• We Need a New Discussion About Iran’s Nuclear Weapons Work

    U.S. intelligence is shielding the Biden-Harris administration from having to take serious action on Iran’s nuclear program. While hinting at nuclear weapon activities taking place, the U.S. intelligence community is focusing on public Iranian statements and old news on Iran’s capabilities to produce weapon-grade uranium — but it avoids any type of public discussion on what nuclear weaponization activities Iran may be undertaking, and how soon it can build a nuclear weapon. Likely, because some uncomfortable truths would come out: Iran can do it way too quickly, and initial activities to build the bomb could be difficult to detect.

  • U.S. Says Iran Nuclear Deal Remains 'Off the Table' as Tehran Calls for 'New Negotiations'

    Reviving the Iran nuclear deal remains off the agenda for the Biden administration, a U.S. State Department spokesperson said, but the deal “is not on the table right now.”

  • Space Militarization Could Pose a Challenge to Global Security

    Typically, we would not be thinking of killer satellites, space nukes, and orbital debris fields that could lead to global collapse. But maybe we should. In May 2024, Russia launched a satellite that some observers believe is a weapon system that could allow the targeted destruction of other satellites in orbit.

  • China May Be Putting the Great Firewall into Orbit

    The first satellites for China’s ambitious G60 mega-constellation are in orbit in preparation for offering global satellite internet services—and we should worry about how this will help Beijing export its model of digital authoritarianism around the world.

  • America’s Iran Policy Is a Failure − Piecemeal Deterrence and Sanctions Can Go Only So Far

    A decade of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has failed to contain Iran’s ambitions and has instead substantially contributed to the current escalation of hostilities in the region. Washington’s ability to project power and manage American interests in the Mideast has eroded dramatically since 2010, and, as a result of Trump’s 2018 withdrawal from the nuclear deal, Iran’s military nuclear program has reached its most advanced stage. The failed policies have culminated in the collapse of American deterrence in the Middle East. Simply put, the U.S. no longer projects enough power there to stop Iranian hostilities.

  • Artificial Intelligence at War

    The Gaza war has shown that the use of AI in tactical targeting can drive military strategy by encouraging decision-making bias. At the start of the conflict, an Israeli Defense Force AI system called Lavender apparently identified 37,000 people linked to Hamas. Its function quickly shifted from gathering long-term intelligence to rapidly identifying individual operatives to target.

  • To Win the AI Race, China Aims for a Controlled Intelligence Explosion

    China’s leader Xi Jinping has his eye on the transformative forces of artificial intelligence to revolutionize the country’s economy and society in the coming decades. But the disruptive, and potentially unforeseen, consequences of this technology may be more than the party-state can stomach.

  • A New U.S. Russia, China Nuclear Arms Race Spells Danger

    Unlike in the Cold War, the United States faces the prospect in the next decade of two peer nuclear adversaries, which will together have twice as many strategic nuclear weapons as it does. While extended nuclear assurance and persuasion have been important factors in the US for a long time, there does not appear to be any widely accepted methodology for reaching a decision on how many weapons are needed for these purposes.

  • Little Boy Postwar History Mystery

    Early on in the summer of 1945, weaponeers at Los Alamos National Laboratory were extremely dismissive of Little Boy, seeing the uranium gun-type bomb as a hedge against possible failure of the program to build the more complex Fat Man plutonium bomb, and a potential tool for future specialized missions.

  • Armed and Underground: Inside the Turbulent, Secret World of an American Militia

    The American Patriots Three Percent (AP3) militia has long been one of the largest in the United States and has mostly managed to avoid scrutiny. Like other militias, AP3 has a vague but militant right-wing ideology, a pronounced sense of grievance and a commitment to armed action. It has already sought to shape American life through vigilante operations: AP3 members have “rounded up” immigrants at the Texas border, assaulted Black Lives Matter protesters and attempted to crack down on people casting absentee ballots.

  • Innovating Firefighting Technology with Smart Solutions to Enhance Urban Resilience

    The increase in high-rise and densely populated urban development has heightened the demand for safety and resilience solutions against emergencies, such as fires. Researchers have created advanced technological solutions to enhance firefighting and urban resilience.

  • Trump Assassination Attempt Laid Bare Long-standing Vulnerabilities in the Secret Service

    A Spotlight PA, ProPublica, and Butler Eagle investigation found the process for securing campaign events was susceptible to attack for years: the weaknesses that led to the assassination attempt were not unique to the July rally, but the inevitable breakdown of an already vulnerable system.

  • Red Flag Gun Laws Under Fire

    Laws meant to keep firearms away from unstable people are under attack by Second Amendment radicals. An investigation by The Trace and Rolling Stone exposes the ugly campaign to undermine a bipartisan compromise to stop mass shootings.

  • What Is the Online Safety Act and Why Have Riots in the U.K. Reopened Debates About It?

    Social media played a key role in the widespread coordination of riots in locations across the country. Online platforms have also served as a vehicle through which misinformation and hateful rhetoric has spread.

  • How the Marshall Fire Sparked a Political Transformation in Colorado

    After the fire destroyed his town in 2021, a state rep took on insurance companies, mortgage lenders, and landlords — and beat them all.