Our picksSlashing counterterrorism funding; security clearance backlog; Netherlands’ coast protection, and more

Trump administration seeks to slash counterterrorism funding (Bethany Allen-Ebrahimian, Foreign Policy)
On the chopping block: incident response teams, air marshals, and nuclear detection.

Why we should be worried about a war in space (Thomas González Roberts, The Atlantic)
There are no rules governing military behavior in the upper atmosphere.

Here’s what the newly signed NDAA means for cybersecurity (Chris Bing, CyberScoop)
President Trump signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) Tuesday, approving the $700 billion spending bill designed to fund the U.S….

Yes, the security clearance backlog is getting worse (Joseph Marks, NextGov)
The Government Accountability Office also found there’s not a plan to reverse it.

The Netherlands is protecting its coast with an $81 million ‘sand motor’ (Leanna Garfield, Insider)
The Dutch government has built a “sand motor” — hundreds of millions of cubic feet of dredged sand that will protect the Netherlands’ southern coast from sea level rise and erosion.

Closing Homeland Security laboratories to build a wall puts lives in danger (Jeff Schlegelmilch, The Hill)
Recent acts of terrorism at home and abroad remind us that our first responders are on the front lines, and that our national policies and programs should continue to support them. Unfortunately, the administration’s proposed budget threatens to undermine programs that our responders rely on. The clock is ticking for Congress to act.

Sea level rise may swamp many coastal U.S. sewage plants (Alex Fox, EOS)
Cities typically build wastewater treatment facilities in low-lying areas. A new national study identifies which plants are most vulnerable to coastal flooding.

How will emerging cyber threats change the way we think about conflict? (Ellen Laipson, World Politics Review)
It’s now well understood that many governments see their cyber capabilities as a tool to influence, coerce, deter and disrupt their enemies and rivals. Societies and states today are almost totally dependent on cyberspace to communicate, conduct routine but essential transactions, store information and make critical decisions about policy matters, from the mundane to the strategic. Yet it’s hard for people without deep technical understanding of the technology—your columnist included—to know where to fit these cyber realities into familiar categories for the conduct of national security and international relations.