• Preventing Armed Insurrection: Firearms in Political Spaces Threaten Public Health, Safety, and Democracy

    A new report by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health examines the increased threat of armed insurrection to both public health and the functioning of democracy. The report highlights recommendations and policies to help prevent political violence.

  • Why Venezuela Is Threatening to Annex Guyana’s Oil-Rich Province of Essequibo

    By Klaus Dodds

    In an effort to improve his popularity ahead of the 2024 presidential elections, Venezuela’s dictator Nicolas Maduro has turned to the issue of the border between Venezuela and Guyana, which was settled in 1899. Venezuela claims that a great deal of what is modern day onshore and (oil-rich) offshore Guyana is Venezuelan – and Maduro let it be known that he may use force to achieve his goal. Maduro will have watched events unfold in Crimea and eastern Ukraine and perhaps picked up some lessons from Putin about how bully a near-neighbor, launch false-flag operations – and then choose your moment to strike.

  • Stricter French Immigration Bill Causes Uproar

    By Lisa Louis

    President Emmanuel Macron wants to reform immigration law with stricter deportation measures. But migrants and refugees in France protesting against the reform say the severity of the new measures is unprecedented.

  • No, Japan Is Not Ready for AUKUS

    By Ryosuke Hanada

    It is a natural strategic choice for Japan to join in advanced military technology cooperation under the trilateral Australia-UK-US (AUKUS) agreement – turning the alliance into “JAUKUS” – but there is a fundamental stumbling block: Japan’s lack of effective counter-espionage laws.

  • Brazil's Lula Alarmed by Growing Venezuela-Guyana Tensions

    Brazilian President Luiz Inacio da Silva said a war between Venezuela and Guyana over the oil-rich Essequibo region was “one thing we don’t want here in South America.” Venezuelan voters backed annexing of the territory.

  • Holocaust Comparisons Are Overused – but in the Case of Hamas’s Oct. 7 Attack on Israel, Such Comparisons May Reflect More Than Just the Emotional Response of a Traumatized People

    By Avinoam Patt and Liat Steir-Livny

    The horrors of Oct. 7 echo the brutal tactics Nazis used during the Holocaust, including not only murder but cruel humiliation of the victims. The testimonies of Oct. 7 survivors reveal the torture of parents and children, sometimes in front of each other, including rape and sexual violence and mutiliation, mocking and lingering in the murder process as the terrorists relished – and recorded — the atrocities they committed. Hamas also shares the Nazi ideological commitment to the annihilation of the Jews. But Oct. 7 is not the same as the Holocaust.

  • Anti-Semitism on U.S. College Campuses

    A new survey asked students whether they have experienced any adverse academic, social, or other consequences as a direct result of 10/7 and its aftermath, as well as their opinions about their university’s response to the Hamas attacks on Israel and the resulting conflict. The results were sobering.

  • Interference-Free Elections? How Quaint!

    There are three major elections taking place in 2024: in Taiwan, the United States, and Russia. So, what are the chances that we’ll see cyber-enabled disruption campaigns targeting each of these polls? Tom Uren writes that in the case of the upcoming U.S. election, it seems inevitable.

  • How Cryptocurrency Fueled Hamas' Terror Attack on Israel

    By Kristie Pladson

    A crackdown on cryptocurrency accounts linked to Hamas has reignited scrutiny of digital assets after the terrorist group attacked Israel. Criminal and terrorist organizations use crypto to bypass laws and sanctions.

  • Terrorist Use of Cryptocurrencies

    Are terrorist groups currently using cryptocurrencies to support their activities? If not, why? What properties of new and potential future cryptocurrencies would make them more viable for terrorist use?

  • Former U.S. Ambassador and National Security Council Official Charged with Secretly Acting as an Agent of the Cuban Government

    Federal prosecutors have charged Victor Manuel Rocha, 73, of Miami, Florida, a former U.S. Department of State employee who served on the National Security Council from 1994 to 1995 and ultimately as U.S. Ambassador to Bolivia from 2000 to 2002, with committing multiple federal crimes by secretly acting for decades as an agent of the government of the Republic of Cuba.

  • Santos, Now Booted from the House, Got Elected as a Master of Duplicity – Here’s How It Worked

    By David E. Clementson

    U.S. Rep. George Santos, a Republican from New York, was expelled on Dec. 1, 2023, from Congress. How could a politician engage in such large-scale deception and get elected? What could stop it from happening again, as politicians seem to be growing more unapologetically deceptive while evading voters’ scrutiny? I am a scholar of political deception. Experiments I conducted have revealed how the trustworthiness of politicians is judged almost entirely from perceptions of their demeanor, not the words they utter.

  • Texas Must Remove Floating Barrier from Rio Grande, Fifth Circuit Court Orders

    By Kevin Vu

    The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered Texas on Friday to remove the floating barrier it deployed in the Rio Grande at Eagle Pass this summer, affirming a lower court’s ruling. The appeals court upheld an earlier ruling by an Austin federal judge to remove the 1,000-foot-long barrier the state deployed near Eagle Pass.

  • Venezuela Voters Back Territorial Claim on Region in Guyana

    Venezuela’s government pressed ahead with the non-binding referendum despite the UN’s top court urging restraint in a territorial dispute with neighboring Guyana. Venezuelan voters also supported the formation of what Venezuela’s government describes as a new state whose inhabitants would be given Venezuelan citizenship.

  • The Road to October 7: Hamas’ Long Game, Clarified

    By Devorah Margolin and Matthew Levitt

    When Hamas took over the Gaza Strip by force of arms in 2007, it faced an ideological crisis. It could focus on governing Gaza and addressing the needs of the Palestinian people, or it could use the Gaza Strip as a springboard from which to attack Israel. Even then, Hamas understood these two goals were mutually exclusive. And while some anticipated Hamas would moderate, or at least be co-opted by the demands of governing, it did not. Instead, Hamas invested in efforts to radicalize society and build the militant infrastructure necessary to someday launch the kind of attack that in its view could contribute to the destruction of Israel. The road from Hamas’ 2007 takeover of Gaza to the October 2023 massacre offers insights about the organization and its goals.