space, not for glory, but simply to win the war. Now he is also reaching out to space to earn money...

The case of NS2, New START, the Three Seas Initiative and Biden’s arrangements with Putin close the period of 30 years of geopolitical pause for Poland...

War Vs Peace Unit Update Report #10

Rapidly developing both in theory and in practice, drone warfare will in the near future likely define and shape the nature of war...

Europe is part of "Western civilisation", to which, apart from Europe itself, it is customary to include all its (regrettably, usually evolved as a result of rape) "children": primarily North America, with the United States as a global power, and Latin America, with Brazil growing in importance in the global puzzle, as well as the area of ​​Australia and Oceania...

After the recent talks between Blinken and Lavrov, and the US and Germany getting along over Nordstream, we smelled Rapallo. Obviously different than 100 years ago, but the mechanism is similar...

10 years after the Beijing Olympics had showcased the awakening of Napoleon’s “sleeping giant”, 2018 was the year that America signalled - finally (?) - that it would now be taking a much tougher approach...

Any effective strategy (for a country in Poland’s position) requires an understanding of one’s own limitations, both related to the foundations of one’s own power and to the existing obligations of a superpower...

We are continuing our new series at Strategy&Future, writing simulated speeches for Poland’s politicians on the most important and important issues of foreign policy and grand strategy. We associate it with real events and the opportunities to deliver such speeches...

In 2013 Russia’s Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu and Chief of General Staff Valery Gerasimov jointly announced the creation of a Special Operations Forces...

Some years are more memorable than others: the terror attacks of 2001, the Iraq invasion of 2003, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, the birth of the smartphone era in 2007, the financial crisis of 2008, the ‘Arab Spring’ in 2011, the annexation of Crimea and the war in the Donbas in 2014. And although we might not have thought so at first, 2016 would turn out to be another “one of those years”!

2015 was the year of the European Migrant Crisis, when makeshift refugee camps in Greek Islands off the coast of Turkey began filling up with families (and young men) fleeing the ongoing Syrian Civil War...

The Euromaidan protests in Kyiv started on 21st November 2013 after President Viktor Yanukovich announced Ukraine’s suspension of an association agreement with the EU, meaning the East European country would instead seek closer ties with Moscow. This was a post-colour revolution...

Perhaps the greatest operational advantage of the USA over the Chinese side is the possibility of waging a modern submarine war in conditions of domination over the enemy, both in terms of combat technology and training of the crews...

Barack Obama’s (second) inauguration speech on 21st January 2013 contained this rather hopeful line: “A decade of war is now ending”...

We have to be careful about the terms we use to describe events. As Tim Marshall argued in the Spectator in October 2012, “calling these events the ‘Arab Spring’ automatically frames them as positive”...

On 4th January 2010, the Burj Khalifa opened in Dubai. At 828 metres, it was the world’s tallest building...

The phrase “up in the air” perfectly captures the world at the beginning of 2009 (and, arguably, ever since)...

Taipei 101 — named after its 101 floors — opened on 31st December 2004, having earlier in the year been recognised as the world’s tallest skyscraper at 509.2 m (spire), 449.2 m (roof height). Under President Chen Shui-bian of the nationalist Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), who was re-elected in March 2004 after a four-year term, the Republic of China (Taiwan) had begun to distance itself from the PRC...

The United States is planning to return to the Moon, but this time it looks more serious and aggressive than ever...

Ridvan Bari Urcosta and Marek Budzisz talk to Dr. Can Kasapoğlu...

Jacek Bartosiak talks to Parag Khanna on the future of the world, patterns of globalization, and...

In the recent decade, the advanced UAVs technologies proliferated far beyond the traditional powers -  Israel, the U.S. and West, at large - that dominated this technological field...

Jacek Bartosiak talks to John J. Klein on the Space Warfare and the future of US Space Force...

There is only one god – Poseidon – god of the sea; there is only one legitimate church confessing this god...