-
SURVEILLANCEFISA Reauthorization Fearmongering and Disinformation Kicks Into Overdrive
With just 10 days to go before Title VII of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) expires, surveillance hawks have intensified their propaganda and fearmongering campaign. But FISA’s many problems are reasons for Congress to hit the “pause” button on FISA Section 702 reauthorization, unless and until these problems are eliminated.
-
-
GROVES OF ACADEMEFrom Lecture Halls to Jail Cells: The Rising Risks of University Research
Universities should be clear-eyed about the need to negotiate trade-offs between research security and international engagement. National export-control authorities also need to provide adequate guidance and support to university institutions and researchers navigating increasingly onerous export-control regimes.
-
-
AIAI Can Design and Run Thousands of Lab Experiments without Human Hands. Humanity Isn’t Ready for the New Risks This Brings to Biology
What happens when the same capabilities operate outside those controls is a question that policy has not yet answered. Overreact, and talent and investment may move elsewhere while the technology continues advancing anyway. Underreact, and the risks of that technology could be exploited to cause real harm.
-
-
AIThe Federal Government Is Rushing Toward AI. Our Reporting Offers Three Cautionary Tales.
I’ve studied how the federal government has handled — and mishandled — the AI transition over the past two decades, and my reporting offers some cautionary tales and valuable lessons as policymakers encourage the use of AI and federal agencies adopt the technology.
-
-
DEMOCRACY WATCHThe Election in Hungary Could Help Curb the Rightward Shift in Europe, a Researcher Believes
The opposition in Hungary has a good chance of winning the election on April 12, according to researchers. This could have major consequences, both for Hungarians and for the rest of Europe.
-
-
DEMOCRACY WATCHHungarian Election Exposes Tensions at the Heart of Donald Trump’s Plans to Boost the Far‑Right in Europe
The world will be watching on April 12 when Hungarians head to the polls in parliamentary elections that will determine the country’s next prime minister. This may sound exaggerated, but these parliamentary elections are about much more than simply whether the incumbent prime minister, Viktor Orbán, will serve another term as Hungary’s leader.
-
-
OUR PICKSNon-State Entities and National Security | The AI Revolution in Cyber Conflict | Seismic Shift in Nuclear Energy Regulation, and more
· A Seismic Shift in Nuclear Energy Regulation
· Pentagon Violated Court Order to Restore Press Access, Judge Rules
· Non-State Entities and National Security
· The AI Revolution in Cyber Conflict
· How This Precision Weapon Reengineered Modern War
· The Hidden System Turning Chinese Tech Companies into Military Suppliers
-
-
WORLD ROUNDUPViktor Orbán Could Actually Lose | Taiwan’s Political Crisis Is a Security Nightmare | China Took a More Active Role in Iran War, and more
· Viktor Orbán Could Actually Lose
· Growing List of Orban Loyalists Defecting Before Critical Election
· U.S. Intelligence Shows China Taking a More Active Role in Iran War
· Recriminations Over Iran Have Heightened the Risk of a Break-up of NATO
· A Ceasefire Will Not Prevent the Iran War’s Economic Harm
· Taiwan’s Political Crisis Is a Security Nightmare
-
-
NUCLEAR WEAPONSThe Unravelling of the Global Nuclear Order
While the NPT is experiencing a credibility crisis, the future of the CTBT hangs in the balance. The expiry of the New START on 5 February 2026 marked the end of the arms control era. The nuclear taboo regarding the non-use of nuclear weapons is fast diminishing due to explicit nuclear threats by world leaders. The infusion of AI into nuclear decision-making, meanwhile, is likely to affect strategic stability.
-
-
NUCLEAR WEAPONSThe U.S. Is Pushing Southeast Asia Toward China. The Iran War Made It Worse.
There is a growing anxiety among U.S. allies in Southeast Asia about inconsistencies in U.S. policy and the credibility of long-term commitments under Trump’s leadership. A new survey of Southeast Asian opinion leaders shows they prefer China to the United States as a partner, while the region’s biggest geopolitical concern is U.S. global leadership.
-
-
TERRORISMWest Bank Violence Is Soaring, Fueled by a Capitulation of Israeli Institutions to Settlers Interests
The dramatic escalation of settler violence in the West Bank reveals a profound transformation within Israel’s state institutions. Rather than serving as purported neutral enforcers of law and order, the military, Israeli police and the broader governmental apparatus have become increasingly aligned with — and at times directly complicit in — violent settler actions against Palestinians.
