• Cops Running DNA-Manufactured Faces Through Face Recognition Is a Tornado of Bad Ideas

    In keeping with law enforcement’s grand tradition of taking antiquated, invasive, and oppressive technologies, making them digital, and then calling it innovation, police in the U.S. recently combined two existing dystopian technologies in a brand new way to violate civil liberties.

  • US Bolstering Philippines Amid Increasing Assertiveness by China

    The U.S. and Philippines will for the first time venture outside Manila’s territorial waters when they begin joint annual combat drills in April. Beijing claims most of the South China Sea as its own, putting it in conflict with Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam, all of which border the sea. An international tribunal at The Hague has rejected China’s claim.

  • The Tech Apocalypse Panic is Driven by AI Boosters, Military Tacticians, and Movies

    From popular films like a War Games or The Terminator to a U.S. State Department-commissioned report on the security risk of weaponized AI, there has been a tremendous amount of hand wringing and nervousness about how so-called artificial intelligence might end up destroying the world. There is one easy way to avoid a lot of this and prevent a self-inflicted doomsday: don’t give computers the capability to launch devastating weapons.

  • Using Drone Swarms to Fight Forest Fires

    Forest fires are becoming increasingly catastrophic across the world, accelerated by climate change. Researchers are using multiple swarms of drones to tackle natural disasters like forest fires.

  • China, Not Russia, Still Tops List of Threats to US, Top Pentagon Official Says

    Russia’s war in Ukraine — portrayed by top U.S. officials as posing a danger to the United States itself — still trails China when it comes to long-term threats to America’s security, according to a top Pentagon official.

  • Owners of China-Based Company Charged with Conspiracy to Send Trade Secrets Belonging to Leading U.S.-Based Electric Vehicle Company

    Defendants allegedly conspired to send millions of dollars-worth of trade secrets to undercover law enforcement officers posing as potential customers.

  • Tantalizing Method to Study Cyberdeterrence

    Tantalus is unlike most war games because it is experimental instead of experiential — the immersive game differs by overlapping scientific rigor and quantitative assessment methods with the experimental sciences, and experimental war gaming provides insightful data for real-world cyberattacks.

  • Protecting Australians from Convicted Terrorists

    From 9/11 and the Bali bombings, to the rise of ISIL and the threat of issue-motivated violence from the likes of white supremacists, a comprehensive approach is needed, including education, prevention, punishment and rehabilitation.

  • Congress Renews Ban on Undetectable Firearms

    Congress has reauthorized the Undetectable Firearms Act, a decades-old law aimed at preventing people from sneaking guns through security checkpoints at schools, airports, concerts, and other public spaces. Lawmakers had been racing to extend the prohibition before it expired on March 8.

  • Mass Gun Violence Down 48% So Far This Year, Top Criminologist Says

    “I call it Newton’s Law of Crime Statistics: What goes up, must come down. Just like the homicide rate more generally, spikes in mass shootings tend to be followed by corrective declines,” says James Alan Fox, a criminologist at Northeastern University.

  • With Haiti in Turmoil, Florida Braces for Violent Criminals Attempting Illegal Entry

    With Haiti in political turmoil and in light of current federal border policies, Florida, which has historically borne the brunt of illegal entry by sea from Cuba and Haiti, is bracing for impact. Chaos in Haiti erupted as a federal judge in Texas ruled that a parole program created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas could continue. Mayorka’s policy includes releasing an additional 30,000 Haitians into the U.S. a month who would otherwise not be allowed admittance.

  • Germany's RAF Terrorism — Many Unanswered Questions

    Even today, talk of the Red Army Faction (RAF) often provokes a heated debate in Germany. More than a quarter of a century has passed since the terrorist organization announced its dissolution. Nonetheless, there are those who are still grieving, victims who are still injured, RAF members who are still on the run — and many unanswered questions.

  • Developing Effective Deterrence—from the War Fighters’ Perspective

    The state of deterrence against China in the Indo-Pacific is constantly adapting to the evolving threat Beijing poses to the United States and its allies on multiple fronts. But  a growing number of US military service members warn that deterrence is unravelling. Perspectives from individuals actively engaged in deterrence operations can help shape effective policy.

  • Hungary's Orban Says Trump's Plan to End Ukraine War Is to Cut Funding

    Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, after a private meeting in the United States with Donald Trump, said the former president has “quite detailed plans” about how to end Russia’s war against Ukraine and won’t give Kyiv any further funding to hasten an end to the conflict. Orban, whose government has refused to send weapons to Kyiv while maintaining ties with Moscow, said after his meeting with Trump that “it is obvious that Ukraine on its own cannot stand on its feet.”

  • European Arms Imports Nearly Double, U.S. and French Exports Rise, and Russian Exports Fall Sharply

    States in Europe almost doubled their imports of major arms (+94 per cent) between 2014–18 and 2019–23. The United States increased its arms exports by 17 per cent between 2014–18 and 2019–23, while Russia’s arms exports halved. Russia was for the first time the third largest arms exporter, falling just behind France.