Tag Pentagon

Iran Insight: “Rescue Mission”

Was the celebrated U.S. “rescue mission” in Iran in fact a failed covert nuclear recovery operation? Michael Hollister reconstructs the inconsistencies, military patterns, and operational clues surrounding the downing of an F-15E, the destruction of special operations aircraft near Isfahan, and the trail of 200 kilograms of missing highly enriched uranium. The article challenges Washington’s official hero narrative and points toward a far more consequential mission that may never have been about rescuing a stranded colonel at all.

Atlantic Council: The Chessboard of Opinion Makers

Foreign policy “expertise” in Washington is not a neutral space - it is a market. Millions from Gulf states and defense contractors flow into think tanks that simultaneously analyze, legitimize, and help prepare wars. This article uses concrete cases and data to expose how influence operates without ever being openly declared - and why “independent analysis” often isn’t.

From RAND Study to National Security Strategy

The U.S. National Security Strategy of November 2025 pivots to the Pacific, declares Russia irrelevant, and effectively designates the EU as an adversary. What appears to be Trump's whim is the verbatim implementation of RAND studies from 2016 and 2017. America's most influential think tank war-gamed a conflict with China and defined a "window until 2035" for military superiority. Today, these recommendations appear word-for-word in official U.S. doctrine. RAND plans – Washington executes.