6 columns on concluded engagements from modern wars in the news, analysed around their decision points, with maps, charts and numbered sources.
- A Taiwan blockade drill without a name? China's unannounced sea deployment and the Bashi Channel, Taiwan's southern gate
In November 2026 China announced no Taiwan blockade drill, yet its weight appeared to fall south of Taiwan, towards the Bashi Channel and the open sea beyond. We look at what the '100 vessels' figure actually counted, whether this was closer to a blockade, a quarantine or an exercise, and what it means for South Korea's sea lanes.
- Is the Strait of Hormuz closed? Why a few mines can stop a sea lane
As of 5 November 2026 the Strait of Hormuz is neither shut nor properly open. This column checks Iranian and American claims about tankers hitting mines against independent data, draws on the mine wars at Wonsan, in the Tanker War and in the 1991 Gulf War, and sets out what South Korea's proposed Cheonghae Unit expansion does and does not cover.
- North Korea's grey-zone pressure: is it weaponising the border instead of going to war?
In autumn 2026 the western front saw a mine blast, a surge in crossings of the Military Demarcation Line, self-propelled guns parked in plain view and a threat to switch the propaganda loudspeakers back on. We check the public evidence for full-scale war preparation, then weigh hypotheses and scenarios to ask which of Russia's European grey-zone methods are likely to reach the Korean peninsula.
- North Kordofan's dry season: can the desert-flank push relieve El Obeid?
The Sudanese army and the Joint Forces say they have pushed from Bara into the north-western semi-desert and taken Sodari and al-Mazroub. We read the push as an attack on one RSF supply axis and use competing hypotheses and scenarios to ask whom the coming dry season favours.
- From Wagner to Africa Corps: three years of Russian military expansion in Africa
After Wagner's founder died, Russia's MoD folded its African networks into the "Africa Corps". The deals survived; the combat role narrowed. A look at 2023–2026 through official documents and major wire-service and research reporting.
- Drone warfare in Ukraine: why moving became the most dangerous act
With drones watching about 15 km behind the line, rotation, resupply and casualty evacuation became one bottleneck: the war's "movement-cost regime".