Bernard FW Loo

. @MaxBoot makes solid points in today's @washingtonpost about the Navy Secretary's firing & the battleship program. The Iowa-class battleships were impressive — you should tour one. But they are museums for a reason. In the age of drone swarms, hypersonic missiles, and stealthy submarines, concentrating firepower in a handful of enormous, expensive, and easily targeted platforms is the wrong direction. The "Golden Fleet" sounds good. Distributed firepower across many smaller, faster, unmanned platforms is a better strategy. wapo.st/3P4vSWL

This piece rewrites the story behind "On Guerrilla Warfare." It identifies the original Chinese text and exposes how Anglophone scholarship inflated Mao’s role while overlooking his collaborators. smallwarsjournal.com/2026/04/24/pro… #SWJEssay @RSIS_NTU

Treat EVERYTHING that comes from this family and the current White House with caution! bbc.com/news/articles/…

NEW: Donald Trump has told countries seeking a permanent seat on the new Board of Peace that they must pay at least $1 billion, with Trump serving as chair of the board overseeing the fund. —Bloomberg

I spoke about Trump’s bid for Greenland and its implications for European security on the @USP_RSIS podcast this week. With events moving at a dizzying pace, I tried to add some historical perspective. Thanks to the great @CollinSLKoh & @kxachen for the invitation & discussion.

bbc.com/news/articles/… This IS NOT a peace deal. It is a shake-down by the United States, in cahoots with Russia. The "total and complete comprehensive non-aggression agreement between Russia, Ukraine and Europe" and "security guarantees" aren’t worth spit!

Nobel Peace Prize awarded to Venezuelan opposition figure Maria Corina Machado, described as a "brave and committed champion of peace." Follow live updates: cnn.it/42VoZLp

Let’s be clear: The creeping annexation of the occupied West Bank is illegal. It must stop. The wholesale destruction of Gaza is intolerable. It must stop. Unilateral actions that would forever undermine the two-state solution are unacceptable. They must stop.

channelnewsasia.com/singapore/saf-… You really want to do this? Then educate your rank and file, it’ll be absolutely necessary. But you don’t have the time in a conscription system

@CollinSLKoh 🤣🤣🤣

"China... like other ASEAN member states, firmly opposes the US deployment of medium-range and land-based anti-ship missile systems in the Philippines as it will undoubtedly undermine peace and stability in the South China Sea region." Who are those other ASEAN member states? 🤷🏽‍♂️

Lyudmila Vasilyeva, an 82-year-old survivor of the Nazi siege of Leningrad in World War II and a staunch critic of the war in Ukraine, was caught exchanging heated words with police officers in the centre of St. Petersburg .

bbc.com/news/articles/… If you're expecting sympathy ...

This is insane

In labelling Zelenskyy as a dictator, does that mean Dump-Trump doesn’t get irony? Does he think that it is—borrowing from Blackadder—irony is like “goldy” or “bronzey”, but made of iron?

Describing history as a “chain of events” is a terrible metaphor. It's more like the vast roots of a big tree, where numerous causes come together to shape an event and countless consequences branch out. Single-cause explanations for events in history are more akin to conspiracy theories than actual science. Watch the rest of the interview with @AriMelber for @MSNBC here: bit.ly/TheBeatYNH Filmed on November 14th, 2023. #history #chainofevents #metaphor #conspiracy

RIP, Professor Christopher Coker. Those of us at RSIS who were lucky to have met you and worked with you always marvelled at your dedication, enthusiasm and generosity of spirit. A huge loss for the Strategic/War Studies community

