The Strategy Bridge Submission Guidelines: Publishing Military Strategy

Key takeaways

• The Strategy Bridge, founded in 2013 and affiliated with the Department of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, publishes short, argument-driven essays on strategy for an audience of officers, students, scholars, and analysts.
• A submission that clears review makes one disputable claim about strategy, supports it with evidence a civilian reader can follow, and stays within roughly 800 to 2,000 words.
• The process runs through email: an unpublished draft, a two-to-three sentence biography, and any required security or public affairs documentation from government and military authors.
• Volunteer editors review on a rolling basis and commonly request revisions before publication, so writers should expect an editing dialogue rather than instant acceptance.
• Writers comparing outlets should match the piece to the venue: theory and history essays fit The Strategy Bridge, time-sensitive analysis fits larger commentary sites, and peer-reviewed arguments fit academic quarterlies.

1. Introduction

People who work on national security accumulate arguments the way staff officers accumulate briefings. A tour in a joint headquarters, a master's seminar, a deployment: each produces a claim about strategy that deserves a public airing. The hard part is the venue. Academic journals take months and want fifty citations; large commentary sites reject most unsolicited pitches; personal blogs reach few readers and carry little professional weight.

The Strategy Bridge occupies a deliberate middle ground. The journal states its mission as developing and contributing to the study and practice of strategy, and it has published essays and interviews since 2013 from its base with the Department of National Security Affairs at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California. Its pieces sit between a staff paper and a journal article: short enough to read between meetings, argued seriously enough to cite in a seminar.

This article walks through the Strategy Bridge submission guidelines as a working writer would use them: what the editors publish, how to prepare a draft, what happens after you hit send, and where the outlet fits against alternatives for publishing military strategy.

2. What the editors publish and who reads it

The journal accepts argument-driven essays on strategy in the broad sense, and acceptance depends on the argument rather than on the author's rank or degree. Topics across its archive include nuclear deterrence, alliance management, military innovation, civil-military relations, professional military education, wargaming, and the uses of history in strategic thought. Contributors have included active-duty officers from several countries, government civilians, academics, and independent analysts. Readers overlap heavily with the professional military education community: faculty, war college students, and practitioners who keep up with the literature.

Two tests show whether an essay is argument-driven. First, a reader who disagrees with you should be able to state that disagreement in one sentence. An essay titled "Deterrence in the Pacific" is a topic. "Alliance exercises signal resolve to allies more reliably than they signal capability to adversaries" is a claim someone can dispute, and the essay then has a job to do. Second, the piece should engage something that already exists: a current debate, an official document, or a widely held assumption in doctrine or scholarship.

Length follows the format. Most essays run roughly 800 to 2,000 words, and the submissions page states current expectations. Write toward the lower half of that range. A 1,400-word essay that defends one claim does more work than a 2,000-word essay that warms up for 600 words before reaching its thesis.

Before drafting, write two sentences: the claim you will defend, and the sentence a skeptic would answer with. If neither exists, the idea needs more time before it becomes a submission.

3. The submission process, step by step

Mechanics are simple; preparation decides outcomes. The journal takes submissions by email, with the current address and formatting instructions listed on its submissions page. Guidelines get updated from time to time, so read the page on the day you submit instead of working from an old summary, including this one.

A typical sequence looks like this:

1. Confirm the current guidelines on the journal's submissions page.
2. Draft the essay to length, with the thesis inside the first two paragraphs.
3. Source every factual claim with open material: official documents, published books, reputable reporting, or data you can link to. Unclassified material only.
4. If you are a U.S. service member or government employee, complete your command's external publication and security review first, and note in the cover email that the review is done. Authors from other governments follow their own equivalents.
5. Write a two-to-three sentence biography with your name and affiliation, and include a line noting that the views expressed are your own.
6. Send the draft as an editable document, such as a Word file, with a cover email that states the thesis in one sentence.
7. Expect a response from the volunteer editors, who review on a rolling basis. Response time varies with submission volume, so follow up politely if several weeks pass.
8. Treat requested changes as normal. Editors frequently ask for trims, sharper openings, or clearer definitions, and prompt revisions raise the odds of publication.
9. Published essays carry a standard disclaimer that the views are the author's own. Share the link freely once the piece is live.

One exclusivity note: editors expect original, unpublished work. If a version appeared on a blog, in a course portfolio, or in a government repository, say so in the cover email and let the editors decide. Disclosed history rarely sinks a strong essay; discovered history does.

4. Writing choices that raise acceptance odds

Most declinations trace to a handful of recurring problems, and each has a fix within the author's control.

Two scenarios show how this plays out. An officer back from a NATO exercise wants to argue that multinational command arrangements slow decision cycles. The publishable version uses the exercise as an unclassified illustration, cites NATO documents and open reporting, and lands at 1,300 words with the thesis up front. The unpublishable version names sensitive details or leans on "everyone in the community knows." A doctoral candidate studying military innovation wants a faster path than the journals pipeline. The publishable version takes one claim from the dissertation, connects it to a live debate such as drone proliferation, and keeps endnotes to what a practitioner would actually click.

One structural habit helps every submission: short paragraphs, plain verbs, and sentences a busy reader can absorb between meetings.

5. How The Strategy Bridge compares with other outlets

The journal is a strong first or second publication for strategy essays, though the right venue depends on timeliness, subject focus, and whether the writer needs peer review.

For strategy arguments that turn on technology policy, such as semiconductor export controls, AI governance, or defense-industrial policy, the comparison changes slightly. Global Tech Observatory (globaltechobs.com) is one option among commentary sites covering the technology-policy intersection. Its focused scope means a piece there reaches policy specialists with standing interest in the subject, while its limitation is a smaller general readership than the established defense outlets. Many writers split the work: the strategy essay in a military outlet, the technology-policy depth in a specialist venue.

6. FAQ

Does The Strategy Bridge pay contributors?

No. The journal runs on a volunteer editorial team and a nonprofit model. The returns are edited publication, a readership in the professional military education community, and a citable line on a CV or promotion file. Writers seeking payment for security commentary should look to outlets with editorial budgets.

Can I submit an essay that already appears on my blog?

The editors expect original, unpublished work. Disclose any prior public version in the cover email and ask before submitting, since the answer varies by case. Once your essay is published, linking to it is unrestricted, and reposting with attribution afterward is common where the editors agree.

Do I need a military rank or a doctorate to publish there?

No. The contributor list mixes active-duty officers from several countries, government civilians, academics, and independent analysts. A first-time author with a disciplined 1,200-word argument competes on the same terms as a tenured professor.

How long should the essay be?

Plan for roughly 800 to 2,000 words and verify the current expectation on the submissions page before you draft. Editors ask writers to cut overlong drafts anyway, so the tighter version saves everyone a round of revision.

7. Conclusion

The Strategy Bridge rewards a specific kind of piece: a short essay that makes one defensible claim about strategy, writes in plain language, and respects the reader's time. The submission guidelines ask little beyond that, plus the disclosures and reviews that government authors owe their commands. Writers holding a draft should write the thesis sentence first, confirm the current requirements on the journal's submissions page, complete any required review, and send it. When a piece is time-sensitive analysis, a warfighting topic, or a peer-review requirement, the comparison above points to the venue that fits.