At 32 years and now 119 issues, Joint Force Quarterly has had over 40 people involved in making the magic happen. As great as JFQ has become, two significant events will undoubtably change how this journal is produced and delivered. Primarily because of changes in the media environment at large and the budgetary pressures across government, National Defense University (NDU) Press will be significantly reducing the available print copies of JFQ beginning with the next edition, JFQ 120, due after the New Year. And after 25 years of brilliant service, longtime Executive Editor Dr. Jeffrey Smotherman has retired.

In this issue, JFQ Editor in Chief William T. Eliason reflects on the enduring value of joint professional military education (JPME) and the journal’s role in shaping informed national security leaders. He emphasizes the importance of history, critical thinking, and learning from past conflicts, principles rooted in Clausewitzian theory, as essential to preparing for future challenges. The issue’s Forum section tackles readiness for great power competition, especially with China, examining mobilization, PLA airpower, and Southeast Asia’s strategic geography. Additional features explore leadership development in special operations, civil-military relations, AI and deepfake threats, space-based logistics, Western Pacific access strategies, distributed medical support, and cyber force structure. Together, these contributions reinforce JPME’s mission to inform and strengthen the joint force for the complex security landscape ahead.

Communication is a critical element to the human experience. As warfighting demands high-quality, immediately available, and secure communications, you would think that the Services and the forces who fight together have something as simple as radios sorted out. While I do not have any immediate field experience to draw on, I can offer a look at how the good intentions of the military Services, almost 20 years ago, failed to ensure that units fighting alongside each other were trained to rapidly communicate when conditions of life and death were at play.

As we go to press with this issue, Bashar al-Asad, one of the longtime dictators in the Middle East, has fled to Russia, and the Syrian people have risen to make that happen. In a similar way to the experiences of the Germans who lived under communist rule for decades until the fall of the Berlin Wall 35 years ago, Syrians are both rejoicing and awakening to the full impact of an authoritarian regime now passing into the dustbin of history.