The International Navies issue is one of my favorites every year, perhaps because it reminds me of some of the best moments of my Navy career—opportunities to exercise and operate with allied and partner navies. This month, we have 28 foreign navy chiefs writing for the International Commanders Respond section—the highest number ever. We asked them: “Given that every navy must deal with finite budgets and resources, how has your navy found the right balance between force size and force capability in terms of modern technology?” Here are their responses. While we have a dedicated monthly column called “Need to Know,” there are two stand-alone articles this month that certainly fit that description. “China's Dual Command at Sea,” by Navy Captain Jeff Benson and Zi Yang, describes the bifurcated and parallel command structure that exists in all Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) units, including PLA Navy ships. The fact that the political commissars are coequal with the commanding officers shows the extent of the Chinese Communist Party’s control over every facet of military operations. Nothing like this exists in the U.S. Navy, but the close interactions and increasing friction between the U.S. and PLA navies demands that we fully understand this dynamic. The other “must read” article on the PLA this month is retired Navy Commander Mike Dahm’s “China’s Desert Storm Education," which describes what the PLA learned from Operation Desert Storm. Over the past five years,