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CRITICAL MINERALSAustralia Must Make the Most of the U.S. Critical-Minerals Pivot
For the first time in years, the US conversation on critical minerals has matured beyond broad rhetoric. What was once a generic discussion about “critical minerals” has shifted decisively to developing supply chains for specific minerals. And perhaps most importantly, the dialogue is no longer confined to government-to-government statements: it now involves dozens of mining and refining.
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CLIMATE ADAPTATIONStudy Warns Past Heat Waves Would Be Far More Lethal Now
The weather patterns behind Europe’s past extreme heat waves could cause tens of thousands more deaths in today’s hotter climate –unless countries rapidly scale up heat-adaptation efforts.
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CHINA WATCHChina: An Emerging Software Power
China’s early success in global AI competition, bolstered by continued massive state investment and other advantages, could help it extend its dominance in international markets for manufactured goods to the software realm.
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BIODEFENSEPhysical Approaches to Civilian Biodefense
Progress in biological sciences and technologies will offer more opportunities to improve human well-being in the coming decades, but this progress may also lower barriers that are blocking bad actors from engineering pathogens to cause destruction. We need to identify potential preparedness measures for challenging biological threats.
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MANUFACTURINGU.S. Can’t Overcome Manufacturing Gap with China
The United States should not kid itself. It will not recover its manufacturing position from China in any foreseeable future. Assuming zero growth of China’s manufacturing sector for the next 20 years, closing the manufacturing gap would require U.S. manufacturing to grow at a torrid rate of 6 percent per year. That’s just implausible.
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CRITICAL MINERALSG20 Johannesburg Endorses Critical Minerals Framework
The Trump administration is trying to diversify critical minerals supply chains and reduce dependence on China, but this goal cannot be achieved without broad and deep cooperation with other countries. The U.S. absence from the 2025 G20 discussions on critical minerals weakens collective efforts to counterbalance China’s influence.
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AI RISKS: UNSETTLING DEMONSTRATION AI-enabled Intrusions: What Anthropic’s Disclosure Really Means
Last week, AI company Anthropic reported with ‘high confidence’ that a Chinese state-sponsored hacking group had weaponized Anthropic’s own AI tools to run a largely automated cyberattack on several technology firms and government agencies. The September operation is the first publicly known case of an AI system conducting target reconnaissance with only minimal human direction.
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CHINA WATCHWorking with Japan and Korea to Compete with China on AI
Allies are an asymmetric advantage for the U.S. in its tech race with China. New report looks at what makes Japan and South Korea critical partners for the United States in seeking to shape a world safe for democracy by leveraging the power of AI.
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ENERGY SECURITYData Centers’ Insatiable Demand for Electricity Will Change the Entire Energy Sector
When the first large language models were unleashed, it triggered a headache for authorities around the world as they tried to figure out how to satisfy data centers’ endless demand for electricity.
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CYBER RESILIENCEShared Risks, Shared Advantage: Collaborating for Collective Cyber Resilience
The same connectivity that powers our prosperity, and which has driven innovation and growth, has also created shared vulnerabilities and structural fragilities. We are increasingly seeing how a single weak link, often in a third-party provider, can cascade across industries, economies and borders.
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AIResearchers Unveil First-Ever Defense Against Cryptanalytic Attacks on AI
Security researchers have developed the first functional defense mechanism capable of protecting against “cryptanalytic” attacks used to “steal” the model parameters that define how an AI system works.
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ECONONMIC SECURITYU.S. Economic Security: Winning the Race for Tomorrows Technologies
Strategic competition over the world’s next generation of foundational technologies is underway, and U.S. advantages in artificial intelligence, quantum, and biotechnology are increasingly contested. The United States must address vulnerabilities and mobilize the investment needed to prevail.
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TECH SECURITYBuilding Trust into Tech: A Framework for Sovereign Resilience
Governments are facing a critical question: who can be trusted to build and manage their countries’ most sensitive systems? Vendor choices, for everything from cloud infrastructure to identity platforms, are no longer just commercial; they are strategic.
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NUCLEAR WEAPONSLabs Director “Absolutely Confident in the Stockpile”
The annual certification of the nuclear weapons stockpile is Sandia’s most important responsibility, according to Labs Director Laura McGill. As part of the certification, at least one of each weapon system in the stockpile is brought through the Pantex Plant in Amarillo, Texas, to be tested and examined.
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WATER SECURITYWill Texas Actually Run Out of Water?
You asked our AI chatbot about Texas’ water supply. We answered some of the questions that it couldn’t.
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The long view
TERRORISMTechnology Evolves the Tactics: Preparing for the Rise of Terrorist AI Harms
Terrorist groups, like the societies they emerge from, adapt to new technologies. As AI capabilities evolve, so too do the tactics of extremist actors. While the full effects may take years to observe, as the technologies continue to develop, we are starting to see them directly alter extremism tradecraft.
CHINA WATCHBookshelf: A Tale of American Lawyers and Chinese Engineers
The U.S. and China have fundamental differences, a new book argues. China would be an “engineering state” whereas the U.S. is a “lawyerly society.” Most Chinese Communist Party leaders have been engineers focused on building mega projects such as highways, bridges, fast trains. and airports. In recent decades the U.S. has become a “lawyerly society” as the country’s elite, dominated by lawyers, focused on procedure and process rather than getting things done.
ECONOMIC WARFAREEurope’s Banks Quietly Mobilize for Economic Warfare
For years, banks treated defense as a reputational issue, as well as an environmental, social and governance risk, often lumping it with tobacco or fossil fuels as something to be managed at arm’s length. That era is ending. Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s coercive trade tactics and the United States’ pressure on Europe to shoulder more of its defense burden have exposed the limits of moralistic restraint. Financial mobilization is the new norm.
CRITICAL MINERALSA New Generation of Industries Emerges in Texas as Feds Push to Mine More Rare Minerals
The U.S. doesn’t produce the minerals and metals needed for renewable energy, microchips or military technology. Major oil companies are drilling in East Texas again, but not for oil. This time, they’re after lithium for batteries and other rare elements.
CRITICAL MINERALSU.S. and Australia Deepen Critical-Minerals Engagement to Counter China
Engagement between Australia and the United States on critical minerals has matured from technical cooperation into a strategic partnership, aligning resource security with clean energy and defense priorities.
CRITICAL MINERALSBookshelf: Critical Mineral Dilemmas
Whoever controls the production and processing of lithium, copper and other critical minerals could dominate the 21st century economy, much as producers of fossil fuels defined the 20th century, writes Ernest Scheyder in a new book.