Ideas
Why Trump Is Trying to Create a Crisis
The president didn’t declare a state of national emergency on Tuesday night, but he laid the foundation for doing so.
Policy
In Primetime Addresses, Trump and Democrats Show No Progress Toward Ending Shutdown
Both sides highlight federal employees, but for very different reasons.
Business
Defense Companies Starting to Feel Effect of US Government Shutdown
Firms working for NASA, DHS, and other shuttered federal agencies are taking hits to their cash flow.
Policy
Can Pat Shanahan Serve as ‘Acting’ Defense Secretary Forever?
The law is unclear, and the situation all but unprecedented.
Policy
Will the Government Ever Reopen?
After a contentious meeting with lawmakers, President Trump said the government could stay closed “for a very long period of time,” and mused about declaring a state of emergency.
Ideas
The Truth About the Soviet War in Afghanistan
Trump mischaracterized it in an attempt to justify his own disastrous policy in the region.
Policy
Trump Instructs Pentagon to Curb Watchdogs' Access to Secret Military Reports
Transparency groups decry move as hindering the work of inspectors general.
Policy
Trump Just Killed His Own Defense Strategy
The commander in chief has torn up 17 years of counterterrorism plans, offering instead his strange mix of talking points and lies.
Policy
GOP Lawmakers: Shutdown Could Last for Weeks
Trump summoned House and Senate leaders to the White House but failed to persuade them to fund the border wall.
Ideas
Trump Escalates His Assault on Civil-Military Relations
The president’s public disparagement of retired generals compounds the damage he has done.
Policy
Goodbye, Mattis. Goodbye, Syria. Hello, 2019
Dramatic shifts abound as Trump puts US military’s war plans in doubt, Democrats resurge in Congress, and the Pentagon gets a new boss.
Ideas
Meet the New (Acting) US Defense Secretary
With no military experience and just a year and a half in government, the former Boeing executive Patrick Shanahan has yet to develop a foreign-policy vision of his own.
Ideas
What we learned in 2018: Averting war with North Korea
Welcome to our podcast about the news, strategy, tech, and business trends defining the future of national security.
Ideas
The Kurds Have Been Betrayed Again by Washington
Time and again, powerful allies on whose support they thought they could rely abandoned them.
Policy
Trump Kicks Mattis Out Early, Names Shanahan Acting Defense Secretary
The abrupt decision comes amid a growing crescendo of criticism of the president’s snap decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria.
Ideas
What we learned in 2018: What's ahead for Syria + why ISIS is not defeated yet
Welcome to our podcast about the news, strategy, tech, and business trends defining the future of national security.
Ideas
A Giant Repair Job Awaits the First Post-Trump SecDef
It will be a rebuilding project the likes of which has not been seen since the Vietnam War.
Policy
The ‘Nightmare Scenario’ Has Happened and You’re to Blame
Trump’s withdrawal from from Syria is what military leaders feared — and exactly what he promised.
Ideas
James Mattis’s Final Protest Against the President
The defense secretary, who resigned on Thursday, was one of the last senior officials in the government who could constrain Donald Trump.
Ideas