Policy
Trump Officials Deliver Plan to Split Up Cyber Command, NSA
An end to the “dual hat” arrangement has been debated for years — but the timing raises questions. The plan requires Milley's certification to move ahead.
Ideas
Pushing Billions in Arms Sales Is Not an ‘Accomplishment’
It matters to whom the weapons are flowing and how they will be used.
Policy
Space Force Troops Get a Name: ‘Guardians’
VP Pence revealed the moniker for Trump’s oft-teased newest military service branch to stand alongside soldiers, airmen, sailors, and Marines.
Threats
SolarWinds Isn't the Only Way Hackers Entered Networks, CISA Says
The agency warned that ejecting attackers from networks will be tough, especially because they can likely read the email of IT and cybersecurity employees.
Threats
Milley Meets With Taliban In Fragile Peace Negotiations
The Joint Chiefs chairman's meeting comes at a profound moment of uncertainty for the U.S.-brokered talks on Afghanistan.
Ideas
Keep Politics Out of National-Security Advisory Boards
Trump’s appointment of loyalists to a DOD board sets a dangerous precedent.
Ideas
We Need a Goldwater-Nichols Act for Emerging Technology
The 1986 law made joint experience a prerequisite for high rank. We must do the same for technological facility.
Ideas
Sweeping Hack Gives Biden a Mandate to Reorient America’s Cyber Strategy
It’s long past time to wrest the focus from offense back to defense.
Ideas
How to Turn General Austin Into Secretary Austin
Some advice from the author of “The Nearly Impossible Job of Secretary of Defense.”
Ideas
Confirm Austin, But Retire Milley
We’ve seen the harm that comes when the Pentagon’s civilian and military chiefs are too closely aligned.
Exclusive
Policy
Trump Officials Reviewing DOD Support To CIA
Some officials familiar with the review see it as an effort to cut vital DOD support to the agency.
Exclusive
Policy
White House Shipbuilding Plan Would Shrink Ford Carrier Class Over Navy Objections
Critics say the bulked-up fleet plan would cut dangerously into Army, Air Force budgets — if Congress and the Biden administration followed it.
Ideas
This Is No Job for a General
President-elect Joe Biden should choose a civilian to lead his Department of Defense.
Policy
Austin Pick Thrusts Pentagon Into Identity-Politics Debate
His confirmation would be historic. But for whom?
Ideas
The Problem With the SecDef Purity Test
You don’t want a general, a man, a war veteran — and everyone in the defense industry is evil?
Ideas
Congress Should Vote ‘No’ on Austin. It Likely Won’t.
It's hard to vote against a popular general. That's one reason why lawmakers barred the appointment of recently retired officers as defense secretary.
Policy
Biden Selects Retired Gen. Lloyd Austin for Defense Secretary, Reportedly
Austin, the last commander of the Iraq War, would be the nation's first Black defense secretary.
Policy
US Has Achieved ‘Modicum of Success’ in Afghanistan, Top General Says
But years of military stalemate make negotiating with the Taliban the only option, Gen. Mark Milley says.
Ideas