Ideas

Introducing ‘The China Intelligence’

Everyone needs to understand China better. Open-source intelligence can help.

Ideas

Army Generals Are Not Prepared for the Future

Service leaders love to tout innovation, but can they make the changes necessary to succeed?

Ideas

The F-35’s Painful Lessons Must Inform Future Programs

Congress and the Pentagon must question dubious technical requirements, rosy buy-in costs, and optimistic schedule promises.

Ideas

Is DarkSide Really Sorry? Is It Even DarkSide?

Deciphering the mysterious apology of the mysterious group that shut down a major U.S. pipeline.

Ideas

Blinken’s Arctic Opportunities

The secretary of state can make real diplomatic progress on several key areas.

Ideas

Détente with Iran Could Unlock a Foreign Policy Gold Mine

Bringing Tehran back into the diplomatic fold would foster other progress.

Ideas

The ‘Rule of Thirds’ Is Bunk

The military services’ shares of overall defense spending have always fluctuated with strategy and need.

Ideas

Why the U.S. Needs a Space Czar

Bureaucracy must keep up with the new space age.

Ideas

Should We Care About That Letter?

Retired generals and admirals are, first and foremost, retirees.

Ideas

The 2018 Strategy Is Unworkable. We Need a Fundamental Defense Rethink

We can model our efforts to link long-term defense priorities and resourcing on a post-Cold War review.

Ideas

Shake Off the Pentagon's Industrial-Age Bureaucracy

Five disciplines and five initiatives can help the U.S. military better adapt to 21st-century threats.

Ideas

Why National Cyber Defense Is a ‘Wicked’ Problem

Vulnerable supply chains, sloppy security, and a talent shortage made events like the Colonial Pipeline ransomware attack and the SolarWinds hack all but inevitable.

Ideas

When and Why China Might—or Might Not—Attack Taiwan

U.S. policymakers can only guess at what’s driving Beijing, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing they can do about it.

Science & Tech

To Understand 'Zero Trust,' Look to the Roman Empire

When the Romans realized that they could no longer prevent border incursions, they developed methods of fighting the attackers within.

Ideas

Narcissism and National Security

A century ago, the doings of ordinary citizens barely mattered to national security. Today, they matter a great deal more.

Ideas

The US Needs to Impose Costs on China for Its Economic Warfare

The linchpin of a more effective deterrence is developing a more effective way to hurt the Chinese Communist Party if it will not stop hurting the United States.

Ideas

America Needs Competitive Intelligence

Agencies ought to be thinking about how to bring U.S. capabilities to bear on adversaries’ vulnerabilities, in competition as well as in conflict.

Ideas

Why We Need the Advanced Battle Management System

The character of war is changing; ABMS provides the tools for effective command and control into the future.