Phillips Payson O’Brien

Tanks for Ukraine Have Shifted the Balance of Power in Europe

Smaller countries forced NATO’s greatest powers to give Ukraine the vehicles it needs.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• January 27, 2023

Time Is on Ukraine’s Side, Not Russia’s

The Ukrainians will win if they keep getting better weapons.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• January 14, 2023

What Zelensky Needs From Washington

Beyond weapons and ammunition, Ukraine also seeks assurances of sustained U.S. support.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• December 21, 2022

What Trump and Musk Don’t Get About Russia’s Nuclear Threats

Putin’s hollow rhetoric warrants no concessions from the West.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• December 21, 2022

The Future of American Warfare Is Unfolding in Ukraine

Aid to Ukrainian forces is achieving more than the long U.S. intervention in Afghanistan did.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• November 25, 2022

Russia Just Showed Why It’s Floundering in Ukraine

Indiscriminate violence reveals Putin’s powerlessness to overcome Ukrainian resistance.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• October 12, 2022

What Ted Cruz and Tucker Carlson Don’t Understand About War

On the modern battlefield, brains and adaptability yield far better results than ruthless brutality does.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• September 28, 2022

Ukraine Pulled Off a Masterstroke

Ukrainian leaders announced one counteroffensive against Russia—but had another in the works.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• September 12, 2022

Ukraine Is Waging a New Kind of War

The fight to retake the city of Kherson plays to the Ukrainians’ strengths, not the Russians’.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• September 8, 2022

An Army Alone Doesn’t Make You a Great Power

We focus too much on military force instead of considering economic, technological, social, and political structures.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• July 26, 2022

Ukraine Has Exposed Russia as a Not-So-Great Power

Kyiv’s success against Moscow forces us to reexamine our assumptions about what it means to be powerful.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• July 1, 2022

War Will Never Be This Bulky Again

Russia’s botched invasion has illustrated the diminishing power of heavy and expensive military power.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• May 26, 2022

The Overlooked Reason Russia’s Invasion Is Floundering

Russia has failed to understand the importance of airpower.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien and Edward Stringer
• May 9, 2022

Why Ukraine Is Winning

Ukraine’s success illuminates a strategy that has allowed a smaller state to—so far—outlast a larger and much more powerful one.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• April 8, 2022

How the West Got Russia’s Military So, So Wrong

Good equipment and clever doctrine reveal little about how an army will perform in a war.

• Phillips Payson O’Brien
• March 31, 2022