The Virgin of Panecillo overlooking the Cotopaxi volcano near Quito, Ecuador.

“Liberty, daughter and mother of rationality and the critical spirit, places a heavy burden on the shoulders of the human being: having to decide for oneself what is beneficial and what is harmful, how to face the innumerable challenges of existence, whether society functions as it should or whether it must be transformed.”

Mario Vargas Llosa · La llamada de la tribu
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Working Paper

Production as Deterrence: The Western Hemisphere’s Role in a Future Pacific Fight

Recently, I visited the COSCO-operated megaport at Chancay, Peru, to examine how China’s expanding port infrastructure intersects with a deeper American vulnerability: the absence of a secure industrial rear for a future Pacific conflict.

This working paper argues that the Joint Force will not overcome contested logistics and the tyranny of distance in PACOM without integrating trusted Latin American and Caribbean partners into a hemispheric defense-production network.

Consistent with the 2025 National Security Strategy, the 2026 National Defense Strategy, and emerging joint concepts, it proposes a program of hemispheric industrial reconstruction combining DFC financing, expanded use of DPA Title III authorities, private capital, procurement reform, and sustained demand generated through deeper military cooperation and the development of shared capability requirements.

Defense & Strategic Writing

A selection of my published articles on defense, innovation, geopolitics, and American monetary policy.

Additional selected writing

The Monroe Doctrine, Reimagined

Seapower Magazine · Feb/Mar 2025 · Featured Article

Read here
Cover of the February/March 2025 issue of Seapower magazine, asking “Is a New Monroe Doctrine Needed?” Seapower feature page: “Reimagining the Monroe Doctrine Amid Great Power Competition,” by Johannes Schmidt Seapower article page on Russian and Chinese influence-building in Latin America Seapower article page on Iranian proxy networks and the case for a 21st-century Monroe Doctrine Seapower article page closing with recommendations for hemispheric military modernization
The cover of the November 2025 National Security Strategy of the United States of America

“After years of neglect, the United States will reassert and enforce the Monroe Doctrine to restore American preeminence in the Western Hemisphere, and to protect our homeland and our access to key geographies throughout the region. We will deny non-Hemispheric competitors the ability to position forces or other threatening capabilities, or to own or control strategically vital assets, in our Hemisphere. This “Trump Corollary” to the Monroe Doctrine is a common-sense and potent restoration of American power and priorities, consistent with American security interests.”

U.S. National Security Strategy · December 4, 2025