Iskander Rehman

Another crisis in UK-US relations. How does the alliance survive repeated ruptures?

Greg Kennedy & I brought together 14 brilliant scholars to answer that in Transatlantic Storms in Anglo-American Relations: How the Alliance Weathers Crises.

Out today with Georgetown University Press. 1/2

Iskander Rehman Iskander Rehman is a nonresident senior fellow in the GeoStrategy Initiative within the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security.

Pleased to share that I’ve joined the
@atlanticcouncil.bsky.social as a Non-Resident Senior Fellow. Grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the Council’s important work. At the same time, I remain open to full-time opportunities in policy & academia.
www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/iskan...

New Swedish military aid package to Ukraine includes:

- Long-range drones "capable of striking Russian units and infrastructure deep inside their territory" (procurement from Ukr industry)

- Advanced short-range air defence capability

- Large procurement of ammunition, including long-range shells

Killer Defense: Sea-Denial Lessons from Gallipoli to Taiwan In a Taiwan contingency, the U.S. Navy will need to prioritize sea denial.

"Sea denial is having a moment." Good, historically literate piece on the opportunities proffered by the maturation (& Ukrainian demonstration) of new technologies to implement age-old strategies of sea denial in defense of Taiwan:
www.usni.org/magazines/pr...

Denmark expands conscription amid tensions with US Denmark is boosting its ranks by lengthening conscription from four to 11 months and making service gender-neutral. The move comes as security worries in Copenhagen increase amid tensions over Greenla...

Excellent video, but how disheartening--and patently surreal-- to see the young citizens of a model ally referencing US threats as a key driver in their desire to serve in their nation's military.

www.dw.com/en/denmark-e...

U.S. Presence in Greenland: Necessary or Not? YouTube video by Open to Debate

In this debate, @maxboot.bsky.social and I made the case the Trump administration is doing real damage with threats to Greenland

Quite the chart

Ukrainian troops were 'stunned' to learn their British trainers weren't using anti-drone nets, UK officer says Ukrainian soldiers getting combat training from the UK are feeding back key modern warfare lessons that the British Army is adopting.

Excellent set of articles by Sinéad Baker @businessinsider.com highlighting another reason why it's in our interest to continue to support Ukraine: the training runs both ways, with Ukrainians imparting invaluable lessons to their less battle-hardened trainers
www.businessinsider.com/ukraine-stun...

I mean, they’re not even reading the Melian Dialogue, just a couple of lines from it and a general vibe.

External Stakeholders in the South China Sea: Linking security in Asia and Europe? | Asia-Pacific Leadership Network

NEW from APLN: A comprehensive examination of how middle powers assess South China Sea escalation risks.
Six experts analyse perspectives from 🇰🇷🇯🇵🇫🇷🇩🇪🇬🇧🇵🇭, revealing how this #maritime region connects Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic security.
www.apln.network/projects/mar...

I think a bit of mourning is appropriate. The liberal international order got a lot of flack, it was hard to explain (was it even real?), US hypocrisy, etc. But frankly it is the best global order that ever existed. The goal should be to salvage as much as possible. The alternative is so much worse.

I think this speech will be talked about for a long time, honestly.

Always a rousing experience to comb through British parliamentary debates during WWII.

(Here Lt. Col. Rayner, MP for Totnes, in February 1942)

A remarkable find by my little sister in a family cellar—several hundred page volumes of diaries written by an ancestor from the French trenches of WWI. Here in 1915 he states that he has been hoping that "a major offensive will soon rid French soil of these barbarians. "

The 2025 War on the Rocks Holiday Reading List It wouldn’t be the holidays without our annual War on the Rocks book roundup. Check off your gift list or pick a book to enjoy by the fire. Happy reading.

The @warontherocks.bsky.social
holiday reading list is out. My two recommendations this year:
@jrovner.bsky.social 's Strategy & Grand Strategy & The Arsenal of Democracy: Technology, Industry & Deterrence in an Age of Hard Choices by Ecyk Freymann & Harry Halem
warontherocks.com/2025/11/the-...

How the Frontier Spirit and the Outback Temperament Collide in AUKUS Ten months was a long wait for Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s first visit to the Trump White House. But the timing — just days before

"In America, the frontier bred a myth of conquest & continual striving — restless, inventive, & impatient with limits. In Australia, it was a myth of endurance & communal resilience." Great, historically-informed piece on 🇺🇸/🇦🇺 alliance in @warontherocks.bsky.social
warontherocks.com/2025/11/how-...

Vladimir Putin’s sickening statistic: 1m Russian casualties in Ukraine His regime uses payouts to salve Russian families’ grief

"Before November ends, Russia will probably suffer its millionth casualty since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, based on current trends of about 1,000-1,200 soldiers killed or injured every day."

Andrew Neil's message to Paris attackers - BBC News YouTube video by BBC News

I remember the effect this stirring monologue by Andrew Neil , full of righteous fury and moral clarity, had on me ten years ago, after hours spent frantically checking on the safety and whereabouts of my family & loved ones in Paris. Well worth rewatching

m.youtube.com/watch?v=WIKg...

From the Trenches to Mordor and Back: World War I and British Fantasy Literature In 1889, two and a half decades before the outbreak of World War I, Mark Twain published a short and whimsical novel entitled A Yankee in King Arthur’s

On Veterans/Armistice Day, re-upping the piece that, out all of my essays for @warontherocks.bsky.social over the years, was perhaps the most meaningful—and enjoyable—to write

warontherocks.com/2018/10/from...

With thanks to Jim Mitre, Joel Predd, Matan Chorev, Ed Geist, Ankit Panda, Rebecca Hersman & Emma Borden for their thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this work.

An Algorithmic Loosening of the Atomic Screw? Artificial Intelligence and Nuclear Deterrence - Modern War Institute “It did not take atomic weapons to make man want peace. But the atomic bomb was the turn of the screw. The atomic bomb made the prospect of future war unendurable. It has led up those last few steps t...

What might the growing use and integration of advanced AI mean for nuclear stability and deterrence? Delighted to see this research get published today by the Modern War Institute at Westpoint:

mwi.westpoint.edu/an-algorithm...

Fascinating paper from IFRI, and the framing itself is a sign of the times - a Europe-Russia power balance.

The intro sets the scene in stark words: "European countries can no longer avoid the “Russian Question” as Russia has chosen war."

A narrow Pacific waterway is at the heart of U.S. plans to choke China’s vast navy The U.S. has deployed troops and anti-ship missiles into the northern Philippines as part of almost continuous, joint war drills throughout the country. One goal: to block the Bashi Channel and deny Chinese warships access to the Pacific Ocean if Beijing attacks Taiwan.

“By divine design, we have been put here, the archipelago has been put here,” said Rear Admiral Roy Trinidad, the Philippine Navy’s spokesperson. “It just so happened that we are the toll gate between the South China Sea and the Pacific Ocean.”

www.reuters.com/investigatio...

Possibly more relevant than sightings near airports

One Bookstore, 3 Sisters and 100 Years

Lovely story on perhaps my favorite place in New York
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/01/n...

Project Gutenberg is one of those places that exemplifies what the internet was initially all about: studying, preserving, and celebrating the arts, especially the written word, and Greg Newby was a huge part of that.

Thank you, Greg, and rest well.

Thanks Frank, very kind.

Thank you, I will.

Thanks!

Thanks Emma—very kind.