‼️❗️Long post on Russia's war on Ukraine. For 18 months now, Western analysts and policymakers have been trying to understand and predict Russia's actions in its ongoing war on Ukraine. A common mistake made by them is to view the war through the lens of Western values and objectives, which lead to misinterpretations of Russia's strategy and goals. To truly understand the Russian calculus, one must consider the viewpoints and sentiments expressed by the highest echelons of Russian leadership. A clear window into this calculus is provided by the recent post by Dmitry Medvedev on Telegram, a member of Vladimir Putin's inner circle. In the first part, Medvedev said "A defeat of the West in Ukraine is inevitable. And may their leaders, who have overlooked the needs of their own citizens, loudly proclaim their commitment to supporting the remnants of Ukraine with arms and funds for as long as required. They'll prepare soldiers for the meat grinder in Kiev and strive to reconstruct the crumbling economy of the Banderite system. They will persist with their excessive sanctions against Russia. But it will be in vain. Why?" In this part, Medvedev implies Russia's resolve to go all the way in a protracted war of attrition. As a test of resilience, Russia signals that it is ready for a war of attrition and indicates that they're prepared for a long-term confrontation, not just in terms of military engagement but also in the economic, political, and informational arenas. This signals a belief in their own resilience and a test of Western endurance. It is about psychological warfare too. By communicating unyielding resolve, Russia aims to demoralize the Ukrainian side and the West, potentially leading them to make concessions or seeking a premature settlement. Medvedev continues: "For the West, it's a distant war where unfamiliar lives are lost. While they might not mourn these losses, the West will never cross the line where it jeopardizes its own interests, regardless of their rhetoric at summits and the UN. A war fought on foreign soil eventually becomes tiresome, expensive, and inconsequential. But for us, it's a heart-wrenching conflict involving our kin. It's a battle for our very existence. A fight for survival. It's either us or them." This statement confirms that Putin's decision to launch a war on Ukraine has turned it into an existential war for Russia, which raises the stakes. The West must employ strategic thinking in its military aid planning for Ukraine. The goal should be to enable Kyiv to not only withstand Russian assaults but also inflict substantial military damage on Russia, potentially triggering political, economic, and military tipping points. Medvedev further continues: "As time progresses, the Western leadership will shift, their elites will become weary, and will seek negotiations and a cessation of the conflict. Their counter-offensives will lose momentum. They will mourn the deceased and heal their injuries. However, we cannot relent until the existing Ukrainian state, which is inherently terrorist, is fully taken apart. It needs to be razed to the ground, leaving no trace behind. It should be ensured that this entity can never resurface, under any conditions. If it requires years or even decades, then that's the necessary time. We're faced with an unavoidable decision: either we eliminate their adversarial political system, or the united West will, in time, aim to overpower Russia. In such a scenario, they will also face dire consequences. Nobody wishes for that outcome." The West must recognize that Russia's primary objective remains the complete political and economic domination of Ukraine. Moscow is also playing a waiting game, banking on the periodic political shifts within democracies. It anticipates that the often uninformed Western electorate might vote out their current governments in favor of more Russia-friendly administrations. Such shifts could pressure Ukraine into accepting a frozen conflict or entering peace negotiations that involve territorial concessions. Finally, Medvedev admits: "Hence, there is only one path forward - the complete dissolution of the governing machinery of the adversarial nation and unequivocal assurances of allegiance for the future. Only by exerting Russian oversight over all occurrences, both present and future, in the territories of the erstwhile Banderite nation can we attain this. And we are determined to achieve it." The West must wake up to the reality that the previously conceived European security architecture was obliterated on February 24, 2022. Russia is intent on completely subduing the second largest European state, aiming to break the will of the Ukrainian political elite and the segment of its population determined to defend their nation's sovereignty. This situation is unequivocally win-lose, and no attempts at reconciliation or negotiation can alter this fact. #Velsig #geopolitics #Medvedev #Russia #Ukraine

Commentary: BRICS is neither the anti-West nor a bloc channelnewsasia.com/commentary/bri…. It never helps a club when one member can’t show up because the International Criminal Court has a warrant out for their arrest.

Message from the Dean of RSIS, Professor Kumar Ramakrishna. fb.watch/m0kWQI_Ipz/ via @FacebookWatch