• It’s Time to Talk about Food and Agriculture Security

    When large scale threats affect food and agriculture supplies, they become matters of national security. Many different threats to our food and agriculture sector exist, and any disruption to the supply chain can cause shortages at your local grocery store and limit the availability of food.

  • Report Describes SARS-CoV-2 Market Sequences, Biden Signs COVID Intel Declassification Bill

    In two major developments regarding investigations into the source of SARS-CoV-2, an international research group that examined genetic sequences from the animal market detailed their findings in a new report, and President Joe Biden signed a bill to declassify US intelligence on virus origins.

  • Moving to Evidence-Based Elections

    In most jurisdictions things went relatively smoothly in the November 2022 midterms, but serious issues, both technical and political, remain. Elections may be made more transparent and secure through the use of voter-marked paper ballots and rigorous postelection audits.

  • Russia and China’s Influence Campaigns During the War in Ukraine

    Within weeks of the launch of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Kremlin began pushing a conspiracy about U.S.-backed bioweapon laboratories in Ukraine, claiming that the labs were handling “especially dangerous pathogens” (including the coronavirus), that they were trying to make bioagents capable of targeting certain ethnic groups, and that they were training birds to deliver bioweapons to Russian controlled territories. These false claims were amplified by right-populist U.S. commentators such as Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon.

  • Who Was the Cold War “Umbrella Assassin?”

    A new Danish documentary sheds some light on the shadowy figure of Francesco Gullino, alias “Agent Piccadilly,” the prime suspect in the 1978 murder of Bulgarian dissident Georgi Markov in London.

  • Terrorist Attacks More Deadly, Despite Decline in the West

    The tenth annual edition of the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) reveals that terrorist attacks are more deadly, with 26% more people dying in each incident - the first rise in lethality in five years. After substantial increase in terrorism activity between 2016 and 2019, progress has plateaued with both attacks and deaths remaining roughly the same since 2019. The number of countries recording a death ranged from 43 in 2020 to 42 in 2022.

  • Conspiracy Theories, Holocaust Education, and Other Predictors of Antisemitic Belief

    A new research explored a variety of topics to better understand which factors are linked with holding greater numbers of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel attitudes. Understanding the relative predictive power of each of these variables will have significant implications in developing strategies aimed at ameliorating antisemitism.

  • Understanding Antisemitism on Twitter After Musk

    New research has found a major and sustained spike in antisemitic posts on Twitter since the company’s takeover by Elon Musk on October 27, 2022. Researchers found that the volume of English-language antisemitic tweets more than doubled in the period following Musk’s takeover.

  • Political Division Prolongs the Immigration Crisis: Report

    The U.S. immigration system is slow and stymied by politics, but the border crisis represents an opportunity to address gaps in the American labor market, according to a new report.

  • TikTok Faces Complete Ban in U.S. Unless ByteDance Separates from Chinese Owners

    Amid concerns that the popular video app poses a security threat, TikTok was urged to part ways with its Chinese owners to avoid a national ban in the United States.

  • Ben Thomas: Spotlighting Careers in Nuclear Nonproliferation

    The goal of Ben Thomas of the Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory is not only to bring universities and colleges from across the U.S. into the nonproliferation network, but also to significantly increase the number of minority-serving institutions, or MSIs, participating in the National Nuclear Security Administration Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation University Consortia.

  • Taiwan’s High-End Semiconductors: Supply Chain Interdependence and Geopolitical Vulnerability

    What are the geopolitical implications of Taiwan’s dominance in global semiconductor production? How would the peaceful annexation or outright invasion of Taiwan by China affect the United States, its allies and partners, and the global economy? What are the United States’ options for mitigating or reversing the unfavorable effects of either unification scenario?

  • 2021 Hate Crime Statistics: 20-Year High

    The number of hate crimes in the United States jumped to a 20-year high in 2021, the FBI said in an updated report released Monday. The FBI initially issued its annual hate crimes report in December showing 7,262 incidents for 2021.

  • Preventing Violence in Schools: Encouraging Students to Report Threats

    One of the most consistent findings in research on school shootings is that someone knew an attack was possible and didn’t report it. A recent RAND study looked at how schools can better encourage students to come forward when they see or hear something that should concern them. Its top recommendations: tip lines, training, and a lot more trust.

  • SPFPA Officer Pleads Guilty in $64K Theft Charges

    The financial secretary of SPFPA Local 238, which represents security personnel at a nuclear plant in Cordova, Illinois, pleaded guilty in criminal Court to stealing money from the Union. Brent Toppert, 42, will have to reimburse the Union in the amount of the stolen funds, and he faces up to fve years in prison and $250,000 fine.