National Security

Every election season, commentators search for the Holy Grail of American foreign policy, the presidential doctrine, or a leader’s defining set of diplomatic beliefs. The George W. Bush doctrine was to hunt down terrorists and spread democracy, if necessary,...

I grew up in the rural Midwest, the youngest of four siblings. I worked farm jobs, played sports, and never wore shoes as a kid. As an adult, I joined the Marine Corps and became an ultra-runner, eventually running...

We know for a fact from polling that this is not an election in which major foreign policy issues or the differing worldviews of the candidates are looming large in the minds of voters. Where these issues do creep...

If we are re-entering an era of “great power competition,” then there is an unavoidable question: what role do nuclear weapons play in that competition? China is set to double its nuclear capacity while it pursues its own nuclear...

Download The Hunt for Mobile Missiles: Nuclear Weapons, AI, and the New Arms Race  This report examines the increasing ability of major powers to destroy moving targets, in particular, land-based mobile missiles.  Yet, at the same time, it analyzes...

International relations is going soft, with countries from India to Qatar to Turkey opting for soft power persuasion over hard power pressure. Soft power collectively refers to the tools in a nation-state’s arsenal that do not punish, reward, or...

On August 15, 2020, President Donald Trump announced that he would look into the possibility of granting a pardon to Edward Snowden, the former contract employee for the National Security Agency (NSA) who “perpetrated the largest and most damaging...

When the U.S. Department of State released its annual country reports on terrorism a few weeks ago, many security analysts were curious how Sudan would be assessed. The state has been officially listed as a sponsor of terrorism since...

The threat to American influence from the propaganda and disinformation activities of a range of actors—from powers like the People’s Republic of China and the Russian Federation to non-state actors like violent extremists—is one of the most pressing challenges...

With its passage of the National Security Act of 1947, Congress created the National Security Council (NSC) as part of its reorganization of the federal government’s national security appa-ratus following World War II. The primary role of the NSC...