Ideas
The ‘Rule of Thirds’ Is Bunk
The military services’ shares of overall defense spending have always fluctuated with strategy and need.
Policy
DOD Lifts Mask Mandate for Fully Vaccinated Personnel
Fully vaccinated DOD personnel are no longer required to wear a mask at Defense Department facilities.
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.
Policy
Lawmakers Scold Pentagon for Leaving Afghanistan Without ‘Over-the-Horizon’ Plan
“Why would we leave Bagram when we don’t have an alternative closer than UAE?” said the Armed Services Committee’s top Republican.
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.
Science & Tech
Old-Time Radio: Pentagon’s Electronic-Warfare Gear Is Dated, Experts Say
Lawmakers say more of the EW budget should go to R&D.
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.
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.
Policy
‘That’s Why I Wear the Uniform:’ Milley Calls Racial, Religious Equality His ‘North Star’
The chairman’s remarks at an ROTC commissioning come amid Pentagon efforts to address inequality in the ranks.
Business
What's In Biden’s First Budget? And How Late Will It Be?
The White House could submit its defense budget request later than any administration in at least a century.
Threats
Innovation, Software Highlighted as Priorities by Pentagon's No. 2 Civilian
Kathleen Hicks also suggested DOD still needs the cloud capabilities JEDI is supposed to provide.
Policy
US Air Force, Navy Extend 50% Work-From-Home Indefinitely
New memos suggest office space occupancy may never return to 100 percent.
Threats
US Marines May Have Lost Their ‘Amphibious Edge,’ Leaders Say
Top Marines tell Congress that after deadly AAV accident and years in Middle East, the Corps and its vehicles are unprepared for waterborne operations.
Ideas
Ten Years After Bin Laden, We Still Need Better Intelligence Sharing
Leaders should still apply the lessons we learned, when contending with China and Russia.
Policy
New Fort Hood Report May Help Change Sexual Assault Prosecutions
Spc. Vanessa Guillén’s sexual harassment was reported by three soldiers. Command failed to act.
Ideas
Teamwork Led Us to Bin Laden and Can Keep America Safe
As we look back on the Osama bin Laden raid of a decade ago, three lessons stand out.
Threats
State of Defense 2021
Our annual service-by-service look at where the U.S. military is, and where it's going.
Policy
US ‘Won’t Ignore’ Terrorism at Home or Abroad, Biden Tells Congress
The change in the threat environment is part of why American troops should withdraw from Afghanistan, the president said.
Policy