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China Shows How Western Governments Should Stockpile Minerals
The US, Australia and partner countries should take a page from China’s stockpiling playbook. They should build up stockpiles of critical minerals, managing inventories to optimize prices for domestic mineral producers and consumers and to guard against decreased supply and increased demand in wartime.
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Analysis of the IAEA’s Iran NPT Safeguards Report - February 2024
For the first time, the latest quarterly International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) safeguards report on Iran’s compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) draws a direct line between Iran’s non-compliance with its comprehensive safeguards agreement (CSA) and concern about Iran’s current ability to make nuclear weapons.
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High-Energy Laser Weapons: How They Work and What They Are Used For
Laser weapons have been a staple of science fiction since long before lasers were even invented. More recently, they have also featured prominently in some conspiracy theories. Both types of fiction highlight the need to understand how laser weapons actually work and what they are used for.
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Climate Change Poses Serious National Security Threat
After years of debate, there is growing awareness within the Department of Defense and the U.S. government more broadly that climate change poses a serious national security threat. Some efforts to cope with this challenge are already underway.
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A Careful Rethinking of the Iraq War
A new book details military operations and political dynamics in Iraq, shedding new light on the challenges of state-building. “The United States wanted to build a new Iraqi state, but what we did was create a situation where multiple and large Shia militia make deals with each other,” says the author, Roger Petersen.
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South Korea’s Demand for Critical Minerals
Korea’s geostrategic situation feeds a sense of strategic and economic insecurity—it is close to an assertive China prepared to demonstrate displeasure by imposing costly economic coercion measures, while the ever-present threat from North Korea drives the south’s priorities for military resilience, including a hi-tech military industry.
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Disasters Expo USA: The Latest in Disaster Preparedness and Recovery
Disasters Expo USA will be held at the Miami Beach Convention Center on 6-7 March 2024. Leading disaster mitigation experts will share with the thousands of participants the latest information and insights on the most innovative, cost-effective, and efficient solutions which aim to help communities prepare for, cope with, and recover from destructive and costly disasters.
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NYC Ranks Safest Among Big U.S. Cities for Gun Violence
New York City ranks in the top 15 percent safest of more than 800 U.S. cities, according to a pioneering new analysis, suggesting the effectiveness of the city’s efforts to mitigate homicides there.
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Enhancing Preservation of Nuclear Deterrence System Designs
A new team at Sandia is helping to more consistently track why and when important changes are made during the design and development of nuclear deterrence systems. It takes an average of 10 years to develop a system from design to production. That means a lot of decisions and changes are made along the way.
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Raging Texas Wildfires Force U.S. Main Nuclear Weapon Facility to Evacuate, Temporarily Shut Down
Raging wildfires in the Texas panhandle have forced the evacuation and temporary closure of the Pantex plant, the U.S. premier nuclear weapons assembly facility. The Pantex plant said that “All weapons and special materials are safe and unaffected.”
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Decades After the U.S. Buried Nuclear Waste Abroad, Climate Change Could Unearth It
A new report says melting ice sheets and rising seas could disturb waste from U.S. nuclear projects in Greenland and the Marshall Islands
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Low-Level Blasts from Heavy Weapons Can Cause Traumatic Brain Injury − Two Engineers Explain the Physics of Invisible Cell Death
When the force of a blast shoots a round out of a large-caliber rifle, howitzer or M1 Abrams tank gun, the teams of people operating these weapons are exposed to low-level blasts that can cause traumatic brain injuries. Low-level blasts do not cause visible trauma, yet, these blasts can cause physical changes in the brain that lead to a host of neuropsychiatric symptoms.
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Far-Left Fugitive German Terrorist Arrested
The RAF (Red Army Faction) is the official name of the leftist Baader-Meinhof gang, which terrorized West Germany from the late-1960s to the early 1990s. RAF member Daniela Klette, 65, was on the run for more than 30 years. She was arrested in Berlin over the weekend.
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Lifting of Federal Funding Ban Tied to Increase in Gun Violence Research
The lifting of a two-decade drought in federal funding for firearm injury prevention research was strongly associated with an increase in both clinical trials and publications on gun violence, according to a new report.
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Science Fiction Meets Reality: New Technique Overcome Obstructed Views
Using a single photograph, researchers created an algorithm that computes highly accurate, full-color three-dimensional reconstructions of areas behind obstacles – a concept that can not only help prevent car crashes, but help law enforcement experts in hostage situations, search-and-rescue and strategic military efforts.
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The long view
Factories First: Winning the Drone War Before It Starts
Wars are won by factories before they are won on the battlefield,Martin C. Feldmann writes, noting that the United States lacks the manufacturing depth for the coming drone age. Rectifying this situation “will take far more than procurement tweaks,” Feldmann writes. “It demands a national-level, wartime-scale industrial mobilization.”
How Male Grievance Fuels Radicalization and Extremist Violence
Social extremism is evolving in reach and form. While traditional racial supremacy ideologies remain, contemporary movements are now often fueled by something more personal and emotionally resonant: male grievance.
The Surprising Reasons Floods and Other Disasters Are Deadlier at Night
It’s not just that it’s dark and people are asleep. Urban sprawl, confirmation bias, and other factors can play a role.
Why Flash Flood Warnings Will Continue to Go Unheeded
Experts say local education and community support are key to conveying risk.