Our picksBigger Threat than Blackouts | Risks to Nuclear Deterrence | Encrypting More of the Internet, and more

Published 10 October 2019

·  ’By, With, Through’ Was the Best Hope for Syria — and Ending ‘Endless Wars’

·  Trump’s Syria Fiasco Is Part of Putin’s To-Do List

·  The Most Imminent Threat to National Security Is Not Where You’re Looking

·  Border Apprehensions Have Plunged Since May—So Why Are U.S. Military Troops Still There?

·  U.S. Looks to Facilitate Financing for European 5G Vendors: Report

·  A Controversial Plan to Encrypt More of the Internet

·  Homeland Security, DoD, Transportation Officials Focus on Aviation Cyber Security

·  Blackouts Used to Be Disastrous. Now There’s a Bigger Threat

·  AI Risks to Nuclear Deterrence Are Real

‘By, With, Through’ Was the Best Hope ‘for Syria — and Ending ‘Endless Wars’ (Mona Yacoubian, Defense One)
Turkey’s military incursion into northern Syria carriesgrave implications for the United States’ Syrian Kurdish partners, the war on ISIS, and the humanitarian crisis already affecting displaced civilians in the area. Equally consequential, the Turkish attack may put an end to the U.S. military’s until-now successful “by, with, and, through” approach to the fight in Syria.
The U.S. acquiescence to Turkey’s invasion abandons not only an effective and reliable Kurdish partner, but also a creative model that could serve as a more sustainable alternative to America’s “forever wars.” This innovative approach to U.S. military operations abroad stands as a rare if limited success story in Syria.

Trump’s Syria Fiasco Is Part of Putin’s To-Do List (Julia Davis, Daily Beast)
Trump tried to keep his talks with Putin at Helsinki last year secret from his staff and the world, but Russia’s president held up the checklist for the cameras. Syria was on it.

The Most Imminent Threat to National Security Is Not Where You’re Looking (Adam Robertson, Washington Examiner)
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security notes that there are 16 “critical infrastructure sectors whose assets, systems, and networks, whether physical or virtual, are considered so vital to the United States that their incapacitation or destruction would have a debilitating effect on security, national economic security, national public health or safety, or any combination thereof.”
A drone strike on an energy facility, for example, would not only wreak havoc on the power supply or other outputs of the facility, it would also become a national security risk. Homeland Security identifies the U.S. energy infrastructure as the main factor that fuels the economy of the 21st century. Without a stable energy supply, health and welfare are threatened, and the U.S. economy cannot function. The daily cost of taking a power-generating facility offline is immense. In 2017, a man flying a consumer drone crashed it into a high-voltage power wire, causing tens of thousands of dollars worth of damage alone and leaving 1,600 residents without power.