Iskander Rehman
@irehman.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at UT Austin's Clement Center. Author of "Planning for Protraction" and "Iron Imperator." Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council. Applied history, defense strategy & Asian security.
Terrific to meet Lindsay Powell here in Austin and chat all things Ancient Rome after having followed his scholarship for so many years. His most recent biography of Tiberius is a must-read for anyone with an interest in military strategy and statecraft.
Highly recommend this investigative podcast series on Asma Assad, Syria and the fall of the Assad regime. Fascinating on multiple levels—reminded me of Tacitus in its unflinching analysis of the moral rot and cruelty at the heart of dictatorial systems. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
We call her Emma | Tortoise Investigates
Documentary Podcast · Weekly Series · Emma is a high achieving, middle class girl from west London. She seems destined for a successful career in banking and a comfortable British life. Until she make...
podcasts.apple.com
Somewhat underwhelmed by Nolan’s drug-addled, gruff, PTSD-afflicted portrayal of wily Odysseus but delighted that several translations of the Odyssey are now on Amazon’s bestseller list. My contemporary favorite would be Mendelsohn’s translation. www.jsusannewilson.com/post/best-od...
The Best Odyssey Translations Compared: Wilson, Fagles, Lattimore & More
Choosing a translation of Homer’s Odyssey is not like choosing between editions of the same novel. Every translator reshapes the poem in subtle but significant ways: its rhythm, tone, morality, and ev...
jsusannewilson.com
Remarkable graphic design (& reporting) from Reuters. www.reuters.com/graphics/UKR...
Inside Ukraine’s Kill Zone
Drones now dominate the war in Ukraine. Fly through the front line’s deadly “kill zone” and discover how surveillance, kamikaze drones and new tactics are reshaping modern warfare. An immersive Reuter...
reuters.com
First week here at the Clements Center for National Security at UT Austin. Grateful for the warm Texan welcome—it’s a true privilege to join an institution with such a strong focus on statecraft, defense and public policy.
For a scholar of military strategy, being invited by Vauban’s descendant to stay in his castle was a dream come true. Expect some more published work from me—drawing on his family’s private archives—on this titan of military engineering & siegecraft some time in the near future.
“What counts most,” he said, “is an individual’s capacity to understand and grasp ideas.” Loved this NYT piece on one of the most revered--and feared--examinations for all French high schoolers--the 4 hour philosophy essay. www.nytimes.com/2026/06/19/w...
What Does It All Mean? Once a Year, French Students Try to Explain.
nytimes.com
"Authoritarian regimes are gaining invaluable battlefield experience: Direct involvement allows for rapid experimentation and feedback, from North Korean troop deployments to Russian drone innovation."
HCSS - The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies@hcss.bsky.social · 4mo agoUkraine is not just a war. It is a laboratory. A new HCSS guest paper by Dr. @irehman.bsky.social shows how today’s conflict mirrors the Spanish Civil War—a proving ground for future warfare.
Finnish legislators vote to lift the country's ban on nuclear weapons: "The measure clears the way for Finland to receive, transport and otherwise facilitate the movement of nuclear weapons on its territory as part of allied defense operations" www.politico.eu/article/finl...
Finland tears up nuclear weapons ban in NATO shift
The decision clears the way for Helsinki to receive, transport and facilitate the movement of nuclear weapons on its territory as part of allied defense operations.
politico.eu
Tom Dans, the new chair of the US Arctic Research Commission: “My view is that the US could take all the seafood Greenland could produce, & cut out the middleman, & keep it from China—& you could bring back all-you-can-eat shrimp at Red Lobster." www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...
Inside the Ludicrous, Deadly Serious Plan to Take Over Greenland
“We want Greenland,” Trump said. Four men sprang into action to make fantasy a reality.
newyorker.com
Churchill ranked Far Eastern defense last. Whether that was defensible or made Singapore's fall inevitable is still debated. warontherocks.com/the-fall-of-...
The Fall of Fortress Singapore: Three Lessons from the Collapse of Britain’s Great Asian Bastion
Editor’s note: This is part of a running series of essays by Iskander Rehman, entitled “Applied History,” which seeks, through the study of the history of
warontherocks.com
📚 Book talk alert! 📚 Join us next Tuesday for the launch of @wdjames.bsky.social's new co-edited book: 'Transatlantic Storms in Anglo-American Relations: How the Alliance Weathers Crises'. 📅 Tue, 23 Jun, 12:00-13:15 📍 King's College London
Transatlantic Storms in Anglo-American Relations: How the Alliance Weathers Crises - CSNS | Centre for Statecraft & National Security
csns.uk
Today in War on the Rocks: The Fall of Fortress Singapore: Three Lessons from the Collapse of Britain’s Great Asian Bastion warontherocks.com/
Home
A platform for analysis, commentary, debate and multimedia content on foreign policy and national security issues through a realist lens.
warontherocks.com
In my latest for @warontherocks.bsky.social I delve into one of Britain's most crushing defeats--the 1942 collapse of the great Asian bastion of Singapore--and its lessons for contemporary defense planners and policymakers. warontherocks.com/the-fall-of-...
The Fall of Fortress Singapore: Three Lessons from the Collapse of Britain’s Great Asian Bastion
Editor’s note: This is part of a running series of essays by Iskander Rehman, entitled “Applied History,” which seeks, through the study of the history of
warontherocks.com
Good story on how interceptor-starved Ukrainians "have watched in frustration bordering on horror as footage showed Gulf states in some instances using multiple Patriot missiles to shoot down a single cheap, slow-moving drone." www.nytimes.com/2026/06/13/w...
In Latest Attacks, Russia Is Exploiting a Major Weakness for Ukraine
nytimes.com
New informative interview with @michaelkofman.bsky.social Some key points: - 🇷🇺 mil performance is worse, 🇺🇦 is better - importance of 🇺🇦 "middle strike" - estimates over 400K Russian fatalities - challenge of the 🇷🇺 campaign against critical infrastructure - 🇷🇺 demands unreasonable - war continues
How Ukraine Put Russia on the Back Foot in Year 5 of the War
Military analyst Michael Kofman says “time is increasingly not on Russia’s side.”
nymag.com
“The mythological analogy which immediately springs to mind is that of the biblical Tower of Babel (…) Myths provide some of the most powerful & easily accessible thought experiments on ethics, innovation & power – something the Ancients well understood." engelsbergideas.com/essays/makin...
Making sense of the AI revolution
In order to understand the profound transformations, and boundless potential, unleashed by artificial intelligence, we need to expand our own intellectual horizons into the realms of history, the natu...
engelsbergideas.com
Axios@axios.com · 2mo agoPope Leo XIV is warning that the AI race could become a new Tower of Babel — a dazzling human achievement that concentrates power, weakens truth and turns people into data points.
"Success depends on keeping air operations functioning under fire, maintaining operational reach through contested refueling, and integrating offensive counter-air operations that reduce enemy abilities to maintain salvo rates." Some razor-sharp analysis here.
Missiles Aren’t Strategy: Lessons From Iran for a Pacific Air War
Western airpower debates are increasingly driven by grim math. Analysts tally missile inventories, strike ranges, and sortie-generation capacity against a
warontherocks.com
If you're looking for an intelligent, nuanced application of elements of Thucydides' sprawling and complex work to contemporary security challenges, I highly recommend this recent piece by @jrovner.bsky.social : www.foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/r...
The Real Thucydides Trap
Overconfidence could draw America and China into a war.
foreignaffairs.com
China fields a military where 70-80% of soldiers are only children. Every battlefield death risks extinguishing a family line. This demographic reality shapes Xi's strategic calculus in ways Western analysis should pay more attention to. mickryan.substack.com/p/one-child-...
One Child, One Soldier
China fields a military where 70-80% of soldiers are only children. In this article, I explore how China's One-Child Policy is shaping the PLA and Xi's strategic calculus.
mickryan.substack.com
Having long admired their intellectual mission & work on strategy and statecraft, I'm thrilled to share that I will be moving down to Austin this summer and joining the Clements Center for National Security as a tenure-track Assistant Professor.
As a proud Sciences Po alumnus who also spent a year as a wide-eyed young exchange student at Johns Hopkins this saddens me to a certain degree. Both I and my Hopkins classmates greatly benefited--intellectually, culturally--from the free flow of student exchanges between our two institutions.
Kathleen Bachynski@bachynski.bsky.social · 3mo ago“Applications from the United States to Sciences Po’s bachelor’s program surged 52% this academic year, while the number of Sciences Po students applying to study for a year in the United States has plunged by 50%. For the first time ever, America is not the first choice for its undergraduates”
Happy anniversary of the capture of the Strait of Hormuz in 1622 by a combined Safavid Empire and British East India Company fleet, to all who celebrate.
"Easy reading is damn hard writing." "Forget the books you want to write. Think only of the book you are writing." This little compendium of the daily routines of famous writers, from Hemingway to Murakami, is now a bookmarked article I return to time and time again. jamesclear.com/daily-routin...
The Daily Routines of 12 Famous Writers
What to develop better daily routines? Read this article to discover the daily habits of famous writers and how you can use their strategies.
jamesclear.com
On vacation in wild and beautiful Brittany, I’m reminded of one of my favorite news stories of the year—across coastal Brittany, Breton fishermen have been donating hundreds of miles of fishing nets to Ukraine: www.theguardian.com/world/2025/n...
Old fishing nets from France become vital protection against Russian drones in Ukraine
Fishers from the Brittany coast are sending horse-hair nets to catch weapons and shield civilians and soldiers
theguardian.com
This unreliability of delivery will not only damage allied trust, it will also incentivize diversification away from U.S. suppliers.
Shipwreck@shipwreck75.bsky.social · 4mo agoUS has informed multiple NATO allies, including Lithuania and Estonia, that the delivery of their purchased U.S. military equipment may be delayed due to the war in Iran. -Reuters
« Historical thinking is, for military professionals, both a personal discipline and an organizational responsibility. We are expected to cultivate judgment through disciplined study of the past, mentorship, and reflection on historical cases. » Excellent piece. www.belfercenter.org/research-ana...
A Martial Approach to Applied History: How the U.S. Military Turns History into Judgment
belfercenter.org
Defense planners often talk about the mind-warpingly vast distances in Indo-Pacific. I find that rereading WWII memoirs and dispatches (here from the great Ernie Pyle) really helps drive that reality home. (1/4)
Annual pilgrimage to the Renaissance & Medieval Armory at the Invalides. Never disappoints.