-
-
EXTREMISMStudy of Tommy Robinson's Social Media Reveals How Online Influencers Mobilize Supporters without Direct Calls to Action
Analysis shows how influencers shape public behavior and legitimize violence through narratives, not instructions. Far-right extremist Tommy Robinson “used emotional appeals and conspiracy narratives to set up a worldview where violence felt like a natural, even necessary response,” says one researcher.
-
-
GRID RESILIENCEAs Electricity Demand Grows and Risks Increase, Experts Examine How the Grid Can Keep Up
Electricity demand in the United States is increasing while the infrastructure needed to serve that demand is taking longer to build. That gap is becoming a central challenge for utilities, system operators, and policymakers.
-
-
ENERGY SECURITYThere’s Hope for the Offshore Wind Industry — Yes, Really
Trump and Interior Department chief Doug Burgum have spent months in an all-out assault against the wind energy. They have frozen all new leases, repealed clean energy tax credits, and even paid off an oil company to not build a planned wind project. In December, Burgum paused work on five under-construction wind farms on “national security” grounds. But the administration’s no-holds-barred attack on wind energy has taken a beating in the courts, giving the beleaguered industry a chance to get back on stable footing.
-
-
WORLD ROUNDUPDonald Trump Is the War’s Biggest Loser | What China Just Learned from the Iran War | France Learned to Fight Russian Disinformation, and more
· Donald Trump Is the War’s Biggest Loser
· Trump Is Wishcasting Victory in Iran
· Trump Has Stuffed the West – and Starmer Has Only Made Things Worse
· Ruthless China Is Poised to Control the Technology of the Future
· How France Learned to Fight Russian Disinformation
· Why Trump Mishandled Iran
· What China Just Learned from the Iran War
· Iran’s Battered Leaders Emerge from War Confident — and With New Cards
-
-
OUR PICKSIranian Hackers Sabotaging US Energy, Water Infrastructure | Next AG Will Probably Be an Election Denier | White House Wants to Cut CISA to the Bone, and more
· The Next Attorney General Will Probably Be an Election Denier
· America’s Pro-War Elites Must Be Held Accountable
· Hegseth’s Divine War
· The FBI Didn’t Answer Texts from Minnesota Investigators for Days After Renee Good’s Killing
· Iran-Linked Hackers Are Sabotaging US Energy and Water Infrastructure
· Congressional Progress Report on the American Nuclear Renaissance
· The Trump White House Wants to Cut CISA to the Bone
-
-
SEA MINESHow Iran Can Stop Shipping with Mines – in the Strait, the Whole Gulf, and Even the Red Sea
Mine warfare doesn’t need to sink ships to succeed. It works by imposing unacceptable risk. Sea mines offer distinct advantages as a maritime weapon. They require little training or specialist support. They are easy to deploy. And they can be laid without direct combat interaction with an adversary, remaining dormant until activated by a passing vessel. These characteristics make mines the most cost-effective weapons available to a weaker and outmatched force.
-
-
SEA MINESHow Sea Mines Threaten Global Trade, and How Navies Detect Them
Artificial intelligence techniques, such as machine learning, can help navies detect modern sea mines. Here’s what I’ve learned about how the mines work and how they can be neutralized.
-
-
MOVING MOUNTAINSBypass the Strait of Hormuz with Nuclear Explosives? The U.S. Studied That in Panama and Colombia in the 1960s
The idea of a new canal to move oil from the Middle East had emerged in the context of another Middle East conflict, the 1956 Suez crisis. Project Plowshare advocates, led by Edward Teller, sought to use what they called “peaceful nuclear explosions” to reduce the costs of large-scale earthmoving projects.
-
-
DEMOCRACY WATCHIsrael’s Death Penalty Law Has Little to Do with Criminal Justice and Everything to Do with Ethno‑Nationalism
Under a law passed by the Israeli parliament on March 30, 2026, death by hanging will now become the default sentence for some offenses – but only in effect when the crime is carried out by Palestinians. Scholars of comparative authoritarianism have long identified the selective application of harsh criminal penalties as a hallmark of illiberal governance.
-
-
IMMIGRATIONWhy We Went Looking for National Defense Areas Along the U.S. Southern Border
The federal government is charging a skyrocketing number of migrants with trespassing in military zones. The boundaries can be hard to pinpoint — even for investigative reporters.
-
-
GUNSNew York City’s Spike in 3D-Printed Guns Prompts Push for Tougher Laws
Police in the nation’s biggest city are recovering a growing number of 3D-printed guns. Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is advocating legislation that would make 3D-printing guns a crime.
-
More headlines
The long view
FOOD SECURITYA Turning Point: U.S. Recognizes Agriculture as a Domain of Defense
The US has legitimized the role of food supply in national defense. It has recognized that in a world of rupture, a nation that cannot feed itself cannot defend itself. A new policy effectively ends the era of agriculture functioning solely as a commercial sector.
