• Russian Wargame Practicing Tactical Nukes Use Is Warning to West

    Last month, the Russian defense ministry launched a multi-phase exercise near Ukraine meant to prepare its forces for using non-strategic nuclear weapons (NSNWs). In addition to the obvious purpose of preparing Russian troops to use tactical nuclear weapons in battle, the multi-stage exercise was also meant to signal to the West that it should refrain from escalating assistance to Ukraine, as well as to warn the U.S. and its allies that Russia may liberalize its conditions for using nuclear weapons.

  • States Struggle with Unreliable Federal Funding for Making Sure Elections Are Secure

    The federal government has sought to bolster election security for years through a popular grant program, but the wildly fluctuating funding levels have made it difficult for state officials to plan their budgets and their projects.

  • Record Number of NATO Allies to Hit 2% Defense Spending Goal

    NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has announced that more NATO member states than originally expected were set to fulfill the 2% target of GDP defense spending this year. The NATO defense investment target was agreed upon in 2014. Across the alliance, all member states aside from Slovenia and Italy have upped their defense budget.

  • Joining NATO Binds Countries to Defend Each Other – but This Commitment Is Not Set in Stone

    At the root of debates over policy toward alliances such as NATO is the assumption that NATO requires its members to step in and help with defense if another member of the alliance is attacked, but it is important to understand that, in reality, alliance agreements are more flexible than people think. In practice, it is possible for the U.S. and other Western countries to stay out of a conflict that involves a NATO country without having to break their alliance commitments.

  • New Study Reveals the Costs of Sanctions

    What effect do economic sanctions have on the countries affected, such as Russia or Iran? Economic sanctions can be a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they usually reduce gross domestic product and thus prosperity in the affected countries, as intended. On the other hand, however, they can also have a severe impact on the economies of the sanctioning countries.

  • Evaluating U.S. Readiness to Prevent, Counter, and Respond to WMD

    Two new reports review the adequacy of U.S. strategies to prevent, counter, and respond to the threat of nuclear and chemical terrorism and highlight the strengths and limitations of U.S. efforts to prevent and counter threats from weapons of mass destruction (WMD), particularly in a changing terrorism threat landscape.

  • Role of Nuclear Weapons Grows as Geopolitical Relations Deteriorate: SIPRI

    The nine nuclear-armed states—the United States, Russia, the United Kingdom, France, China, India, Pakistan, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) and Israel—continued to modernize their nuclear arsenals and several deployed new nuclear-armed or nuclear-capable weapon systems in 2023.

  • Global Annual Nuclear Weapons Spending in 2023: $91.4 Billion

    In 2023, the nine nuclear-armed states spent a combined total of $91,393,404,739 on their arsenals – equivalent to $2,898 a second. A new report shows that $10.7 billion more was spent on nuclear weapons in 2023 than in 2022.

  • How Much of a Threat Does Hamas Still Pose to Israel?

    In 1969, at the height of the United States’ war in Vietnam, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger famously wrote, “The guerrilla wins if he does not lose. The conventional army loses if it does not win.” Israel is arguably in the same situation now.

  • Modern-Day Outlaws, “Sovereign Citizens” Threaten the Rule of Law

    The FBI considers sovereign citizens a domestic terrorism threat. My research into sovereign citizens has found they have long been active in the U.S. and other countries. At the core of their beliefs is the denial of the government’s legitimacy. They commonly do not register their vehicles, acquire driver’s licenses or car insurance, or pay taxes. And they pose a significant threat to the public.

  • Election Administration Performance Linked to Counties’ Economic, Racial Makeup

    “The federal government and states may set general directives about how elections are to be administered, but a lot of those actions are carried forth by county-level governments.,” says Professor Michael Ritter, lead author of a new study on election administration.

  • European Populists Back Putin as They Roll Out Their Anti-Ukraine Positions

    Vladimir Putin looks to be a big winner from the populist far-right gains in the recent European Parliament election. Russia inspires, encourages and funds extremist actors because they can disrupt democratic, liberal Western countries – and the more authoritarian the world is, the less likely it is that democratic voices within Russia will be supported by other nations. The rise of the populist far right is further evidence of not just the genuine angst brewing over cost of living and identity issues, but also of Russia’s expertise in psychological and information warfare.

  • Voter Advocacy Groups Ask Feds to Step in After Texas Allowed Some Voters’ Ballots to Be Identified

    The request comes as state and local officials undermined ballot secrecy in their bids for election transparency. After Texas lawmakers changed several laws to increase transparency, researchers demonstrated that the secret choices voters make in the voting booth can be identified using public, legally available records.

  • ‘Time for a Reckoning.’ Kansas Farmers Brace for Water Cuts to Save Ogallala Aquifer.

    in this region of Kansas where water is everything, they’ll have to overcome entrenched attitudes and practices that led to decades of overpumping. After decades of local inaction, Kansas lawmakers are pushing for big changes in irrigation.

  • Is China Exporting Its Political Model To The World? A New Report Says Yes.

    Debate has raged for decades over whether Beijing is actively exporting its authoritarian system abroad, but a new report based on a trove of previously unexamined government documents shows how China is experimenting with spreading its model to other countries.