Ideas

The Bloated Pentagon Budget Isn’t Just Wasteful. It’s Racist

In this era of racial reckoning, national security policy and defense budgets cannot be exempt from the scrutiny of their effects on communities of color.

Ideas

Germany’s Military an Unexpected Star in Pandemic Relief

The Bundeswehr’s ubiquity and effectiveness in various facets of the COVID response has created an unusual problem.

Threats

New ODNI Report Sees Growing Cyber Threats, COVID-Related Instability

Intelligence heads will brief lawmakers on Wednesday about threats from China, Russia, others.

Business

Raytheon Giving Employees Bonuses for Getting COVID-19 Vaccine

The company is not requiring employees to get the shots, but some facilities could be off-limits to the unvaccinated.

Policy

DOD Workers Want to Keep Teleworking, Despite Early Hiccups, Survey Finds

The DoD Inspector General surveyed more than 56,000 employees about telework during the pandemic.

Threats

One Year into the Pandemic, DoD Data Remains Incomplete

Outstanding questions include: why are civilians dying at higher rates than troops?

Science & Tech

Can Plant-Based Vaccines Speed Up Production?

Clinical trials for Medicago’s new manufacturing process may glean the go-ahead.

Ideas

How 'Mask Diplomacy' Rescued China's Image in Africa

While Beijing was nimbly pivoting, the U.S. continued to let its relationships wither.

Ideas

The US Talks A Lot About Strategic Complexity. Too Bad It’s Mostly Just Talk.

The pandemic sidelined a national security community that gives only lip service to a vital concept.

Ideas

Five Ways to Prepare Now for the Next Pandemic

Suggestion from public-health researchers with experience in disaster response.

Ideas

The One Area Where the US COVID-19 Strategy Seems to Be Working

By spending lots of money and not worrying about liability, America is beating Europe in the vaccine race.

Threats

One-Third of US Troops Are Refusing the COVID Vaccine. History May Help Explain Why

After botching anthrax shots decades ago, the Pentagon’s hands are tied. Only the president can order troops to take new vaccines.

Science & Tech

Russia Has a Vaccine. The World Has Questions

Despite a promising clinical trial, Moscow’s record suggests a wait-and-see approach to a vaccine that the Russian military is already pumping into troops’ arms.

Ideas

We Need to Know Who Is Getting Vaccinated

The federal government must release demographic data about vaccine recipients.

Ideas

After COVID, What Should American Foreign Policy Do?

The pandemic reminds us that American leadership can determine whether the arc of history bends toward something better or something worse.

Ideas

Where Year Two of the Pandemic Will Take Us

As vaccines roll out, the U.S. will face a choice about what to learn and what to forget.

Ideas

A Day of Deaths 25 Percent Higher Than Spring’s Worst

For the second week in a row, more COVID-19 deaths were reported in the U.S. than at any other time in the pandemic.