• The Cold Comfort of Mutually Assured Destruction

    By Jasen Castillo

    Decades after the end of the Cold War, scholars have begun to cast doubt on what has been taught about nuclear weapons in graduate schools – especially the notion of “nuclear revolution,” that is, that the condition of mutually assured destruction (MAD) would promote stability among the great powers. If nuclear weapons-based deterrence is not robust, but rather delicate, then “This is a book that the field of security studies will need to grapple with, since it overturns much of what scholars believe about nuclear deterrence,” Jasen Castillo writes.

  • Rare Earth Metals at the Heart of China’s Rivalry with U.S., Europe

    What if China were to cut off the United States and Europe from access to Rare Earth Elements (REEs), 17 minerals with unique characteristics which are essential to electric vehicles, wind turbines, drones, batteries, sophisticated military gear, and much more? This is a time of growing geopolitical friction among these three, and the United States and Europe want to change the current dependence on China, where, today, these minerals are largely extracted and refined.

  • The Geopolitics of Rare Earth Elements

    The Covid-19 pandemic has exposed fragility in the global supply chains for not only pharmaceuticals and crucial medical supplies but also some critical minerals. Chief among them are rare Earth elements (REEs), which are necessary for clean energy equipment, advanced military gear, and consumer goods. About 80 percent of the world’s REEs are produced and refined in China.

  • Drop the Charges Against Minor Capitol Hill Defendants

    Rioter who assaulted police or vandalized the Capitol should be prosecuted. But the majority of those who came to the Capitol on 6 January were “gawkers” who just wanted to see the spectacle, or to non-violently express their political opinion, and merely walked through a public office building, The charges against them should be dropped.

  • COVID Gives Rise to Extremism and Violence

    By Ben Knight

    Both right- and left-wing extremism flourished during the pandemic year, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency said in its latest report. Most alarmingly, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that 40 percent of the 33,300 far-right extremists in the country were categorized as “violence-oriented,” the highest proportion ever. And Germany’s security forces have themselves come under new scrutiny.

  • Rising Trends in Suicide by Firearms in Young Americans

    Deaths from suicide are rising in the United States. These rising trends are especially alarming because global trends in suicide are on a downward trajectory. Moreover, in the U.S., the major mode of suicide among young Americans is by firearms.

  • Global Nuclear Arsenals Grow as States Continue to Modernize

    A new report finds that despite an overall decrease in the number of nuclear warheads in 2020, more have been deployed with operational forces. The nine nuclear-armed states together possessed an estimated 13 080 nuclear weapons at the start of 2021, a decrease from the 13 400 at the beginning of 2020, but the estimated number of nuclear weapons currently deployed with operational forces increased to 3825, an increase from 3720 last year.

  • Unmedicated, Untreated Brain Illness is Likely in Mass Shooters: Study

    The first analysis of medical evidence on domestic mass shooters in the U.S. finds that a large majority of perpetrators have psychiatric disorders for which they have received no medication or other treatment.

  • The Many Ways Domestic Violence Foreshadows Mass Shootings

    By Jennifer Mascia

    The San Jose transit shooting is the latest to illustrate the deadly connection between intimate partner violence and mass murder. How are these seemingly separate issues intertwined, and what can be done to save lives?

  • A Sea Change in Counterterrorism

    Even before the attempted insurrection at the Capitol on 6 January, the threat of domestic extremism was clear, with terrorist attacks by racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists (RMVEs) eclipsing the threat posed by jihadist groups such as the Islamic State. The Biden administration will soon release a new strategy document for fighting domestic terrorism.

  • Drone with 3D Mapping Tech Gives First Responders Near Real-Time Data

    ResponDrone’s new precision mapping abilities enable rescue teams to better understand their working environment in emergency situations such as fire, flood or any other natural disaster.

  • What Are “Ghost Guns,” a Target of Biden’s Anti-Crime Effort?

    By Garen Wintemute

    It’s not expensive or difficult to produce large numbers of untraceable firearms in the United States. Whether for private use, sale on the criminal market or arming violent extremists, it’s actually startlingly cheap and easy to mass-produce firearms that police can’t track – what are often called “ghost guns.”

  • In Oregon, New Gun Violence Restraining Orders Appear to Be Used as Intended

    Extreme risk protection orders (ERPOs), also known as gun violence restraining orders, are civil court orders that grant temporary restrictions on purchasing and possessing firearms for individuals determined by a civil court judge to be at extreme risk of committing violence against themselves or others. A new study found that while ERPOs are commonly considered as a tool to remove guns from dangerous individuals, they should also be considered as a tool to prevent gun purchases by dangerous individuals.

  • Urban Crime Fell by over a Third around the World During COVID-19 Shutdowns

    A new analysis of crime rates in 27 cities across 23 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia and the Middle East has found that stay-at-home policies during the pandemic led to an overall drop in police-recorded crime of 37 percent across all the sites in the study.

  • Early Wildfires Detection Systems Successfully Tested

    The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T) successfully tested four prototype technologies for early detection of wildfires in California this week. The test was the second phase of S&T’s Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) wildfire sensor technology program.