• DEFAULT DANGERU.S. Debt Default Could Trigger Dollar’s Collapse – and Severely Erode America’s Political and Economic Might

    By Michael Humphries

    Brinkmanship over the debt ceiling has become a regular ritual. As an economist, I know that defaulting on the national debt would have real-life consequences. Even the threat of pushing the U.S. into default has an economic impact. In August 2021, the mere prospect of a potential default led to an unprecedented downgrade of the nation’s credit rating, hurting America’s financial prestige as well as countless individuals, including retirees. And that was caused by the mere specter of default. An actual default would be far more damaging.

  • CLIMATE CHALLENGESExxon Disputed Climate Findings for Years. Its Scientists Knew Better.

    By Alice McCarthy

    Projections created internally by ExxonMobil starting in the late 1970s on the impact of fossil fuels on climate change were very accurate, even surpassing those of some academic and governmental scientists. The oil company executives sought to mislead the public about the industry’s role in climate change, contradicting the findings of the company’s own scientists and drawing a growing number of lawsuits by states and cities.

  • RANSOMWAREU.S. Dismantles Ransomware Network Responsible for More Than $100 Million in Extortion

    An international ransomware network that extorted more than $100 million from hundreds of victims around the world has been brought down following a monthslong infiltration by the FBI. The group known as Hive targeted more than 1,500 victims, including hospitals, school districts and financial firms in more than 80 countries.

  • ARGUMENT: BATTERIES WARBatteries Are the Battlefield

    The United States is one of many countries pursuing the clean energy revolution, and which have ramped up investment in electric vehicles manufacturing and renewable energy sources to power the shift away from fossil fuels. Christina Lu and Liam Scott write that this is an industry that has already been staked out by another power: China.

  • BOOK REVIEW: CHINA IN DECLINEChina Is a Threat Not Because It is Ascendant, but Because It Is on a Downward Trajectory

    By Robert Wihtol

    The prevailing consensus for the past few years has been that an ascendant China is threatening to overtake a slumping America. Because research suggests that a geopolitical power transition is most likely to take place when a surging challenger overtakes an exhausted hegemon, many believe that a turbo-charged China has increased the likelihood of conflict with America. In their book Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China, Hal Brands and Michael Beckley challenge this notion and offer a more nuanced view.

  • BIOSECURITYNIST Releases Bioeconomy Lexicon

    Biosecurity, bioenergy, bioinspired, biorisk: If you have ever started to feel like the new trend in security jargon is adding “bio” to an already existing word, then NIST’s Bioeconomy Lexicon  is for you.

  • CHINA WATCHHow Chinese Companies Are Challenging National Security Decisions That Could Delay 5G Network Rollout

    By Ming Du

    In many countries, governments have decided to block Chinese companies from participating in building communication infrastructure in their countries because of national security concerns.  Chinese companies and investors often refuse to take such national security changes lying down. With varying degrees of success, firms have mounted a range of formal and informal challenges in recent years.

  • MAINTENANCESupply-Chain Disruptions a Threat to Maintenance of Infrastructure, Critical Equipment

    The ability to deploy and maintain infrastructure and equipment is crucial to military operations and national security. But there is a problem: the ability to make and repair equipment in a wide range of operational environments is increasingly vulnerable to disruptions in global supply chains and to attacks.

  • CHINA WATCHHow China’s Maritime Militia Takes Advantage of the Grey Zone

    By Masaaki Yatsuzuka

    In recent years, China has used paramilitary forces to put pressure on neighboring countries that have conflicting claims with Beijing. Japan has been one of the targets over which China seeks to gain dominance by deliberately creating grey-zone situations at sea.

  • PRIVACYNew Web Tracking Technique is Bypassing Privacy Protections

    Advertisers and web trackers have been able to aggregate users’ information across all of the websites they visit for decades, primarily by placing third-party cookies in users’ browsers. Two years ago, several browsers that prioritize user privacy – and advertisers have responded by pioneering a new method for tracking users across the Web, known as user ID (or UID) smuggling.

  • MICROCHIPSDARPA Kicks Off JUMP 2.0 Consortium Aimed at Microelectronics Revolution

    JUMP 2.0, led by the Semiconductor Research Corporation, expands collaboration in new program spanning 7 U.S. university research centers.

  • RARE EARTH ELEMENTS (REEs)Rare Earths Find in Sweden: A Gamechanger?

    By Arthur Sullivan

    A big find of raw materials critical for green technology has been announced in Sweden. Since Europe does not produce its own so-called ‘rare earths’ so far could this news be a gamechanger?

  • EVsEV Transition Will Benefit Most U.S. Vehicle Owners, but Lowest-Income Americans Could Get Left Behind

    More than 90% of vehicle-owning households in the United States would see a reduction in the percentage of income spent on transportation energy—the gasoline or electricity that powers their cars, SUVs and pickups—if they switched to electric vehicles. But more than half of the lowest-income U.S. households (an estimated 8.3 million households) would continue to experience high transportation energy burdens.

  • ARGUMENT: INDUSTRIAL NETWORKLeveraging U.S. Capital Markets to Support the Future Industrial Network

    $56 trillion is nearly three times the size of the U.S. economy.  This vast pool of capital in U.S. capital markets — $46 trillion in public capitalization and another $10 trillion in private money – dwarfs that of China. Tapping U.S. equity and debt markets would enable the Department of Defense to remedy current capability shortfalls, fund technological advances from leading private-sector innovators, invest in generational transformation efforts across the military services, and upgrade antiquated global infrastructure to sustain U.S. forces.

  • U.S. MANUFACTURINGBringing Manufacturing Back to the U.S. Requires Political Will, but Success Hinges on Training American Workers

    By Amitrajeet A. Batabyal

    The lack of manufacturing competitiveness in the U.S. leaves the U.S. vulnerable to shortages of critical goods during times of geopolitical disruption and global competition. The strategies the U.S. employs in bringing back manufacturing, along with innovative practices, will be key to ensure national security.