___________________________
THE SHIFTING LANDSCAPECURRENTS, TRENDS, DIRECTIONS
SOCIAL MEDIASocial Media’: The Changing Tech of Terror
In the wake of the white noise generated by mainstream social media channels and apps, a new trend of ‘anti-social media’ has emerged in recent years, which seeks to abandon mainstream platforms, reduce screen time, and seek private, intimate, or even ‘analogue’ communication to avoid algorithm-driven polarization, surveillance and loneliness. But some of these so-called anti-social media platforms have also become off-the-wall mediums for disseminating extremist propaganda.
AIWhat If We Used AI to Strengthen Democracy?
AI is just the latest technology in a long line of innovations through history that have influenced politics. While many experts fear artificial intelligence will be deployed to weaken democracy, examples abound around the world of it being used to make systems fairer. Surveillance, control, propaganda aren’t the only options, says security technologist.
___________________________
CHINA WATCHThe Trump Administration’s Cyber Strategy Fundamentally Misunderstands China’s Threat
The adoption of an offense-first strategy is a dangerous miscalculation. It will not diminish Beijing’s campaigns, and it coincides with a significant deterioration of cyber defenses that have kept U.S. networks and Americans safe.
CHINA WATCHAllfare: China’s Whole-of-Nation Strategy
To analyze how states exert their influence, scholars often compartmentalize actions into rigid analytical frameworks, which obscures the holistic scope of the challenge.
THE ICE PROBLEMICE Not Only Looks and Acts Like a Paramilitary Force – It Is One, and That Makes It Harder to Curb
ICE and CBP meet many but not all of the most salient definitions of a “paramilitary force.” Both are also not subject to the same constitutional restrictions that apply to other law enforcement agencies. ICE and CBP thus bear some resemblance to the informal paramilitaries used in many countries for “regime maintenance,” carrying out political repression along partisan and ethnic lines, even though they are official agents of the state.
THE PROBLEM WITH ICEHow the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks Shaped ICE’s Immigration Strategy
The immigration enforcement response to 9/11 set the stage for ICE’s aggressive conduct. Under this way of thinking, if the homeland is under threat, then those who challenge immigration enforcement are “domestic terrorists.” Investigations into ICE officers are muted, for the officers are protecting the homeland against existential danger. Severe tactics to detain immigrants and condemn protesters – and violate U.S. citizens’ constitutional protections — become not only permissible but also advisable.
NUCLEAR ARMS CONTROLWeakening Nuclear Arms Control Increases Risks of Crisis Escalation
The expiration of the New START agreement between the United States and Russia on 5 February marks the near-complete collapse of an arms control system that once made nuclear competition predictable, verifiable and contained. The risk is not merely enlargement of nuclear arsenals, but the diminishment of safeguards against escalation, with increasing instability and shorter warning times.
ENERGY SECURITYThe US Doesn’t Need to Generate as Much New Electricity as You Think
Load shifting and improving energy efficiency could reduce the need for new power plants, but utilities often profit more from building than saving power.
DISASTERSWhy Do Disasters Still Happen, Despite Early Warnings? Because Systems Are Built to Wait for Certainty
Uncertainty cannot be eliminated. The challenge is to decide how much uncertainty is acceptable when lives and livelihoods are at stake. Systems designed to wait for certainty are more likely to deliver warnings that arrive too late to feel like warnings at all. If resilience to future climate risks is to be sustainable, warning systems must be designed to learn, adapt, and act earlier on credible risk.
DRONESCounter-Drone Technologies Are Evolving – but There’s No Surefire Way to Defend Against Drone Attacks
Together, these three types of counter-drone technologies – radio frequency, directed energy and kinetic – provide a comprehensive tool kit for addressing the diverse threats posed by unauthorized drones. However, there is no single ideal solution to counter these threats.
DISINFORMATIONFrance Strikes to Address Misinformation Weakening Western Alliance
The key destabilizing feature of today’s information environment is no longer simply that democracies are targeted by adversaries’ misinformation and disinformation. Increasingly, the danger is coming from uninhibited partners in the allied ecosystem itself.
STEELA New Way to Make Steel Could Reduce America’s Reliance on Imports
America has been making steel from iron ore the same way for hundreds of years. Unfortunately, it hasn’t been making enough of it. Today the U.S. is the world’s largest steel importer, relying on other countries to produce a material that serves as the backbone of our society. Hertha Metals uses natural gas and electricity to produce steel and high-purity iron for magnets.