Ideas

Don’t Let On-Site Inspections Go Extinct

In-person visits to foreign military bases and weapons facilities improve national security in more ways than meet the eye.

Ideas

The US Has Abandoned Its Leadership on Land Mines, and For What?

Defense Secretary Mark Esper says new land mines are needed to “ensure mission success” and “reduce risk to our forces.” What success? What forces?

Ideas

The Official Numbers on the Coronavirus Are Wrong, and Everyone Knows It

Because the U.S. data on coronavirus infections are so deeply flawed, the quantification of the outbreak obscures more than it illuminates.

Ideas

How an AI Sent an Early Warning about the Coronavirus Outbreak

BlueDot’s algorithm draws on news stories, disease-tracking networks, and even airline ticketing. But such tools are hardly foolproof.

Ideas

The US Should Send More, Not Fewer, Troops to West Africa

America’s interests and unique security partnerships in this burgeoning region argue for more help, not less.

Ideas

The President Is Winning His War on American Institutions

How Trump is destroying the civil service and bending the government to his will.

Ideas

Epidemics Reveal the Truth of the Societies They Hit

A nation’s response to disaster speaks to its strengths—and to its dysfunctions.

Ideas

The World Is Experiencing a New Form of Autocracy

Today’s authoritarians use legal measures to subvert constitutional constraints on their power.

Ideas

The Federal Government Needs a Military-Style Campaign Against the Coronavirus

A longtime infectious disease specialist says such campaigns are effective against these kinds of infectious diseases because the way viruses operate fits, conceptually. into a military model.

Ideas

America Must Shape the World’s AI Norms — or Dictators Will

Four former U.S. defense secretaries issue a warning about China and a wake-up call to Americans on artificial intelligence.

Ideas

Enacting Trump’s Revenge Campaign at the NSC

The cuts to the National Security Council have less to do with making government better than with making it purer.

Ideas

Beware a Peace Deal That May Spell War

There are important questions still to be answered about Afghanistan and the United States.

Ideas

Trump Freezes Hiring at Another DHS Agency

TSA is the second Homeland Security component agency to suspend taking on new employees.

Ideas

Trump’s War on the Intelligence Community Is Also About US Elections

With a loyalist as acting director of national intelligence, the official line on issues like Russian election meddling could bend closer to the president’s.

Ideas

Top 5 Things to Watch in Congress' 2021 Defense Budget Hearings

On Wednesday, military and civilian leaders of the Defense Department will testify before Congress on their $705 billion budget request for 2021.

Ideas

Trump Is Politicizing the Intelligence Community

The president spent the week reshaping America's IC to serve his political needs. What does that mean for the 2020 election, and for national security?

Ideas

The US Intelligence Community Is Caught in a Collector’s Trap

The information haystack in which we search for useful needles is growing faster than we could ever catch up. Gathering more hay isn't the answer.

Ideas

White-Supremacist Violence Is Terrorism

As commander of all U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, I fought America’s enemies abroad. Now we must fight violent, hateful ideologies at home.

Ideas

It’s Time to Talk About Taiwan

Washington’s longstanding policy of strategic ambiguity is increasingly likely to inflame the kind of crisis it was meant to deter.

Ideas

You’re Likely to Get the Coronavirus

Most cases are not life-threatening, which is also what makes the virus a historic challenge to contain.