• From Kent State to Los Angeles, Using Armed Forces to Police Civilians Is a High-Risk Strategy

    I am a historian, and my recent book — Kent State: An American Tragedy —  examines a historic clash on 4 May 1970, between anti-war protesters and National Guard troops at Kent State University in Ohio. Troops opened fire on the demonstrators, killing four students and wounding nine others. Dispatching California National Guard troops against civilian protesters in Los Angeles chillingly echoes decisions and actions that led to the tragic Kent State shooting. Some active-duty units, as well as National Guard troops, are better prepared today than in 1970 to respond to riots and violent protests – but the vast majority of their training and their primary mission remains to fight, to kill, and to win wars.

  • AI-enabled Control System Helps Autonomous Drones Stay on Target in Uncertain Environments

    An autonomous drone carrying water to help extinguish a wildfire in the Sierra Nevada might encounter swirling Santa Ana winds that threaten to push it off course. Rapidly adapting to these unknown disturbances inflight presents an enormous challenge for the drone’s flight control system.

  • Local Police Join ICE Deportation Force in Record Numbers Despite Warnings Program Lacks Oversight

    ICE officials tout an unprecedented expansion of its 287(g) Program, driven by agreements that allow local officers to function as deportation agents during routine policing. But advocates warn such agreements come at a high cost to communities.

  • Ukraine’s Drone Attack Offers Fearful Lessons for a Chinese Invasion Force

    Ukraine’s massive drone strike against Russian air bases on 1 June should reverberate across all theaters of conflict. But there is one Western Pacific scenario where it could be very relevant indeed: a Chinese invasion of Taiwan.

  • Ukraine’s Air Force Has Survived. Taiwan’s Almost Certainly Couldn’t

    The Ukrainian air force went to war against invading Russian forces in February 2022 with just 125 combat aircraft concentrated at around a dozen large bases. Given Russia’s overwhelming deep-strike advantage, few observers expected the Ukrainian brigades to survive the first hours of the war. But they did survive. And 38 months later, they’re still surviving—and flying daily air-defense and strike sorties. It has been an incredible feat. Can the equally outgunned Taiwanese air force duplicate it? Almost certainly not.

  • Analysis of the IAEA’s Comprehensive Iran NPT Safeguards Report May 2025

    The Trump administration’s 2018 decision to unilaterally withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran was a gift to Iran’s nuclear weapons ambitions, freeing Iran from that deal’s tight restrictions on developing nuclear weapons – a freedom which Iran has used to accelerate, unhindered, its rush toward the bomb. But Iran is still a member of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), which bars member states from developing nuclear weapons. The recent IAEA report notes that Iran is in egregious violation of its NPT obligations, and that it has been engaging in an elaborate, ongoing cover-up of its nuclear weapons-related activities.   

  • Golden Dome Dangers: An Arms Control Expert Explains How Trump’s Missile Defense Threatens to Make the U.S. Less Safe

    President Donald Trump’s idea of a “Golden Dome” missile defense system carries a range of potential strategic dangers for the United States. Moreover, Trump’s goals for Golden Dome — protecting the U.S. from ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles, and missiles launched from space — are likely beyond reach.

  • Defending U.S. Military Bases Against Drones? A Recent Tabletop Exercise Explores How

    In 2016, during coalition operations against the Islamic State, defense leaders started characterizing drones, especially small-unmanned aircraft systems, as a threat to U.S. military personnel and installations. Since then, drones have proliferated and increasingly threaten military personnel and bases, both at home and abroad.

  • Are We Ready for a ‘DeepSeek for Bioweapons’?

    Anthropic’s Claude 4 is a warning sign: AI that can help build bioweapons is coming, and could be widely available soon. Steven Adler writes that we need to be prepared for the consequences: “like a freely downloadable ‘DeepSeek for bioweapons,’ available across the internet, loadable to the computer of any amateur scientist who wishes to cause mass harm. With Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4 having finally triggered this level of safety risk, the clock is now ticking.”

  • Boulder Fire-Attack Suspect's Family in ICE Custody, Pending Deportation

    The family members of the suspect in Sunday’s Colorado attack have been detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials and could be deported as early as Tuesday evening.

  • Familiar Attempts to Justify and Downplay Antisemitic Violence Follow Latest Attack on Jewish Community

    Reactions to the Boulder, Colorado attack followed a familiar pattern to the 21 May 2025 Washington, D.C. murder of a couple leaving an event for young Jewish. Many of the same anti-Zionist groups and influencers who celebrated or justified D.C. shooting suspect Elias Rodriguez’s actions reacted similarly to the Boulder attack. other extremists also responded with predictable antisemitism and conspiracy theories by claiming the attack was a “false flag” or blaming Jews.

  • Ukraine Drone Strikes on Russian Airbase Reveal Any Country Is Vulnerable to the Same Kind of Attack

    Air defense systems are built on the assumption that threats come from above and from beyond national borders. But Ukraine’s coordinated drone strike on 1 June on five airbases deep inside Russian territory exposed what happens when states are attacked from below and from within. In low-level airspace, visibility drops, responsibility fragments, and detection tools lose their edge. Drones arrive unannounced, response times lag, coordination breaks.

  • From Hypersonic to Alliances: Russia’s Emerging Threats to U.S. and NATO Security

    Russian innovations with short/medium-range hypersonic weapons present the main challenge to the United States.

  • How Do the Militaries of Russia and Ukraine Stack Up?

    Russia holds a sizable advantage over Ukraine on troop numbers and weaponry yet the two sides have fought to a standstill. Russia this spring has ramped up attacks on civilian targets while resisting U.S. ceasefire calls.

  • “The Federal Government Is Gone”: Under Trump, the Fight Against Extremist Violence Is Left Up to the States

    As President Donald Trump guts the main federal office dedicated to preventing terrorism, states say they’re left to take the lead in spotlighting threats. Some state efforts are robust, others are fledgling, and yet other states are still formalizing strategies for addressing extremism. With the federal government largely retreating from focusing on extremist dangers, prevention advocates say the threat of violent extremism is likely to increase.