Defense Opinion is the essential non-partisan outlet for commentary on national security, defense spending and weapons systems. Learn More
Pressure to rapidly implement and deploy artificial intelligence systems often comes at the cost of security.
The 2025 conflict between India and Pakistan marked an important chapter in testing the S-400 air defense technology.
Justin Sanchez • JANUARY 5, 2026
Elevating AI and chips to national priorities is essential, but it’s also time to give biotechnology and biosecurity the same strategic focus. The U.S. should stop treating biosecurity as a low-visibility, high-impact endeavor and recommit to biotechnology as a launchpad for economic prosperity, with biosecurity as the guardrails that keep us accelerating in the right direction into the future.
Iran may well lay mines in small numbers, but it is unlikely to produce expansive, carefully engineered minefields on the scale Iraq achieved in 1990.
If we can’t produce components needed for our most advanced weapon systems domestically, then we could find ourselves at the mercy of stalled global supply chains.
In Iran, the prison cell, the gallows and the battlefield are connected.
South Korea has a robust navy that could help in Hormuz. A closer look reveals that its core ships are intricately integrated with deterrence on the Korean peninsula.
Europe should aim to stand on its own feet and, where it can, set the pace.
This is not a debate about manned versus unmanned, nor about exquisite versus cheap. It is about operational effectiveness.
Subscribe to receive our commentaries as they are published.