Bottom Line Up Front

Rules of Engagement

Weekly updates in international security in a nutshell. www.roemedia.org

  1. Apr 5

    BLUF #18: The Iran War in Lebanon

    BLUF Since the missile strikes that killed Ayatollah Khamenei in late February, the Iran War has spilled over into a larger regional conflict, affecting several Gulf states and wide swaths of the Southern Levant. But as new as this war is, it has also revealed long-standing underlying regional tensions, notably the fight between Israel and Iran-backed militia Hezbollah based primarily in Lebanon. Israel had been planning an operation against Hezbollah for over a year, when Israeli intelligence officials had determined that the ceasefire between two was crumbling and the group’s disarmament had not come to fruition. Now, Hezbollah is engaged in what seems to be an existential last stand against Israel, while the strategy from Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz in response to this is to establish a buffer zone in southern Lebanon much like the one in Gaza. Lebanon is facing a humanitarian and refugee crisis, with over 1 million citizens displaced and daily life obliterated for the country’s most vulnerable. Today, I sit down with Katharine Sorensen, a reporter for The Beiruter, who has been covering these stories from the ground since October 2025. We talk about the political and religious structures that underpin Lebanon’s position within the wider war. More specifically, she breaks down why these structures make it functionally difficult for the country to escape spillover effects from regional conflicts, let alone act for itself. About the guest Katharine Sorensen is a reporter for the Beiruter, an English-language online news platform, and has been covering news from the ground in Beirut since October 2025. Previously, she worked as researcher at the Hoover Institution, as well as at Bain & Company in Dubai. Katharine holds a B.A. from Stanford University. Music Tomasz Redman Noah Tan This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.roemedia.org

    49 min
  2. Mar 9

    BLUF #16: The Attritable Soldiers of Modern Warfare

    BLUF On March 1, two Iranian drones operated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps flew into and struck Amazon Web Services data centers in the United Arab Emirates, and one more struck near a data center in Bahrain. According to the AWS health dashboard, the strikes caused structural damage and disrupted power delivery to a significant portion of the infrastructure at the affected sites. In some cases, AWS needed to suppress fires, which led to additional water damage. This is not an isolated instance. Throughout the war in the Gulf, the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Sudan Civil War, and the Myanmar Civil War, these types of attritable, flying weapons are becoming the tool of choice for militaries and militia groups that want both extended surveillance times and cost-effective weapons systems. Loitering munitions, also known as suicide drones or kamikaze drones, are autonomous or semi-autonomous aerial vehicles designed to hover around an area, collect surveillance data, identify a target, and engage it with their onboard warhead by flying into it. This article examines three such loitering munitions currently deployed in combat zones. The first is the small and common first-person viewer drone. The second is the Switchblade 600, a mid-sized tactical munition. And the third is the Shahed-136, a strategic “one-way attack” munition. While not exhaustive of loitering munitions, these weapons systems are redefining what modern warfighting means in the contexts of attritability, autonomous warfare, and artificial intelligence. Music: Tomasz Redman Noah Tan Video Clip: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/Vit4q2RZ3Dc This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.roemedia.org

    15 min

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Weekly updates in international security in a nutshell. www.roemedia.org