The Bayonet: What’s the Point?
According to one scholar, the military sees training in this obsolete weapon as helpful on the modern battlefield.
Can Thucydides Teach Us Why We Go to War?
A contemporary scholar uses the ancient Greek historian to explain the 1968 Pueblo Crisis in North Korea.
How Harry Truman Rose to Fame Curbing War Profiteers
Right when the U.S. needed supplies for World War II, military contractors started overcharging. An obscure senator from Missouri challenged them.
Bipartisan Forever Wars
A critical analysis of both political parties is necessary to understand how the US has created its informal empire—and to envision a different future.
The Many Meanings of Yellow Ribbons
The strange and convoluted history of why yellow ribbons became a symbol of the Gulf War in the 1990s.
How “Pyrrhic Victory” Became a Go-To Metaphor
We call futile victories "pyrrhic," after an ancient Roman battle. But that battle may have been misinterpreted--or had a different conclusion altogether.
The Gender-Bending Style of Yankee Doodle’s Macaroni
The outlandish "macaroni" style of 18th-century England blurred the boundaries of gender, as well as class and nationality.
How a Microwave Weapon Might Work
Personnel at the U.S. embassy in Havana have reported mysterious sounds and physical symptoms consistent with brain injury. Could it be microwaves?
War and Pest Control
Since World War I, the connections between pest control and war have been scientific, technological, institutional, and metaphorical.
Why Yemen Suffers in Silence
Yemen is suffering a major humanitarian crisis. How did the country get to such a precarious state, and why aren't Americans paying more attention?