Donald Trump’s early cabinet picks are a who’s who of China hawks and critics, indicating mounting US-China tensions over the next four years.

Contemporary warfare is spilling from the battlefield into industrial, cyber, economic, and informational domains, and increasingly pulling entire societies into the conflict. Defense policy must adapt.

After a year of territorial gains, resistance fighters are nearing the second-largest city of Mandalay. Yet changing weather could breathe new life into the junta’s efforts to turn the tide in the Myanmar civil war.

The prospect of a Taiwan blockade by the PLA is increasingly floated as a less costly alternative to a full-on invasion of the island, but any blockade involves its own geopolitical risks.

Flush with cash from North America’s drug markets, and armed by guns smuggled from the United States, drug trafficking gangs have unleashed a wave of violence in the Caribbean.

Advanced militaries take note: Ukraine has blunted Russia’s considerable naval advantages in the Black Sea region, and all without a conventional navy.

Though the Ukraine war led to increased defense spending in European NATO member states, the continent remains far off from being able to credibly defend itself without assistance from Washington.

As satellites come to play an ever more central role in military communications, the Outer Space Treaty becomes harder to enforce, as exemplified in recent advances in space warfare in Russia and China.

Impractical as it may seem, the ruling junta in Myanmar is rolling out a census and planning to hold elections amid a raging civil war. But the effort may be hiding ulterior, more sinister motives.

China and Russia Arctic policy is converging as climate change opens the region up to international shipping. And this is creating new challenges for a US defense establishment that has long taken the stability of the region for granted.