Ideas

Maria Butina's Guilty Plea Could Illuminate Russian Ploy to Shape 2016 Election

The onetime graduate student admits to being a foreign agent who sought to establish back channels to Republicans through the NRA.

Ideas

Pentagon to Take Over All Security Clearances in Nine Months, Officials Say

The move will mean absorbing the National Background Investigations Bureau and its 2,000 employees.

Ideas

Trump’s New Vetting Center Just Opened. Will It Make Us Safer?

Too little is known about the visa and immigration center, including the extent of its authority and whether adding a bureaucratic layer will cause more problems than it solves.

Ideas

'I Am Proud to Shut Down the Government,' Trump Says During Fight with Democrats

The president made his position clear, saying he will “take the blame” if some federal agencies close.

Ideas

Yes, the UN Is Still Necessary

In his dramatic Dec. 4 speech decrying the international body, Secretary of State Pompeo seems to have confused cause and correlation.

Ideas

Four Steps to Fix the Security Clearance Backlog

Clearance delays are hurting the aerospace industry — and national security.

Ideas

Ep. 31: The true origins of ISIS and the future of counterterrorism with Hassan Hassan

Welcome to our podcast about the news, strategy, tech, and business trends defining the future of national security.

Ideas

New Poll Data Should Be a Clarion Call to Those Who Believe in Global Engagement

The partisan gap is widening on several key foreign-policy priorities — as is the generation gap.

Ideas

Would a $700 Billion Budget Really Sink the Pentagon?

Resistance is already forming to a proposed decrease in 2020 spending. It’s important to understand just what that decrease means.

Ideas

Saudis, Yemen War Leading New Democrats Away From Obama Foreign Policy

They also want to rein in presidential war powers.

Ideas

Trump's Iran-Centric Syria Policy Takes Shape

Congress likely won’t take action to rein in the military powers it granted the president after the 9/11 attacks—powers that Trump uses with the broad aim of countering Iran.

Ideas

Who Will Prevent the Next India-Pakistan War?

China’s stakes and vulnerabilities in South Asia have grown. U.S. leaders should make use of this.

Ideas

US Foreign Policy Could Use Some Bush-Era Prudence

George H. W. Bush’s restraint was remarkable, and worth imitating.

Ideas

Germany Develops Offensive Cyber Capabilities Without A Coherent Strategy of What to Do With Them

Germany has traditionally prioritized defense over offense in cyberspace. That's now beginning to change.

Ideas

Assessing George H.W. Bush’s National-Security Legacy

The first president Bush made the world safer as the Soviet Union crumbled.

Ideas

Deployed Civilians Can’t Get Worker’s Comp — and That’s Bad News for a Military that Depends on Them

Thanks to a legal double standard, a civilian injured or sickened in a warzone has an impossible burden of proof.

Ideas

Ep. 30: Crisis in the Sea of Azov; Space Force!?; Nuclear anthropology and American folklore

Welcome to our podcast about the news, strategy, tech, and business trends defining the future of national security.

Policy

Warren’s Big Foreign Policy Speech? Simple and Irresponsible

Sen. Elizabeth Warren just gave a foreign policy speech that national security professionals who want U.S. global leadership should fear.

Ideas

The Trump Administration Wonders: Should We Seek a ‘Cold War’ With China?

As the White House spars with a rising China, it can look to the United States’ postwar dealings with the Soviet Union for guidance.

Ideas

New Documents Rewrite ISIS’ Origin Story

A secret biography suggests that Abu Ali al-Anbari defined the group’s radical approach more than any other person.