• Only Playing: Extreme-Right Gamification

    Extremist ideas inspire violence in a few, but for the many, participation increasingly resembles a consequence-free game separate from reality. “As technologies develop further, either in the form of Facebook’s metaverse or other forms of mixed or augmented reality that blur the line between online and offline, the potential disconnect between play and real-world violence is only going to grow more acute,” experts say.

  • Nearing the Tipping Point Needed to Reform Facebook, Other Social Media?

    The recent series of five articles from the Wall Street Journal exposed Facebook’s complicity in spreading toxic content. Yet, social media platforms continue to enjoy free rein despite playing what many consider to be an outsized and destabilizing role in delivering content to billions of individuals worldwide. No one said reigning in social media was going to be easy. But the harm caused of social media is simply too big for us to fail.

  • Innovative Air Domain Awareness Technology

    DHS S&T is evaluating an innovative air domain awareness technologies to help protect the airspace along our northern border with Canada.

  • Havana Syndrome Fits the Pattern of Psychosomatic Illness – but That Doesn’t Mean the Symptoms Aren’t Real

    I am an emeritus professor of neurology who studies the inner ear, and my clinical focus is on dizziness and hearing loss. When news of these events broke, I was baffled. But after reading descriptions of the patients’ symptoms and test results, I began to doubt that some mysterious weapon was the cause. The available data on Havana syndrome matches closely with mass psychogenic illness – more commonly known as mass hysteria. So what is really happening with so–called Havana syndrome?

  • Leader of Atomwaffen Extremist Group Convicted of Federal Felonies, Conspiracy

    The leader of the extremist Atomwaffen group was convicted in U.S. District Court in Seattle of five federal felonies for his conspiracy to send threatening posters to journalists and employees of the Anti-Defamation League.

  • U.S. and EU, Wary of China, Forge Alliance on Technology

    With Beijing on the rise as a tech superpower, Brussels and Washington want to close ranks. But divisions loom over the new “Trade and Technology Council” alliance — and previous efforts have a mixed track record.

  • IAEA: Iran Denying Monitoring Access at “Indispensable” Site

    The IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog, says Iran has not allowed international inspectors access to a centrifuge-component-manufacturing workshop as agreed under a monitoring deal reached two weeks ago.

  • EU: Russia Involved in “Ghostwriter” Cyberattacks

    The European Union has warned the Kremlin that it could “consider taking further steps” over Moscow’s complicity in recent cyberattacks targeting the bloc’s members.

  • Two Decades After 9/11: What We’ve Learned About Public Health Preparedness and Leadership

    In the United States, 743,452 “excess” (potentially preventable) deaths occurred from COVID-19 between February 2020 and September 4th, 2021, according to the CDC National Center for Health Statistics. This figure exceeds the number of excess deaths that occurred during the 1918-19 influenza pandemic, which was caused by an even deadlier virus.

  • Terrorist Attacks Against Vaccinators

    Since 2010, Islamist terrorists have increased their attacks on vaccinators in the Middle East, south Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Pakistan has seen the most attacks on vaccinators.

  • U.S. Domestic Terrorism Caseload “Exploding”

    U.S. national security and law enforcement agencies are battling what they describe as a “significant jump” in threats from domestic terrorists, many of whom are acting on their own and motivated by racial animosity or anti-government ideology.

  • The Role of Trust in Deciding Which Terrorist Faction to Join

    Research based on interviews with Irish Republican activists has shown that trust plays a greater role than ideology in how members pick sides when terrorist groups splinter. If commitment is primarily social rather than ideological, then counter-narrative or ideological “deprogramming” strategies may not help lure someone away from a group of individuals with whom he or she feels a close personal bond of trust.

  • Irreversible: Iran’s Nukes

    In 2018 the Trump administration withdrew from the nuclear deal with Iran, which the Obama administration had signed in 2015. David Albright and Sarah Burkhard of Institute for Science and International Security write that Iran’s nuclear capabilities now greatly exceed their status in early 2016, when the nuclear deal was implemented. Iran’s breakout time, namely the time needed to produce enough weapon-grade uranium for a single nuclear weapon or explosive device, is on order of one month, which was Iran’s breakout time in late 2014, before the nuclear deal was signed.

  • As the West Watches, Iran Enriches Uranium

    Iran may now be capable of producing enough weapons-grade uranium for a single nuclear warhead within just a month. While Iran continues to make progress enriching uranium, nuclear diplomacy seems to be stalled.

  • Al-Qaida, Islamic State Group Struggle for Recruits

    As strange as it may sound, revolutionary Islamist groups suffer from recruitment problems as any other organization does. My research on Islamist terrorism has found that al-Qaida and its rival offshoot, the Islamic State group, have long had chronic difficulties replenishing their ranks.