The Republic is a journal published by The Palantir Foundation, featuring commentary and essays on technology, national security policy, and international affairs.
Winter 2025
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From Laboratory to Hegemony? That technological sophistication and geopolitical prowess go together is undisputed, but how exactly are they related? A common answer treats the journey from technology to great-power status as a sprint: the race is to the swift,…
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Book Review The Conservative Futurist: How to Create the Sci-Fi World We Were Promised by James Pethokoukis, Center Street, 2023 (336 pages) Flying cars, autonomous robot maids, and personal jetpacks: all featured as humdrum aspects of life in The Jetsons,…
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An 18th-century example of transatlantic cooperation: General Jean-Baptiste de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, leads the French Expeditionary Force in their crucial support of the American Revolution. Credit: Library of Congress. A mix of appeasement, disunity, and economic dependence undermined Western…
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In 1898, steel vessels of the U.S. Navy Asiatic Squadron achieved a resounding victory over the older, unarmed, and, in some cases, wooden Spanish ships in the Battle of Manila Bay. The U.S. Navy modernization had begun years earlier. Credit:…
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A 1909 military test of an experimental hydroplane. American air supremacy, uncontested since 1945, defined the 20th century’s international security architecture. Source: Library of Congress. Federal policymakers weigh historic tradeoffs in their current race to shape AI policy. Where they…
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An 18th-century French print portraying the Roman interpretations of peace, wisdom, and justice. Today in the United States, all three concepts are at play in lawsuits over access to the data AI requires for training purposes. Credit: Metropolitan Museum of…
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A BQM-34S target drone, widely used to test various military systems. Credit: U.S. National Archives. The United States has looked to unmanned vehicles to offset adversary advantages in mass, but operating drones is still a manpower-intensive way of war. Changes…
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Ordinance Wharf in Balaklava, Ukraine became a hectic site of resupply to British forces during the Crimean War. Credit: Public domain. Washington’s expedited weapons deliveries to Ukraine and Israel demonstrates an extraordinary evolution in U.S. security cooperation. This untold story…
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An engraving of a centaur by the Italian Renaissance artist Marcantonio Raimondi. In modern day debates over the role of AI in warfighting, the idea of a centaur has been used positively to describe machines assisting a human operator, with…
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Aside from recent, spirited public debates over the role of AI in defense, the broader and near-ubiquitous role of software in defense has received less attention. Credit: public domain. Unlike the commercial sector, the defense industry’s most dominant contractors occupy…
