Policy
Judge: Acting Immigration Services Director Was Unlawfully Appointed
Ken Cuccinelli — also acting DHS secretary — was named acting head of USCIS without having first served in a subordinate position.
Threats
Key Defense Supplier Hit by Ransomware
The hackers also allegedly stole sensitive documents from Visser Precision, which makes parts for Lockheed, Boeing, and SpaceX.
Ideas
The President Is Winning His War on American Institutions
How Trump is destroying the civil service and bending the government to his will.
Threats
US' Afghanistan Drawdown Will Continue Amid Taliban Violence, Pentagon Says
“I would caution everybody to think that there’s going to be an absolute cessation of violence in Afghanistan — that is probably not going to happen,” Milley said.
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.
Science & Tech
Acting Navy Secretary: We Need More than 355 Ships, and That’s Not Even Counting Robot Vessels
The Navy needs more human-crewed ships…and more unmanned vessels, than previously thought.
Threats
Missteps at CDC Set Back US Ability to Detect Coronavirus' Spread
The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designed a flawed test for COVID-19, then took weeks to release a fix that allowed state and local labs to use it.
Defense Systems
Congress questions Navy's plan for large drone ships
The Navy wants to increase production of unmanned surface vessels, but Congress remains wary of long-term success.
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.
Policy
A New Nuclear Warhead? STRATCOM Chief Can’t Answer Yes or No
The W93 has been the focus of questions since it appeared in the 2021 budget proposal.
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.
Science & Tech
Pentagon Taps Leader to Implement New AI Ethics
It's Alka Patel, a lawyer who has been working for the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.
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