50 Great Articles and Essays about War
The best short articles and essays on war -- great war reporting from around the netRussia/Ukraine
Putin has Redrawn the World - But Not the Way He Wanted by Allan Little
We are living in new and more dangerous timesWas it Inevitable? by Keith Gessen
A short history of Russia’s war on UkraineHow Suicide Drones Transformed the Front Lines in Ukraine by C.J. Chivers
Outnumbered and desperate, the nation began hacking cheap consumer drones with explosives — bringing a brutal new form of violence to 21st-century warfareThe Deserter by Sarah A. Topol
Deserting Putin's army and the Russia-Ukraine warHow an Entire Nation Became Russia's Test Lab for Cyberwar by Andy Greenberg
Blackouts in Ukraine were just a trial run. Russian hackers are learning to sabotage infrastructure—and the US could be next.Russia’s Espionage War in the Arctic by Ben Taub
For years, Russia has been using the Norwegian town of Kirkenes, which borders its nuclear stronghold, as a laboratory, testing intelligence operations there before replicating them across EuropeIsrael/Palestine
The Road to 1948 by Emily Bazelon
How the decisions that led to the founding of Israel left the region in a state of eternal conflictScreams Without Words by Jeffrey Gettleman, Anat Schwartz and Adam Sella
How hamas weaponized sexual violence on Oct. 7How Israel Has Made Trauma a Weapon of War by Naomi Klein
Memorials to the 7 October attacks use art, virtual reality and dark tourism to stir support for limitless violenceRender it Unusable by Meron Rapoport and Oren Ziv
Israel’s mission of total urban destructionAfghanistan
Afghanistan Meant Nothing by Laura Jedeed
A veteran reflects on 20 wasted yearsHow Two U.S. Soldiers Risked It All To Get Their Families Out of a War Zone by Stephen Rodrick
As America withdrew from Kabul and the Taliban moved in, two Afghanistan-born paratroopers pulled off the impossibleThe Kabul-ki Dance By Mark Bowden
Inside the cockpit with the pilots and wizzos of the 391st Fighter Squadron, the top guns of America's air war in AfghanistanIraq
The Killer Elite by Evan Wright
A reporter rides along with the Marines on the front line in IraqWar Without End by C. J. Chivers
The Pentagon’s failed campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan left a generation of soldiers with little to fight for but one anotherWarfighter by Wil S. Hylton
What a soldier finds in combatHow One U.S. Soldier Blew the Whistle on a Cold-Blooded War Crime by William Langwiesche
On the murder of four Iraqi prisoners, the military’s response, and how one warrior fought to become a better manTuesdays with Saddam by Lisa DePaulo
Guarding the highest-profile prisoner in U.S. historyThe Ploy by Mark Bowden
How interrogators cracked Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's inner circle, without resorting to tortureIsis
An Extraordinarily Expensive Way to Fight ISIS by William Langwiesche
The tale of a bombing raid in the Libyan desert, pitting stealth bombers and 500-pound bombs against 70 ragtag fightersThe Open-Air Prison for ISIS Supporters—and Victims by Anand Gopal
Since the Islamic State fell, tens of thousands of people—many of them children—have been herded into Al-Hol, a giant fenced-in camp in Syria, and effectively given life sentencesIran
Who Was Behind The Stuxnet Attack by Ron Rosenbaum
America's longtime counterterrorism czar warns that the cyberwars have already begun--and that we might be losingThe Great Escape by Joshua Bearman
How the CIA used a fake science fiction film to sneak six Americans out of revolutionary IranNorth Korea
The Incredible Rise of North Korea’s Hacking Army by Ed Caesar
The country’s cyber forces have raked in billions of dollars for the regime by pulling off schemes ranging from A.T.M. heists to cryptocurrency thefts. Can they be stopped?How to Deal With North Korea by Mark Bowden
There are no good options. But some are worse than othersNorthern Ireland
Double Blind by Matthew Teague
The untold story of how British intelligence infiltrated and undermined the IRAWhere the Bodies Are Buried by Patrick Radden Keefe
Gerry Adams has long denied being a member of the I.R.A. But his former compatriots claim that he authorized murderVietnam
M by John Sack
A stark portrayal of a company of young soldiers preparing for war in Vietnam and what they found when they arrivedThe Vietnam Syndrome by Christopher Hitchens
A powerful expose of the ongoing nightmare caused by Agent OrangeSee also...
