The Strategist – At sea, drones are disruptive, but they are not decisive. They complicate the maritime fight, but they do not replace the enduring strategic logic of sea power.

CIMSEC – Just as oil fueled the mechanized warfare of the 20^th century, electricity is becoming the foundational resource for militaries of the 21^st century. Echoing First Lord of the Admiralty Winston Churchill’s historic decision to switch the Royal Navy from domestic coal to imported oil, today’s energy transition means the ability to generate, store, and deliver electricity will increasingly dictate national power. In order to meet this urgent challenge, the United States government and military must treat grid expansion as a national security priority by creating “Defense Energy Security Zones” to expedite federal permitting, intentionally and aggressively leveraging the Defense Production Act (DPA) to secure critical grid components, and integrating power resilience into how the Pentagon chooses to fund firms that produce munitions and weapon systems.

CIMSEC – The strategic situation, in other words, is not that the United States might defend Taiwan and suffer severe consequences. It is that choosing not to defend Taiwan would impose even greater long-term costs on American power. The preferred outcome remains a peaceful resolution that maintains preservation of Taiwan’s democratic autonomy and the cross-Strait status quo. But a peaceful appeasement that effectively abandons Taiwan to coercive unification would be cataclysmic for America and the entirety of the western world.