SpaceX’s Starship SN8 prototype shortly after liftoff from Boca Chica, Texas.

July 15, 2025

T-BIRRD: Transforming the Future of Military and Humanitarian Logistics

The adage “amateurs discuss tactics, professionals discuss logistics” resonates more profoundly than ever in an age of rapid technological advancements and global challenges.

A woman is shown with facial recognition technology overlaying her face. On the left side of the image is a digital rendering of her smiling face with facial landmark points connected by lines, and on the right, the actual woman’s face is covered by a shaded facial map with similar landmarks. Blue rectangular frames highlight both the rendered and actual faces, indicating biometric analysis.

July 15, 2025

Finding Deepfakes: A Tabletop Exercise About AI, Decisionmaking, and Algorithmic Performance

Early in the scenario, participants discover algorithmic limitations in an artificial intelligence (AI)-based deepfake detection tool.

Jefferson Memorial in Washington, DC

July 15, 2025

The Philosophical Foundations of the Civil-Military Relationship

It is not uncommon to hear the phrase “civil-military relations” used as shorthand for “subordination of the military to civilian authority.”

U.S. Air Force Special Tactics Operators assigned to the 24th Special Operations Wing, U.S. Army Special Forces Operators and Ukrainian Special Operations Forces execute a bi-lateral military free fall from a U.S. Air Force MC-130J Commando II assigned to the 352d Special Operations Wing near Vinnytsia, Ukraine

July 15, 2025

Building Strategic Lethality: Special Operations Models for Joint Force Learning and Leader Development

The resurgence of Great Power competition as a dominant feature of the international environment brings a measure of certainty to the joint force.

U.S. Marine Corps Sgt. Raylin Carter, an aerial observer from Oklahoma with Marine Medium Tiltrotor Squadron (VMM) 362 (Reinforced), 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit, participates in flight operations with AH-1Z Viper pilots during a strait transit, Jan. 9, 2023.

July 15, 2025

From High Seas to Highlands: Framing U.S. Defense Strategy With Southeast Asia’s Geography

The 2022 U.S. National Security Strategy prioritized competing with China, and this focus seems likely to continue with the new administration.

People’s Liberation Army Air Force J-10 fighter jet under Southern Theater Command fires rockets at simulated ground targets during live-fire flight training exercise.

July 15, 2025

Rightsizing the PLA Air Force: Revisiting an Analytic Framework

Modernization of the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has been an important priority for the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) due to the strategic importance of airpower in modern military campaigns.

Supreme Court of the United States

July 15, 2025

Is Mobilization a Major Question?

It is early 2027, and Chinese provocations in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait continue to escalate, as they have since 2018.

Representatives from the 469th Combat Support Sustainment Battalion overseeing administration for mobilizing Soldiers calculate unit throughput during the Level 1 Mobilization Tabletop Exercise, July 16-17, 2022, Fort McCoy, Wis.

July 15, 2025

Executive Summary

Having been a part of joint professional military education (JPME) for nearly 20 years and editor of this journal—dedicated to the joint force and the concept of jointness—for a decade and a half, every day I see the power that our war colleges and this journal give to our students, our graduates, senior leaders of the joint force, the interagency community, our partners and allies, and the interested public around the globe.

Soldier moves across rope during Wolf Blitz 25 at Grafenwoehr Training Area, Germany.

July 15, 2025

Joint Force Quarterly 118 (3rd Quarter 2025)

This issue of Joint Force Quarterly addresses key strategic, operational, and doctrinal questions shaping the future of the joint force.

"The German Defense-Industrial Zeitenwende: Implications for Transatlantic Security" by Brett Swaney, part of the Strategic Perspectives series (number 44) from the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS). The top section features the INSS logo and publication details. Below, a dramatic image shows industrial workers in heat-resistant suits working near a large foundry furnace with molten metal and sparks flying. The bottom includes the seal of the National Defense University and credits the INSS Center for Strategy and Military Power.

June 30, 2025

The German Defense-Industrial Zeitenwende: Implications for Transatlantic Security

The Zeitenwende, or “watershed moment”—announced by Chancellor Olaf Scholz in February 2022, days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—outlined a set of policy shifts, including the development of Germany’s first-ever National Security Strategy, that appeared to signal a greater role for Germany in the defense and security of Europe.