Marcel Plichta
@marcelplichta.bsky.social
Former DoD analyst. Write on drones and Wagner. Words in FP, Telegraph, & others. I teach intel at: http://school.greydynamics.com
if it's not being poured to me on demand out of one of these I don't want it
September 26, 2025 at 7:33 AM
if it's not being poured to me on demand out of one of these I don't want it
don't fall for the pizza index
September 10, 2025 at 10:05 AM
don't fall for the pizza index
Kinda like when they were sticking Radium in everything in the early 1900s
August 26, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Kinda like when they were sticking Radium in everything in the early 1900s
very pleased that this has gotten nearly 800 views already! By academic standards this is doing pretty good 😀
August 14, 2025 at 10:06 AM
very pleased that this has gotten nearly 800 views already! By academic standards this is doing pretty good 😀
In it, I look at Ukraine's use of One-Way Attack drones from mid-2022 to March of this year. While there is a dismissive attitude towards OWA drones, I find that their campaign has indeed imposed substantial costs on Russia and even played a role in Ukraine-Russia diplomacy, as we saw recently:
August 7, 2025 at 8:36 AM
In it, I look at Ukraine's use of One-Way Attack drones from mid-2022 to March of this year. While there is a dismissive attitude towards OWA drones, I find that their campaign has indeed imposed substantial costs on Russia and even played a role in Ukraine-Russia diplomacy, as we saw recently:
This is not the last chopper out of Saigon, it's Pizza Hut becoming a domino's
June 6, 2025 at 4:28 PM
This is not the last chopper out of Saigon, it's Pizza Hut becoming a domino's
Over the past few months The River has really grown on me as an album. Beyond the title track and Fade Away I think Ties that Bind is a great opener and I really like Two Hearts. I keep discovering things I like about songs that I wrote off initially.
May 18, 2025 at 9:25 AM
Over the past few months The River has really grown on me as an album. Beyond the title track and Fade Away I think Ties that Bind is a great opener and I really like Two Hearts. I keep discovering things I like about songs that I wrote off initially.
New article authored with Chris Faulkner
and Raphael Parens for the Modern War Institute deals with the risks and challenges of getting involved in the DRC's security.
"On paper, a deal with the DRC may look desirable...in reality, this deal looks more like a trap."
and Raphael Parens for the Modern War Institute deals with the risks and challenges of getting involved in the DRC's security.
"On paper, a deal with the DRC may look desirable...in reality, this deal looks more like a trap."
April 30, 2025 at 11:58 AM
New article authored with Chris Faulkner
and Raphael Parens for the Modern War Institute deals with the risks and challenges of getting involved in the DRC's security.
"On paper, a deal with the DRC may look desirable...in reality, this deal looks more like a trap."
and Raphael Parens for the Modern War Institute deals with the risks and challenges of getting involved in the DRC's security.
"On paper, a deal with the DRC may look desirable...in reality, this deal looks more like a trap."
CNN showing us how to dress up being terminally online for employers
April 29, 2025 at 2:39 PM
CNN showing us how to dress up being terminally online for employers
Day 24 of the search for the sunken F-18 (attacked by aircraft from the USS Harry S. Truman)
April 29, 2025 at 12:08 AM
Day 24 of the search for the sunken F-18 (attacked by aircraft from the USS Harry S. Truman)
Day 22 of the quest to find the sunken F-18 (it is not going well)
April 29, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Day 22 of the quest to find the sunken F-18 (it is not going well)
I sortof picture the "RTs are not endorsements" crowd like this
April 9, 2025 at 5:15 PM
I sortof picture the "RTs are not endorsements" crowd like this
5/ Where you WILL see a boost is your altmetric score, which track how far links to your article go. Because the conversation is very generous with republishing, altmetrics sees that your article ended up on about a dozen news sites globally because it ran in the Conversation.
March 17, 2025 at 12:10 PM
5/ Where you WILL see a boost is your altmetric score, which track how far links to your article go. Because the conversation is very generous with republishing, altmetrics sees that your article ended up on about a dozen news sites globally because it ran in the Conversation.
4/ Linking to your academic article in the conversation clearly boosts your work, but does it lead to more views of the article itself? Not really in my case. You can see that in the time period that the conversation article got 20,000 views, the academic article got about 18:
March 17, 2025 at 12:10 PM
4/ Linking to your academic article in the conversation clearly boosts your work, but does it lead to more views of the article itself? Not really in my case. You can see that in the time period that the conversation article got 20,000 views, the academic article got about 18:
3/ Compared to an academic article, a piece in the conversation goes to a MUCH wider audience. An article I co-wrote on OWA drones got 1,100 views on T&F, the conversation piece is sitting at 25,000, and that's for a pretty niche topic.
March 17, 2025 at 12:10 PM
3/ Compared to an academic article, a piece in the conversation goes to a MUCH wider audience. An article I co-wrote on OWA drones got 1,100 views on T&F, the conversation piece is sitting at 25,000, and that's for a pretty niche topic.
1/11 Should IR scholars write for The Conversation? It depends on what you want. As someone who wrote two pieces for them in 2023 and 2024 here's the good and the bad:
March 17, 2025 at 12:10 PM
1/11 Should IR scholars write for The Conversation? It depends on what you want. As someone who wrote two pieces for them in 2023 and 2024 here's the good and the bad:
name three cities in yemen
March 16, 2025 at 4:56 PM
name three cities in yemen
Spoke to the Telegraph's Verity Bowman this week about Russian use of drones and the impact of losing access to U.S. intelligence as part of a wider article about Ukrainian medics:
March 10, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Spoke to the Telegraph's Verity Bowman this week about Russian use of drones and the impact of losing access to U.S. intelligence as part of a wider article about Ukrainian medics:
I think the "stupid spy" genre is more useful for our understanding of intelligence work than the "cool-spy-espionage-thriller" genre
February 27, 2025 at 9:06 AM
I think the "stupid spy" genre is more useful for our understanding of intelligence work than the "cool-spy-espionage-thriller" genre
Remember this lovely comment?
January 6, 2025 at 10:56 PM
Remember this lovely comment?
Let's be real about how they're gonna use it
December 27, 2024 at 5:36 PM
Let's be real about how they're gonna use it
1/2 We don't yet know whether the Ukrainian OWA drone strikes in #Kazan were purposeful attempts to hit something or an error in pathing to another target. If the latter, it's important to know just how hard planning a long range attack actually is:
December 21, 2024 at 3:00 PM
1/2 We don't yet know whether the Ukrainian OWA drone strikes in #Kazan were purposeful attempts to hit something or an error in pathing to another target. If the latter, it's important to know just how hard planning a long range attack actually is: