A nation must think before it acts.
For three decades, American grand strategy has rested on what Barry Posen termed “Command of the Commons”: an unrivaled ability to project power across the globe. The opening 96 hours of Operation Epic Fury against Iran suggest this paradigm has shifted. The decisive factor in modern, high-end conflict has become more than just standoff strikes—it is about the i...
The strongest version of this narrative is that Operation Epic Fury has exposed a fundamental shift in modern warfare: the decisive factor is no longer just the ability to strike but the industrial capacity to sustain those strikes. The analysis credibly demonstrates how the Western defense industrial base (DIB) is structurally unprepared for high-intensity conflict, with single-source suppliers, mineral dependencies, and production bottlenecks creating critical vulnerabilities. The coalition’s ...