• WORLD-CUP SECURITYNational Security, Terrorism Concerns as FIFA World Cup 2026 Matches Begin in U.S.

    By Bethany Blankley, The Center Square

    As the FIFA World Cup 2026 tournament begins in roughly a dozen U.S. cities this week, law enforcement officials have been implementing national security measures.

  • AI & WARAI-Generated Zero-Day Vulnerabilities: Implications for Future Warfighting

    By K. S. Brar

    Cybersecurity has long been viewed as a support function, largely focused on protecting military computer networks and information systems. This paradigm is now obsolete. AI is now reshaping the character of warfare itself, turning cybersecurity into a foundational layer of combat power.

  • GUNSHOT DETECTIONDetroit Is Spending Millions on Gunshot Detection Tech – Is It an Effective Tool in the Fight Against Violent Crime?

    By Tian An Wong and Divya Ramjee

    We found that of the 5,853 ShotSpotter alerts from the period of February 2018 to November 2022, just two alerts, or 0.03%, resulted in at least one arrest. Additionally, 798 alerts, or 13.63%, resulted in at least one firearm recovered. Those numbers are obviously low.

  • SURVEILLANCEFrom Exporting Spyware to Surveilling Activists – How Democracies Became the New Digital Authoritarians

    By Ihsan Yilmaz and Nicholas Morieson

    “Digital authoritarianism” refers to governments using technology for surveillance and censorship to repress dissent. China remains the master practitioner, but democracies, too — in particular, India and Israel — are beginning to repress their citizens with the same tools and export them abroad.

  • FISAThe Fourth Amendment Forecloses a Foreign Intelligence Exception: A Brief Case Against the FISA Section 702 Program

    By Patrick G. Eddington

    The House and Senate versions of the extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) lack the only thing that matters: a warrant requirement to search the stored data of Americans collected under the program. In that sense, the 702 program has always been at odds with the plain language of the Fourth Amendment, thanks entirely to the secret court that oversees the semisecret surveillance activity.

  • CHINA WATCHThe Challenges of Collaborating with China on Space Research and Technology

    China advances its space research and development to the detriment of other countries’ space goals. China’s path to space power has left a trail of disappointed partner nations in its wake, producing lopsided outcomes in which partners assume financial and political risk while ceding control over infrastructure, data, and dual use technologies.

  • IRAN WARWhy Iran Will Prefer Ongoing Conflict

    By Mohamed ElDoh

    The key question in the U.S. current standoff with Iran and its regional proxies is not whether hostilities have paused, or whether there are clear prospects for resolving the conflict in the near term, but whether the underlying causes and incentives for conflict have meaningfully changed. In short, they have not. In fact, from Iran’s perspective, there are compelling strategic reasons why a prolonged, though managed, confrontation is more advantageous than a rapid return to peace.

  • CRITICAL MINERALSEast Texas Could Be the Key to Developing Critical Lithium Supply for the U.S. Military

    By Jess Huff

    Texas lawmakers proposed a bill to allow private-sector lithium mining companies to work on certain military bases.

  • PERSISTENT SURVEILLANCEThe Open Signal: How Mobile Phone Location Data Can Expose and Endanger American Troops

    By Ben Frankel

    The architecture of the commercial mobile ecosystem favors exposure over concealment. As long as warfighters carry devices designed for convenience inside an economy designed for surveillance, the United States will remain vulnerable to enemies who can turn a phone’s signal into intelligence and intelligence into a strike.

  • FORENSICSNIST Helps Fingerprint Examiners with New Data and Software Release

    Sifting through fingerprints gathered from crime scenes is the job of fingerprint analysts and — increasingly — their computers.

  • SPACE WAREvery Country Should Understand Space as a Warfighting Domain

    By Philip Citowicki

    Today, space power has achieved the decisiveness of air power, and space, like the air, should be regarded as a warfighting domain. Classifying the domain as a warfighting one furthers a nation’s ability to coordinate its capabilities, resource these efforts and requirements, and signal sufficient resolve – paving the way for credible deterrence.

  • PERNICIOUS ETHOSThe ‘Warrior Ethos’ Promises Victory — History Says It Leads to Defeat

    By John Broich

    Hegseth calls his military doctrine the “warrior ethos” – criticizing “stupid rules of engagement”; saying the U.S. will give “no quarter, no mercy” to its enemies; and that troops would be held to the “highest male standard.” Historians have catalogued similar rhetorical patterns — strongman posturing, contempt for constraint — for decades. This doctrine also has a theory of war: Victory belongs to the ruthless and the ideologically pure. Rules are for the weak. Nazi Germany, fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan all built their military strategies on some version of the “warrior ethos.” It did not end well for them.

  • PERNICIOUS ETHOSThe Dangers of Hegseth’s “Warfighter” Ethos

    By Allison McManus

    Hegseth loves to conjure history to support his vision of the “warrior ethos.” But, at least as far as modern military practice is concerned, Hegseth is an aberration, not an exemplar. The U.S. military has become the most effective and powerful fighting presence in the world not because of brute lethal force, but because of its professionalism and precision.

  • NUCLEAR WEAPONSAs W88 Production Ends, Sandia :Looks to Next Phase

    By Kenny Vigil

    Sandia and the nuclear security enterprise completed production of the W88 Alteration 370 and fully transitioned the modernized warhead into the U.S. nuclear stockpile, shifting the program’s focus to long-term sustainment.

  • SEA-MINE CLEARINGClearing Mines in the Strait of Hormuz: Q&A with Scott Savitz

    By Doug Irving

    “The number of mines you need to create an effective minefield is zero. You just need people to perceive that there’s a threat there,” says Scott Savitz, a senior engineer at RAND, a specialist in naval operations and technologies, and an expert in mine warfare.