Defense Systems

How can drones protect civilians in armed conflict?

The U.N. has been using drones in conflict zones, but to be fast enough to save lives, drone pilots, intelligence analysts and the peacekeepers themselves have to coordinate closely.

Defense Systems

WMD management complicated by data challenges

A common data architecture will help the military make sense of the massive amounts of data collected via disparate systems.

Science & Tech

This Little-Used Area of the Electromagnetic Spectrum Might Be the Future of Battlefield Communications

If commercial 5G millimeter-wave gear can be hardened against jamming, the U.S. Army thinks it might gain a real battlefield edge.

Ideas

Can Military Leaders Handle the Truth About Afghanistan?

Our recent poll suggests that public confidence in the military is high, but that it may be on shaky ground.

Threats

US Military Should Deepen Its Use of Deception, Pacific Air Forces General Says

“Gadget" culture won’t beat China, says Gen. Charles Q. Brown.

Ideas

Russia Is Waging Asymmetric Warfare Against the US — And We’re Letting Them Win

We must do more to harden against these attacks on our economy, institutions, and the public.

Science & Tech

Pentagon Wants to Spark an American Small-Drone Industry

Acquisition chief Ellen Lord wants domestic options for small UAVs— and for defensive systems that can bring them down.

Ideas

What We Talk About When We Talk About Russia

American conservatives who find themselves identifying with Putin’s regime refuse to see the country for what it actually is.

Ideas

The Trump Administration’s ‘Denuclearization’ Is A Road to Nowhere

U.S. policy will remain stuck as long as the administration continues to convince itself that the North’s nuclear dismantlement can be achieved on Washington’s timeline.

Threats

Ep. 61: Influence operations in 2020

In 2016, Moscow sowed division with fake news. Today, Russian agents simply reflect the things Americans say about each other.

Ideas

Under Trump, the US Has Become a Leading Source of Global Instability

The country is now a known unknown, increasing the risk of crises from the Middle East to East Asia to Central America, a new survey suggests.

Science & Tech

China Has Increasing Sway in US Science, JASON Report Says

Beijing is using better jobs at home, aggressive intelligence agencies, and a greater financial reach to influence American institutions.

Ideas

Add Economic Policy to Deterrence Planning

As crisis brews overseas, U.S. leaders often turn first to sanctions and the like. But the Pentagon acts as if economic coercion doesn’t matter.

Ideas

The FBI Needs to Be Reformed

The inspector general’s report identified real weaknesses, particularly with the policies and procedures that govern investigations of political campaigns.

Ideas

US Forces Can’t Hide from Ubiquitous Satellites. They Need to Fool Them.

A new generation of deception-and-denial ideas is needed to counter global monitoring from space.

Ideas

The Foreign-Policy Parallels Between Trump and the Ayatollahs Are Uncanny

Neither the U.S. president nor Iran's leaders are as willing to go toe-to-toe as they might seem.

Ideas

Nixon’s Leniency After My Lai Hurt Veterans. Trump’s May, Too.

A president’s actions in 1971 helped turn public opinion against those who fought the Vietnam War.