At Breaking Defense, we value being part of the discourse in the defense community. As a result, we have a robust opinion section, featuring government officials, military officers and experts from the US and abroad.
To help handle the flow of pieces, we ask that editorial submissions adhere to the following guidelines. (If you are interested in submitting thought leadership or sponsored pieces, please contact the marketing team at [email protected].)
Format And Topics: Before sending in a submission, please take a few minutes to look at other op-eds that we have online. This will give you a sense of what we expect an op-ed on Breaking Defense to look like.
Some key points:
- We want op-eds to be in narrative form. We do not run white papers or topic briefs; your piece should have a natural flow to it.
- We ask that you keep submissions below 1,200 words. As a rule, shorter is better.
- Every piece must have a clear call to action. We’re not interested in running issue papers that say, “Here’s an issue that should be addressed.” We want to see a clear idea about HOW that issue should be addressed, and WHO should address it.
- Please include a short (2-3 lines) bio at the end of your piece.
Op-eds from industry: We set a high bar to publish op-eds from current employees of industry. However, there are cases where we will accept them, if it notably advances the conversation around a topic.
- Anything that is clearly advocating for your business will fall short of that bar. For instance, if you make missiles, a piece arguing that the US needs to buy more missiles will be rejected.
- However, if you make missiles and the piece is about a new, industry-wide supply-chain issue and how the Pentagon could work with industry to address them, that may pass the bar for us.
Disclosure: If you are employed by, or consult for, industry or government, it is not an automatic disqualification. However, we ask that everyone disclose if they have any relevant financial ties to the topic being discussed.
Compensation: Breaking Defense does not pay for op-eds.
Exclusivity: We only run op-eds that are exclusive to Breaking Defense. Once you submit your piece, it should not be shopped around elsewhere.
Timeline: We endeavor to respond to submissions as quickly as possible. However, sometimes the news overtakes us, and naturally these submissions fall to the bottom of the queue. If you do not hear from an editor within three days of your submission, please reach out again. If you do not hear from an editor within a week of the submission, you are free to shop the piece around elsewhere.
In terms of publication timeline, we are happy to work with authors and figure out what is the best time to publish the piece, but reserve final say on when something goes live on the site.
Ready to submit? You can send pieces in at [email protected]