• Don't Cut Research Ties with China: U.K. Academics

    A new study involving more than 80 U.K.-based academics from a range of disciplines and institutions finds a resounding appetite for continued collaboration with Chinese colleagues, despite acknowledged tension over security concerns.

  • DHS Unveils Strategy to Combat Uyghur Forced Labor in China

    DHS has unveiled a strategy aiming to combat the Chinese government’s use of forced labor by members of the Uyghur ethnic minority in the western province of Xinjiang.

  • Germany: Far-Right AfD Conference Halted Amid Ukraine War Infighting

    After struggling at recent state and federal elections, the far-right party failed to agree on its new foreign policy stance, particularly over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The party conference in Saxony broke up early.

  • Preparing National Security Officials for the Challenges of AI

    Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of several rapidly emerging technologies that promise to disrupt not only multiple sectors of the U.S. economy but also the manner in which the U.S. government carries out its foundational responsibility to protect national security consistent with the rule of law and constitutional values. Steve Bunnell writes that “The United States’ national security apparatus is not known for nimbleness, nor is the law that governs it. When it comes to AI, the risk is not just that our generals will fight tomorrow’s war with yesterday’s strategy but also that the United States will lack the legal and policy guardrails that are essential to a lawful, accountable, and ethical protection of the nation’s security.”

  • Choking Local Funding Prevents Terrorism

    New research by supports the use of financial counterterrorism. Terrorists depend on local funding availability, as they struggle to move money around, and we should limit their ability to access financing.

  • What Makes Guns Automatic?

    As was the case following other mass shootings, the killing of 19 children and two adults at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas was followed by calls for various gun-safety measures at the federal and state level. What do these restrictions mean, and how effective would they be if passed?

  • The Risk of Russian Cyber Retaliation for the United States Sending Rockets to Ukraine

    U.S. rocket shipments to Ukraine will not trigger Russian cyberattacks against the United States. Russian is too focused on attacking Ukrainian systems and defending their own networks to mount a response to the weapons shipments.

  • Is There Anything to Learn about Watergate? New History Says Yes

    Historian Garrett Graff argues “America misremembers Watergate as an event, the break-in of the DNC offices, when history has shown us that Watergate was more of a mindset. It was this dark, paranoid, conspiratorial, corrupt mindset that enabled a whole series of crimes and abuses of power that permeated the entire Nixon White House from the campaign of ’68 right through his resignation in ’74. It encompasses a dozen distinct but interrelated scandals with overlapping players, differing motives, differing targets that led the Nixon administration deeper into this morass of scandal.”

  • Can Reforming Social Media Save American Democracy?

    When social media exploded in the mid-2000s, retweeting, sharing and liking posts appeared to give average citizens the power to share their opinions far and wide. The problem, according to social psychologist Jonathan Haidt, is that online social networks didn’t really end up giving everyone the voice that many thought it would. “It empowered four groups who take advantage of the viral dynamics of social media. That is the far right, the far left, trolls and Russian intelligence,” he says.

  • The Struggle Over AI Surveillance: From Digitalization to Dystopia?

    “From cameras that identify the faces of passersby to algorithms that keep tabs on public sentiment online, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered tools are opening new frontiers in state surveillance around the world,” states a new report. One experts says that just as with doctors’ medical practice, purveyors of new technologies should commit to a ‘do no harm’ code of ethics.

  • Man Pleads Guilty to Threatening Election Official

    A Nebraska man pleaded guilty on Thursday to making multiple threatening posts on an Instagram page associated with an election official. The case is part of the Justice Department’s Election Threats Task Force, announced in June 2021, to lead the department’s efforts to address threats of violence against election workers.

  • What Can the ATF Do About Converted Machine Guns?

    Auto sears have become increasingly popular among criminals, and have been tied to dozens of shootings by extremists, mass shooters, and drug traffickers. Lawmakers are clamoring for action on auto sears, and history leaves clues about what approach the ATF might take.

  • Top DOJ Official: Easy Access to Powerful Gus Linked to Domestic Terror Attacks

    “We have to be clear about this as a nation,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen told an audience on Wednesday, “[t]he ability of violent extremists to acquire military-grade weapons in this country contributes significantly to their ability to kill and inflict harm on a massive scale.”

  • U.S. Creates ‘China House’ to Better Track Beijing’s Global Reach

    The U.S. State Department is creating a new entity known as “China House” to better track what China is doing around the world. A State Department spokesperson declined to provide details about the status of China House, describing it as “a department-wide integrated team that will coordinate and implement our policy across issues and regions.”

  • U.S. Sanctions Members of Russian Violent Extremist Group

    The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designating two key supporters of the ethnically motivated violent extremist group known as the Russian Imperial Movement (RIM). RIM was previously designated by the U.S. Department of State as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) organization on April 7, 2020 for having provided training for acts of terrorism.