Abu'l-Fazl Beyhaqi’s eleventh-century history offers enduring lessons in military strategy, from the dangers of overconfidence and misjudging an adversary to the importance of logistics, adaptation and sound decision-making. Through Beyhaqi’s account of military setbacks and strategic decline, this article explores why historical insights remain relevant to understanding the challenges of warfare today.
South Africa’s 2026 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement highlights the gap between defence funding, operational readiness and strategic ambition. Examining budget adjustments, military performance indicators and the unresolved strategic framework, this article considers whether the SANDF can sustain its commitments within the country’s fiscal constraints.
South Africa’s Zama Zama crisis extends beyond illegal mining into organised crime, institutional vulnerability and national security. Tactical operations can disrupt activity, but lasting progress requires intelligence-led investigations, institutional integrity, financial disruption, community cooperation and economically viable long-term solutions.
Military power is constrained by more than weapons, soldiers and technology. From Napoleon's disastrous Russian campaign to the US war with Iran and South Africa's operations in Central Africa, the ability to sustain forces at distance can determine what military power can actually achieve.
The funeral of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei demonstrates how states can employ ritual, symbolism and mass mobilisation as instruments of strategic communication before military force is ever employed. Recognising and correctly interpreting such signals is an increasingly important competency for military professionals operating in a multipolar world.
Defence research is about far more than technology. It is the mechanism through which a defence establishment learns, adapts and remains strategically relevant. This article argues that the real challenge is not simply increasing R&D expenditure, but ensuring that research continuously informs strategy, doctrine, capability development and defence policy.
Five years after the July 2021 unrest exposed serious weaknesses in South Africa's national security architecture, questions remain about the country's preparedness for future instability. Drawing on the findings of the Expert Panel and SAHRC investigations, this article examines what lessons were identified, what vulnerabilities remain, and whether South Africa is better equipped to prevent localised unrest from escalating into a broader national crisis.
The debate over defence spending is often framed as a choice between security and development. This article argues that the real challenge is not choosing between "guns" and "butter", but ensuring that resource allocation is guided by clearly defined national interests, strategic objectives and long-term priorities. Strategy should inform budgets, not the other way around.
South Africa's defence sector does not appear to suffer from a shortage of audits, reviews, investigations or task teams. It suffers from a shortage of implementation. Using recent calls for a new defence task team as a starting point, this article explores why many of the same governance, capability and institutional challenges continue to reappear, and argues that meaningful reform may require greater strategic clarity, alignment and accountability across South Africa's defence ecosystem.
South Africa’s defence crisis is often framed as a problem of insufficient funding. This article argues that the deeper challenge is one of strategic incoherence. Using the Clausewitzian framework of ends, ways, and means, it examines how misalignment between political ambition, force design, and available resources has contributed to the SANDF’s gradual erosion. The article contends that sustainable defence renewal requires sequenced institutional regeneration, realistic strategic prioritisation, and a revitalised defence-industrial base rather than aspirational expansion alone.
This article examines the persistent gap between symbolic recognition and functional capability in Africa’s post-independence statecraft. Using the Alliance of Sahel States and South Africa’s defence-industrial ecosystem as empirical anchors, it argues that strategic autonomy is engineered through institutional coherence, fiscal discipline, and accountable state-industry alignment. Sovereignty is not inherited; it is continuously built.
South Africa’s defence difficulties are increasingly framed as a budget and personnel problem within the SANDF. This article argues that the deeper challenge is one of strategic coherence. Growing misalignment between political ambition, operational commitments, institutional capability, and changing security realities is weakening South Africa’s national security posture and regional influence within Southern Africa.