75 Great Articles about Politics
A collection of the best political reporting and journalismGeopolitics
How the US Created a World of Endless War by Samuel Moyn
In 2008, many of Barack Obama’s supporters hoped he would bring the global war on terror to a close. Instead, he expanded itThe Age of American Naval Dominance Is Over by Jerry Hendrix
The United States has ceded the oceans to its enemies. We can no longer take freedom of the seas for grantedHow Donald Trump Got NATO to Pay Up by Joshua Yaffa
The Administration is strong-arming European nations to do more on behalf of their own defense. Is the strategy working?75 more great articles about politics
Future War/AI
This Giant Microwave May Change the Future of War by Sam Dean
The defense tech startup Epirus has developed a cutting-edge, cost-efficient drone zapper that’s sparking the interest of the US military. Now the company has to deliver.Is the U.S. Ready for the Next War? by Dexter Filkins
With global conflicts increasingly shaped by drones and A.I., the American military risks losing its dominance.The AI-Powered, Totally Autonomous Future of War Is Here by Will Knight
Ships without crews. Self-directed drone swarms. How a US Navy task force is using off-the-shelf robotics and artificial intelligence to prepare for the next age of conflict.AI Warfare Becomes Real for US Military With Project Maven by Katrina Manson
US military operators started out skeptical about AI, but now they are the ones developing and using Project Maven to identify targets on the battlefield.20 more great articles about AI
War in the Sky
Top Guns by Ehud Yonay
At Mach 2 and 40,000 feet over California, it’s always high noonThe Last Ace by Mark Bowden
The last of a dying breed: the air-to-air-combat fighter pilot20 more great articles about AI
World War II
Hiroshima by John Hersey
The world's first nuclear attack, through the eyes of its survivorsAn Engineering History of the Manhattan Project by Brian Potter
Building the bombs required an enormous industrial effort of unprecedented scale and complexityThe Most Amazing Lie in History by Lucas Reilly
How a chicken farmer, a pair of princesses, and 27 imaginary spies helped the Allies win World War IIMisc.
A History of Violence by Steven Pinker
Are we living in the most peaceful period in history?Blackhawk Down by Mark Bowden
A classic series of articles about the catastrophic US attack in Mogadishu that gave rise to the film of the same nameThe Numbing Sameness of War Footage by Jay Caspian Kang
The proliferation of images via cell phones may have taken away the war photographer’s ability to create a single, arresting, and iconic image, but their accumulation will haunt us...Fight the Ship by T. Christian Miller, Megan Rose and Robert Faturechi
Death and valor on a warship doomed by its own Navy...The Expendables by William Langewiesche
The dark romance of the French Foreign Legion: haunted men from everywhere, fighting anywhere, dying for causes not their ownThe Distant Executioner by William Langewiesche
A sniper must bear the burden of intimate killing for the rest of their life. On the other hand, even when they get it wrong, they kill only one man at a time.Books
Hiroshima by John Hersey
The world's first nuclear attack, through the eyes of its survivors. A journalistic masterpiece.Dispatches by Michael Herr
Classic reportage from the Vietnam war.Black Hawk Down by Mark Bowden
The gripping story of a military operation gone badly wrong in the snipers nest of Mogadishu.Generation Kill by Evan Wright
Riding shotgun with the marines and the new face of war in Iraq.The Good War by Studs Terkel
An oral history of the most catastrophic war humanity has ever seen.Ghost Soldiers by Hampton Sides
"The Epic Account of World War II's Greatest Rescue Mission"About The Electric Typewriter
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