Item category 2: POINTER Monthly Essays

In this essay, the author examines the continuities and developments in naval warfare in three sections. First, he examines the concept of naval warfare. Second, he studies the role of naval thought and technology in the revolution and evolution of naval warfare. In the third and final section, t...

In this essay, the author examines the challenges faced by states seeking to deter threats without the advantage of possessing nuclear weapons. He first examines the principles behind deterrence such as the two main strategies of denial and punishment. The factors needed for successful deterrence...

In this essay, the author is not attempting to redefine deterrence but to encourage readers to consider the notion of acting before deterrence—through dissuasion. So what constitutes dissuasion and why consider it? The author feels that similar to deterrence, there is no direct answer as each cou...

Both World War Two (WWII) and World War One (WWI) mark some of humanity’s darkest moments in the 20th century—cities razed to the ground, acts of unspeakable cruelty and deaths numbering in the untold millions. In this essay, the author argues that, despite the undeniably bloody legacy left by bo...

In this essay, the author contends that World War Two (WWII) exemplifies the concept of Total War more than World War One (WWI) through the larger scales of military and economic mobilisation, as well as the deeper level and impact of civilian victimisation. The author presents his argument in th...

The author has structured the essay in five parts. He first defines what Autonomous Weapon Systems (AWS) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) are. He describes the rules that AWS are expected to operate under when dealing with combatants and non-combatants. He then explains why accounting for the act...

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s victory over the Nationalist Kuomintang (KMT) during the Chinese Civil War marked one of the largest reversals in military history. While a multitude of factors have been cited as contributing to this outcome, this article will investigate the significance of p...

According to the author, hybrid entities are state-sponsored groups which possess training, discipline and equipment, like state militaries. Where these groups lack high end equipment (e.g. tanks, aircraft), they compensate with asymmetric tactics of operating in urban environment and exploiting ...

States are increasingly vulnerable in the modern-day 21st century geopolitical environment, arising from globalization, connectivity and disruptions from the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR). Economic interdependency and the global free flow of ideas and information have increased the vulnerabilit...