Inkstick

Inkstick Inkstick is foreign policy for the rest of us. We like foreign policy, but we’d rather skip the stuffy back room and talk about it over a beer.

At Inkstick – military slang for a plain, black pen – we believe the pen is mighty, but the person behind it is mightiest. We’re tired of jargony acronyms and contrived technicalities. And we can’t help feeling like most of today’s national security and foreign policy outlets are written by and for the same set of voices in the same boring tone. Put simply: It breaks down the news you want and nee

d to know without droning on. When it matters, it also dives deeper to show you the people behind the policy and the stories they have to tell. Inkstick isn’t afraid to laugh, cry, or suggest an alternative to that Aleppo pepper in your favorite dish – and when we do grab that beer, we’ll be dying for you to ask us about our kids, or our favorite band, or just about anything that shows us you’re a living breathing person just like us. It’s okay, we’ll find our way back to the issues eventually. We just don’t feel the need to be tough. After all, we already have the big guns.

The Trump administration’s brazen and potentially illegal strikes on an alleged drug trafficking boat in international w...
16/09/2025

The Trump administration’s brazen and potentially illegal strikes on an alleged drug trafficking boat in international waters off the coast of Venezuela this month, reportedly killing at least 14, represents a major escalation in the Washington’s military posture toward the Western Hemisphere.

As the US ratchets up its crusade against regional drug cartels by launching its first unilateral air strikes in Latin America since 1989, a potential follow-up attack within Venezuelan waters or against human or material targets on Venezuelan soil is a possibility Trump officials have left on the table.

This abrupt build-up poses a serious challenge to regional security.

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From the United States to the UK, and from Germany to Greece, a years-long crackdown on Palestine solidarity movements i...
15/09/2025

From the United States to the UK, and from Germany to Greece, a years-long crackdown on Palestine solidarity movements is now intensifying at a time when Israel’s ongoing war on the besieged Gaza Strip nears the two-year mark. “What we call the ‘Palestine exception’ to free speech has been the norm for a long time,” said Astha Sharma Pokharel, a staff attorney at the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

Now, as countries around the world join the crackdown, legal experts and free speech watchdogs warn of consequences that could reverberate for years. Last October, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression Irene Khan warned of a “global crisis of freedom of expression,” pointing to the growing number of measures restricting pro-Palestine protests across Europe and the US.

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The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that contractors managing construction at National Nuclear Securi...
12/09/2025

The US Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported that contractors managing construction at National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) sites routinely underestimated costs and failed to follow best practices for estimating fixed-price subcontracts. In fiscal year 2023 alone, final costs exceeded initial estimates by over $37 million — an average increase of 14% across 252 subcontracts.

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For the past 39 days, Joshua Arnold has been on strike alongside about 3,200 of his coworkers — in part, he says, becau...
12/09/2025

For the past 39 days, Joshua Arnold has been on strike alongside about 3,200 of his coworkers — in part, he says, because there are still Boeing employees who are forced to take on second jobs while building warplanes that can cost upwards of $100 million each. On Wednesday afternoon, the union announced they’d reached a tentative agreement with Boeing, one that would increase the average wages of a Boeing defense machinist by 45%. On Friday morning, unionists will vote on that offer, but even then, the fight may not be over.

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After 16 years in Lebanon, Mai* wheeled the three bags of her belongings into the departure hall of the Beirut-Rafic Har...
10/09/2025

After 16 years in Lebanon, Mai* wheeled the three bags of her belongings into the departure hall of the Beirut-Rafic Hariri International Airport. She was finally returning home to Nepal. “I don’t really know how to feel,” she said, her voice uncertain.

Reporting by and , photos by

In late July, Russia launched “July Storm,” a major maritime naval exercise that took place across the Pacific, Arctic, ...
09/09/2025

In late July, Russia launched “July Storm,” a major maritime naval exercise that took place across the Pacific, Arctic, Baltic, and Caspian Seas. Shortly afterwards, NATO deployed a maritime force group to the Arctic, focused on anti-submarine activities to protect undersea cables and ensure freedom of navigation in the region. These exercises came on the back of an increased focus on the Arctic as a region for geostrategic competition. US President Donald Trump’s attempts to “buy” Greenland, while clumsy, hint at the importance of the region for American national security. At the same time, the Arctic would have a critical role in the so-called “Golden Dome” missile defense project, should that come to fruition. But there is another factor driving this competition — rising global temperatures.

