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The Case Against Masks at School  (Margery Smelkinson, Leslie Bienen, and Jeanne Noble, The Atlantic)
Districts should rethink imposing on millions of children an intervention that provides little discernible benefit.

American Deterrence’s Missing Half  (Raphael S. Cohen, The Hill)
The Department of Defense is the only Cabinet agency whose core mission revolves around deterrence, the department is in reality only responsible for half of what we should consider deterrence. Military force provides what Nobel Prize-winning economist Thomas Schelling termed the “power to hurt.” Successful deterrence, then, requires something more — the ability to credibly signal the willingness to use that power if necessary. The will to use force, however, is ultimately a political question that rests not with the Department of Defense but with political leadership and, more fundamentally, the American public. Support for deterrence by the American public is, today, very much in question.

Biden Team Promises New Approach to Extremism, but Critics See Old Patterns  (Odette Yousef, NPR)
There is widespread agreement that domestic extremism poses a grave threat. But the Biden administration’s response has some observers wondering if the president’s team is recycling past mistakes or failing to grasp the scope of the challenge. As President Biden begins his second year in office, his administration continues to roll out efforts aimed at the threat of violent domestic terrorism. It has identified violent white supremacy and extremist militias as the greatest current threats. Its arsenal includes a program at the Department of Homeland Security called the Center for Prevention Programs and Partnerships (CP3). Billed as an entirely new approach to prevention, top officials say it puts local communities at the center in the fight against the spread of ideologies that inspire targeted violence and terrorism. But some outside observers worry that it closely resembles earlier problematic anti-terrorism efforts at DHS, and that it falls short of meeting a post-Jan. 6 reality in the U.S.