• Twenty Years After 9/11, the U.S. Needs a Better Strategy to Prevent and Counter Violent Extremism

    With his announcement to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of 9/11, President Joe Biden is delivering on his promise to bring an end to the “forever wars” that were the defining features of what began as the “Global War on Terrorism” two decades ago. Eric Rosand writes that “The global terrorist threat today is qualitatively different than it was 20 years ago,” and, “therefore, the strategy for addressing it must reflect that change.”

  • Understanding 21st-Century Militant Anti-Fascism

    Anti-fascist militancy has existed for as long as fascism has, but militant anti-fascism is still largely neglected across both academic and policy-practitioner communities.A new study says that there is a need for a more robust, evidence-based understanding of the antifa phenomenon, especially in a context where militant anti-Fascist protest in the United States has been conflated with “domestic terrorism.”

  • Russian Mercenaries in Great-Power Competition: Strategic Supermen or Weak Link?

    Russia’s worst-kept secret is its increasingly heavy reliance on private security contractors—really, mercenaries—to maintain a Russia-favorable global status quo and to undermine its competitors’ interests. This reliance on mercenaries stems from a known capability gap. While its military ground forces are locally dominant, Russia’s military has strictly limited ability to project ground power worldwide. It has almost no organic ability to project and sustain ground power more than a few hundred kilometers beyond its own borders.

  • Stoner’s Quantitative and Qualitative Assessment of Russia’s New Strength

    Understanding Russia’s power and the Russian leadership’s goals is a necessary task in formulating effective policy. Moreover, as Russia has become considerably more powerful over the last two decades, the stakes in accurately discerning the Kremlin’s motives have become commensurately higher.If Russia Resurrected approached these challenges with more care, discipline and nuance, it could have been an important work.

  • Entire U.S. West Coast Now Has Access to ShakeAlert Earthquake Early Warning

    After fifteen years of planning and development, the ShakeAlert earthquake early warning system is now available to more than fifty million people in California, Oregon and Washington, the most earthquake-prone region in the conterminous U.S.

  • Next Major War Will Be “Very Different”: Def. Sec. Austin

    Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has warned of emerging cyber and space threats, along with the prospect of much bigger wars. “We can’t predict the future,” he added. “So what we need is the right mix of technology, operational concepts and capabilities — all woven together in a networked way that is so credible, so flexible and so formidable that it will give any adversary pause.” His remarks come amid concerns over China’s growing military assertiveness.

  • Unreliable Witness Testimony Biggest Cause of Miscarriages of Justice

    Unreliable witness testimony has been the biggest cause of miscarriages of justice over the past half century, a major new study suggests. The research also suggests that regulations governing the powers of police have been effective in reducing wrongful convictions caused by unreliable confessions.

  • From Bioweapons to Super Soldiers: How the U.K. Is Joining the Genomic Technology Arms Race

    Universal Soldier and Captain America are just a few Hollywood movies that have explored the concept of the super soldier. Despite its sci-fi nature, several countries are looking to explore the potential of such prospects. In the U.S., DARPA is exploring genetically editing soldiers to turn them into “antibody factories,” making them resistant to chemical or biological attacks. The U.K., too, is joining the genome technology warfare race.

  • Defending Against Chemical, Biological Threats from Inside and Out

    Chemical and biological (CB) threats have become increasingly ubiquitous and diverse, presenting significant risks to soldiers in theater and stability operators during pandemic outbreaks. PPE can be bulky, heavy, and cumbersome, often severely limiting user mobility and performance. A DARPA program aims to develop technology that reduces the need for burdensome protective equipment while increasing individual protection against CB threats.

  • When Should U.S. Cyber Command Take Down Criminal Botnets?

    Trickbot is back. U.S. Cyber Command targeted this malware in autumn 2020 in an unprecedented use of military offensive cyber operations to disrupt a purely criminal operation. Jason Healey writes that “Such military operations are a good idea only in cases that meet a five-part test of imminence, severity, overseas focus, nation-state adversary, and military as a last-ish resort.”

  • How the Military Might Expand Its Cyber Skills

    As software has become an ever more integral part of life, national security experts have come to recognize that the U.S. military will need to improve its software fluency if it wants to remain dominant on the battlefields of the future.

  • Scanning People with Their Shoes On

    Taking shoes off for scanning at airports is one of the most inconvenient parts of flying and one that can slow the security screening process. But one day soon, even those without a “pre-check” status may be able to keep their shoes on, step on shoe scanner, walk through a next-generation body scanner and speed safely on to their boarding gates.

  • Unlocking Unique Chemical Signatures in Tires

    Skid marks left by cars are often analyzed for their impression patterns, but they often don’t provide enough information to identify a specific vehicle. A new approach could provide law enforcement new tools to track down those who flee a crime scene.

  • Technique Enhances Robot Battlefield Operations

    Army researchers developed a technique that allows robots to remain resilient when faced with intermittent communication losses on the battlefield. The technique, called α-shape, provides an efficient method for resolving goal conflicts between multiple robots that may want to visit the same area during missions including unmanned search and rescue, robotic reconnaissance, perimeter surveillance and robotic detection of physical phenomena, such as radiation and underwater concentration of lifeforms.

  • World Military Spending Rises to Nearly $2 Trillion in 2020

    Total global military expenditure rose to $1981 billion last year, an increase of 2.6 per cent in real terms from 2019, according to new data. The five biggest spenders in 2020, which together accounted for 62 per cent of global military expenditure, were the United States, China, India, Russia and the United Kingdom. Military spending by China grew for the 26th consecutive year.