Ideas

It Was Never All or Nothing in Afghanistan

This is not something we hoped to see from national security leaders and a president we admire so much.

Ideas

Afghanistan’s Situation Didn’t Change. American Politics Did

The Biden administration says it can fight terrorism in a way that its predecessors called impossible. Can it?

Ideas

'I Felt Hate More Than Anything': How an Active Duty Airman Tried to Start a Civil War

Steven Carrillo’s path to the Boogaloo Bois shows the hate group is far more organized and dangerous than previously known.

Ideas

What a Real People-First Pentagon Budget Would Include

Family-support and mental-health services need a long-overdue plus-up.

Ideas

The Intelligence Community’s Deadly Bias Toward Classified Sources

Its willful blindness to publicly available information is hurting national security.

Ideas

Beware ‘Just Say China’ Politics

Republicans screamed for more spending to counter China. Democrats are claiming their infrastructure bill does just that. It’s a dangerous game.

Ideas

American Support is Needed to Resolve a POW Crisis in the Caucasus

Azerbaijan is illegally holding some 200 Armenian troops and civilian captives.

Ideas

The Arctic Is No Substitute for Suez. We Should Keep It That Way.

One obvious way to reduce tensions in the region is to slow climate change and the use of northern sea routes.

Ideas

What Is DevSecOps, Anyway?

How one company used it to accelerate improvements to an Air Force cyber defense program.

Ideas

Don’t Divide the World Between Democracies and Autocracies

There are better ways to face our challenges than pushing for ideological blocs.

Ideas

Let’s Get Real About US Military ‘Dominance’

American strategists need to drop the assumption that the U.S. military will be the superior force in any given situation.

Ideas

In Great Power Wars, Americans Could Again Become POWs

After years of training for counterinsurgency, today’s soldiers need to know how to survive large-scale warfare.

Ideas

War is Changing. So Should the Pentagon’s Budget

Beyond aircraft carriers, missiles, and riflemen, the next wars will be fought with data, digital platforms, and networks.

Ideas

China’s Belt and Road Effort Demands a Multipart US Response

U.S. inaction, as much as Chinese assertiveness, is responsible for America’s economic and strategic predicament, a Council on Foreign Relations task force finds.

Ideas

Focus on Influence, Not Power, in the Middle East

People talk about U.S. power and influence as if they’re the same thing. That's a mistake.