The United States is woefully unprepared to address the challenging and changing geostrategic environment in the Arctic. Russia, on the other hand, is positioned and primed to take advantage of the coming changes.

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India is one of nine nuclear-armed nations in the world, but far from the country’s corridors of power is Jadugoda, a la...
08/09/2025

India is one of nine nuclear-armed nations in the world, but far from the country’s corridors of power is Jadugoda, a largely forgotten town tucked among the region’s mineral-rich forests. For more than five decades, Jadugoda’s indigenous Adivasi communities have paid the true price of the country’s nuclear arsenal. One in three residences is home to someone with a physical or intellectual disability.

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In August 2025, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a detailed analysis of the Department of Defense’s (D...
06/09/2025

In August 2025, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) published a detailed analysis of the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Replicator Initiative, a high-profile effort to rapidly field thousands of autonomous systems across multiple domains. The report explored the initiative’s strategic ambitions, technological challenges, and congressional oversight concerns, framing Replicator as both a response to Chinese military mass and a test case for future defense innovation.

Despite its ambitious goals, the initiative faced scrutiny over transparency and strategic coherence. CRS observed that “[l]ittle information is available publicly about Replicator’s potential total cost and the impact that funding requirements for Replicator could have on funding for other DOD programs.” This makes it difficult for Congress to assess progress or allocate resources. The report emphasized that oversight was complicated by operational security concerns and the classified nature of many program details.

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On Aug. 11, 2025, US President Donald Trump invoked emergency powers to deploy 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s...
05/09/2025

On Aug. 11, 2025, US President Donald Trump invoked emergency powers to deploy 800 National Guard troops to the nation’s capital, signaling another alarming escalation of the use of military force during his second term. The military is now being used in ways once unimaginable for immigration enforcement — stationing troops in US cities, detaining migrants in military prisons, and invoking wartime powers to expel them.

From day one, Trump has framed migration as a national security threat, vowing to launch “the largest deportation program of criminals” in US history. What has followed is a calculated effort to expand military power into domestic immigration policy and blur the lines between enforcement and war.

Just days into his presidency, Trump moved to bypass Congress by signing 10 executive orders expanding military involvement in immigration enforcement.

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The Central African Republic is the site of the latest chapter in Russia’s shifting security architecture on the contine...
03/09/2025

The Central African Republic is the site of the latest chapter in Russia’s shifting security architecture on the continent. Following years of influence by the Wagner paramilitary group, officials in the Central African Republic (CAR) have said that Russia has asked the government to replace it with Africa Corps and to pay in cash, rather than minerals. CAR is hesitant, but may have few options. The tenuous negotiation is emblematic of the Kremlin’s attempts to more closely control its vast mercenary network.

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Between June 6 and 14, 2025, law enforcement officers in Los Angeles responded to protests against sweeping immigration ...
29/08/2025

Between June 6 and 14, 2025, law enforcement officers in Los Angeles responded to protests against sweeping immigration raids with excessive force and deliberate brutality, according to a detailed report by Human Rights Watch (HRW). The protests erupted after federal agents, under orders from the Trump administration, conducted aggressive workplace raids targeting undocumented immigrants. HRW documented 65 cases of injuries inflicted by local, state, and federal officers on protesters, journalists, and legal observers, with the actual number likely far higher.

Officers deployed tear gas, pepper balls, hard foam rounds, and flash-bang grenades — often at close range and without warning. “Law enforcement officers in Los Angeles used brutal, excessive, and unnecessary force against people standing up for human rights and those reporting on the protests,” said Ida Sawyer, HRW’s crisis, conflict, and arms director.

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The willingness of our federal government to throw unlimited tax dollars and resources into an illegal war, resulting in...
29/08/2025

The willingness of our federal government to throw unlimited tax dollars and resources into an illegal war, resulting in the death of innocent people and destruction of a sovereign nation, versus the slow and reluctant response to providing for its citizens who had just lost everything, was jarring but not surprising. Our country has long prioritized funding war and imperialism over actual protection and safety. For instance, after a severe hurricane season in 2004, Louisiana requested $26 million to upgrade its levee system. In response, the federal budget instead granted just $4 million — a sum equivalent to what the US spent on average every 20 minutes in Iraq at the time.

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