Ideas

As Coronavirus Explodes in Italy, Doctors Are Forced to Choose Who Gets Care

With patients overflowing hospitals, a leading medical organization offers guidance for military-style triage, including: deny care to people too old to be likely to recover.

Ideas

Iran Has Far More Coronavirus Cases Than It Is Letting On

The surprising number of Iranian government officials succumbing to COVID-19 offers a hint that the disease is far more widespread than the official statistics indicate.

Ideas

The US Isn’t Ready for What’s About to Happen

Even with a robust government response to the novel coronavirus, many people will be in peril. And the United States is anything but prepared.

Ideas

Barred from Combat, These Women Rose to the Top of Military Intelligence

In candid interviews, five senior officers reveal the challenges and opportunities they've faced, from sexism to mentoring today's rising leaders.

Ideas

Q&A with Senior Women in Military Intelligence

Excerpts from our interviews with the women who hold five of the U.S. military's top intelligence jobs.

Ideas

No One Has Tried This Kind of US-Taliban Deal

A study of nearly 200 modern peace accords shows what has worked. The list doesn't include "negotiate withdrawal, then negotiate peace."

Ideas

We Can Still Avoid the Worst-Case Coronavirus Scenario

The spread of COVID-19 may be inevitable, but the choices we make now will determine how bad the outbreak will get.

Ideas

Don’t Let On-Site Inspections Go Extinct

In-person visits to foreign military bases and weapons facilities improve national security in more ways than meet the eye.

Ideas

The US Has Abandoned Its Leadership on Land Mines, and For What?

Defense Secretary Mark Esper says new land mines are needed to “ensure mission success” and “reduce risk to our forces.” What success? What forces?

Ideas

The Official Numbers on the Coronavirus Are Wrong, and Everyone Knows It

Because the U.S. data on coronavirus infections are so deeply flawed, the quantification of the outbreak obscures more than it illuminates.

Ideas

How an AI Sent an Early Warning about the Coronavirus Outbreak

BlueDot’s algorithm draws on news stories, disease-tracking networks, and even airline ticketing. But such tools are hardly foolproof.

Ideas

The US Should Send More, Not Fewer, Troops to West Africa

America’s interests and unique security partnerships in this burgeoning region argue for more help, not less.

Ideas

The President Is Winning His War on American Institutions

How Trump is destroying the civil service and bending the government to his will.

Ideas

Epidemics Reveal the Truth of the Societies They Hit

A nation’s response to disaster speaks to its strengths—and to its dysfunctions.

Ideas

The World Is Experiencing a New Form of Autocracy

Today’s authoritarians use legal measures to subvert constitutional constraints on their power.

Ideas

The Federal Government Needs a Military-Style Campaign Against the Coronavirus

A longtime infectious disease specialist says such campaigns are effective against these kinds of infectious diseases because the way viruses operate fits, conceptually. into a military model.

Ideas

America Must Shape the World’s AI Norms — or Dictators Will

Four former U.S. defense secretaries issue a warning about China and a wake-up call to Americans on artificial intelligence.

Ideas

Enacting Trump’s Revenge Campaign at the NSC

The cuts to the National Security Council have less to do with making government better than with making it purer.

Ideas

Beware a Peace Deal That May Spell War

There are important questions still to be answered about Afghanistan and the United States.

Ideas

Trump Freezes Hiring at Another DHS Agency

TSA is the second Homeland Security component agency to suspend taking on new employees.