Dr. Nagl, General John J. Pershing Professor of Warfighting Studies at the U.S. Army War College, brings both combat experience and deep scholarship to this urgent conversation. In his recent presentations, Dr. Nagl has posed a sobering question: If it is 1938 again, and this time the Czechs are fighting back, what should we do to prepare? This forum will challenge us to grapple with that very question.
Russia’s war in Ukraine shows no signs of a near-term conclusion. Three NSF-NV contributors and national security experts—R.M. Huffstutler, K. Hansen, and J. Woodworth—offer a sobering yet essential analysis of where the conflict stands and what may lie ahead. Their key insights provide our community with a clear-eyed view of the strategic stakes for the United States, NATO, and the global order.
For most of the last two centuries, and certainly the last seven decades, the United States has had the good fortune to rely on a national security posture rooted in deterrence and military engagement overseas. In the post 9/11 era the US military has been primarily focused on wars and counterinsurgency actions against non-state actors in numerous theaters around the world.
NTI reports there are 13,100 nuclear weapons in the world, 9 nuclear armed countries – the US, Russia, United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, North Korea, and Israel (undeclared) – and 22 countries with significant quantities of weapons-usable nuclear materials that may be at risk of theft or proliferation.
As we near the one-year anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the United States our NATO allies, and much of the world has been both horrified by ongoing brutality of the Russian assault and inspired by the resilience of President Zelensky, Ukrainian warfighters, and most notably, the Ukrainian people.
