OUR PICKSThe U.S. Is Undoing the Post-9/11 Security Architecture | America Enters a New Age of Political Violence | US Investment in Spyware Is Skyrocketing, and more

How the United States Is Undoing the Post-9/11 Security Architecture That Has Kept It Safe  (Donell Harvin, Just Security)
Since 9/11, the United States has invested more than $1 trillion directly into the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and trillions more dollars into wars fought in the name of counterterrorism, intelligence centers, surveillance, and counter-extremism programs. That money bought a sprawling security architecture that provided safer airports, fusion centers connecting federal and local intelligence, reforms to disaster relief, and new counterterrorism units at every level of government. But since President Donald Trump took office in January, many of those investments have been completely erased. Americans may be no safer today from foreign and domestic terrorism than they were on September 11, 2001. In some ways, given the rise of domestic violent extremism and the political encouragement of it, Americans may be even more vulnerable.

Perpetual War and International Law: Enduring Legacies of the War on Terror  (Ryan Goodman and Tess Bridgeman, Just Security)
Just Security, in partnership with Oxford University Press, has released  Perpetual War and International Law: Enduring Legacies of the War on Terror, edited by Brianna Rosen, Senior Fellow at Just Security and Director of the AI and Emerging Technologies Initiative. The book is available for pre-order here.
Released to mark the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attacks, the volume offers a timely reflection on the enduring legacies of the post-9/11 era and prospects for moving beyond the war paradigm. It interrogates the blurring of the boundaries between war and peace, demonstrates how precedents set during the global “war on terror” continue to shape contemporary conflicts, and examines how this era of perpetual war might come to a close.

Charlie Kirk Assassination Raises Fear of Surging Political Violence  (Richard FaussetKen Bensinger and Alan Feuer, New York Times)
Initial expressions of grief and shock were overtaken by open calls for reckoning and vengeance, as some proclaimed the country was on the brink of civil war.
“We’re basically a tinderbox of a country,” said Robert Pape, a political science professor at the University of Chicago who has been conducting regular polls to measure attitudes toward political violence since supporters of President Trump attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “We are seeing more radicalized politics and more support for violence than at any point since we’ve been doing these studies in the past four years.” (Cont.))