Every time a news outlet reports that a vessel has been attacked in the Red Sea, the Persian Gulf or the Gulf of Aden, the source is almost always the same: UKMTO. For most readers the name appears, is ignored, and the article moves on. But understanding what UKMTO actually
In the early days of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, a Turkish-made drone called the Bayraktar TB2 became an unlikely symbol of resistance. Videos of it destroying Russian tanks were posted across the internet. Few people at the time understood that this was only the beginning, and
World War One ended in 1918 with Germany defeated, humiliated and economically in big trouble. The peace terms imposed by the victors created the conditions that greatly contributed to an even larger war just twenty years later. World War Two was in some ways a direct continuation, the unfinished business
On the morning of June 28, 1914, a nineteen-year-old student fired two shots in a Sarajevo street. Within six weeks, the great powers of Europe were at war. Four years later, 20 million people were dead. Understanding how one assassination resulted in the deadliest war in human history to that
When a crisis or conflict breaks out somewhere in the world, one of the most important questions asked is: "Where are the carriers?", and then mainly the US carriers since those are the most powerful ones. That question alone tells you everything about what an aircraft carrier means
It gets mentioned around almost every major international conflict: The UN Security Council condemned this. The UN Security Council failed to act on that. A resolution in the UN Security Council was blocked. But what actually is the Security Council, who sits at that table, and why can one country
We have all heard of them and they are the most destructive weapons ever built. But what are they? Who has them? How many? And what kind? A single nuclear weapon that is dropped on a city, can kill hundreds of thousands of people within seconds. Understanding what these weapons
You've heard the name a thousand times. NATO. Politicians, generals and adversaries all talk about it. But what actually is NATO and why is one single article in its founding treaty always mentioned? The Basic Idea NATO stands for the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. It was founded in