James Stavridis

Just as it appeared that China and India had reached a détente after weeks of military escalation at their Himalayan border, Chinese troops have reportedly killed at least 20 Indian soldiers, and may have suffered their own casualties. The first deadly border clash since the mid-1970s shows just…

The long-running Libyan civil war appears to be staggering toward a finale. In recent days, the forces of Gen. Khalifa Haftar have been forced to withdraw from their stalled offensive against the capital, Tripoli. It is a triumph for the Government of National Accord, led by Fayez al-Sarraj. But…

I spent most of my seagoing career in the Pacific, and sailed many times through the humid waters of the South China Sea. It’s a big body of water, the size of the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico combined. The sea bottom is full of oil and natural gas. Nearly 40% of the world’s international shipping…

President Donald Trump sent a warning shot across the bow of Iran last month, tweeting that any further “harassment” of US warships by Tehran’s navy in the Gulf would result in the destruction of the Iranian units. The tweet was evidently a response to videos of Iranian ships behaving badly, and…

The Covid-19 pandemic is a bracing national security challenge — and how the country responds is doubly crucial, since biological history tells us that another, potentially more lethal, pathogen is inevitable. The US military can play a valuable role in helping to fight the next pandemic, if the…

A common military phrase that I heard again and again, from long sea voyages to the mountains of Afghanistan, is that “amateurs talk strategy, but professionals talk logistics.” Sometimes attributed to General of the Army Omar Bradley, it simply means that even the best strategies and tactics will…

I have been a ship captain, a commodore in charge of a group of destroyers, and an admiral in command of a carrier strike group with a nuclear aircraft carrier, the USS Enterprise. In the course of my career, I made many hard choices at sea in both peace and combat — but I never faced the kind of…