• Did the Assault Weapons Ban of 1994 Bring Down Mass Shootings? Here’s What the Data Tells Us

    A spate of high-profile mass shootings in the U.S. has sparked calls for Congress to look at imposing a ban on assault weapons. Such a prohibition has been in place before – from 1994 to 2004. That ban was limited, but nonetheless, the 10-year life span of that ban – with a clear beginning and end date – gives researchers the opportunity to compare what happened with mass shooting deaths before, during and after the prohibition was in place.

  • Converging Trends Increase Threats of Violence: DHS

    DHS warns the chances for increased violence or terror attacks are likely to increase over the next six months – the result of a volatile convergence of pervasive disinformation, conspiracy theories, and several high-profile events like the anticipated Supreme Court decision on abortion and the country’s mid-term elections.

  • German Police Failed in Far-Right Hanau Killings: Critics

    Police have been accused of failing to keep tabs on a racist killer during one of Germany’s worst-ever far-right shootings. Police say they had to proceed cautiously.

  • Some Light in the Distance for Major Curbs on Gun Violence

    The killing of nineteen children and two teachers in in Texas and subsequent debate about what can be done to prevent similar tragedies from happening again, highlighted the widespread recognition about how difficult it will be to spark change in the polarized debate on the issue. Chan’s School’s David Hemenway is uncertain about effects of Uvalde deaths, but believes growing body of research will turn tide in time.

  • How the U.S. Has Struggled to Stop the Growth of a Shadowy Russian Private Army

    Vladimir Putin has increasingly relied on the Wagner Group, a private and unaccountable army with a history of human rights violations, to pursue Russia’s foreign policy objectives across the globe. For nearly a decade, U.S. officials watched with alarm as this shadowy network of Russian mercenaries connected to the Kremlin wreaked havoc in Africa, the Middle East and most recently Ukraine.

  • Mysterious Death of Iranian Aerospace Engineer Fuels Speculation

    The mystery surrounding the death of Iranian aerospace engineer Ayoob Entezari has fueled speculation that he was the latest victim of assassination in the Islamic republic. His death came days after the mysterious death of Ali Esmailzadeh, a senior officer in the Quds Force, the overseas arm of Iran’s powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the elite branch of the country’s armed forces.

  • The Pandemic: Implications for Terrorist Interest in Biological Weapons

    What if the IS or al-Qaeda obtained and spread a highly contagious virus in a community or country that they sought to punish? With the pandemic highlighting weaknesses in response efforts, will these groups now seek to obtain infectious viruses to achieve these same deadly results?

  • U.S. Set to Block Most Imports Tied to China's Xinjiang Province

    Later this month, the Biden administration will begin enforcing a new law barring products made with forced labor in China’s Xinjiang province from being imported to the United States. Under the law, U.S. Customs and Border Protection will treat any goods that are made in Xinjiang, either wholly or in part, as the product of forced labor unless the importer can show “clear and convincing evidence” that they are not.

  • Groundwater Depletion Causes California Farmland to Sink

    A new study simulates 65 years of land subsidence, or sinking, caused by groundwater depletion in California’s San Joaquin Valley. The results suggest significant sinking may continue for centuries after water levels stop declining but could slow within a few years if aquifers recover.

  • U.S. Elevates Water Security as Foreign Policy Priority

    The White House on Wednesday announced the an Action Plan on Global Water Security, drawing direct links between water scarcity and national security and elevating water security to a core foreign policy priority for the first time.

  • Who Cares about a Midterm Election? Comparing Russia, Iran, and China’s Electoral Interference from Past to Present

    Midterm elections present a complicated target environment for foreign manipulators because, unlike presidential elections, there is no single candidate who can significantly alter U.S. foreign policy. But interference opportunities remain, and adversaries have the potential to advance their strategic objectives through a campaign meant to create further turbulence within U.S. democracy.

  • Shifting Policing Responsibilities from City to County Doesn't Affect Crime Levels

    Disbanding city police departments and shifting law enforcement responsibilities to county governments appears to have no affect on overall crime rates and leads to fewer police-related deaths, according to a new study. The study also finds disbanding leads to fewer police-related deaths, but less transparency.

  • Threshold Reached: Iranian Nuclear Breakout Timeline Now at Zero

    Iran has crossed a new, dangerous threshold: Iran’s breakout time is now at zero. It has enough 60 percent enriched uranium, or highly enriched uranium (HEU), to be assured it could fashion a nuclear explosive. If Iran wanted to further enrich its 60 percent HEU up to weapon-grade HEU, or 90 percent, it could do so within a few weeks with only a few of its advanced centrifuge cascades.

  • Iran’s Current Nuclear-Weapons Status: The Facts

    A report published in April by the Institute for Science and International Security, and an interview with David Albright, the report’s co-author, offer startling, and disturbing, insights into the rapid, and likely irreversible, progress Iran has made toward developing a workable nuclear weapon since the Trump administration, in 2018, decided to withdraw from the 2015 nuclear deal.

  • Few Western Extremists Have So Far Gone to Ukraine

    The Russia-Ukraine war has been attracting foreign fighters/volunteers since 2014 – some supporting Ukraine, the others supporting Russia. Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February, chatrooms favored by extremists were filled with brave statements about how many more volunteers would go to Ukraine to support their favorite side. So far, this chatter has been all talk, but not a lot of walk.