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A Tale of Two Africas in Maps, And How It Affects the United States

As an Africa watcher, I have long told the story of two continents, juxtaposing the region’s plight with its opportunities, often arguing that the [...] More

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Russia’s $11 Billion Soft Power Gamble

I was sitting in the front seat of a “Yandex Taxi” in Moscow in the summer of 2018, dropping off some friends after we had drinks together at a local [...] More

The Space Age Needs New Rules

Space is no longer a place we visit to plant flags. It is where the global economy and national security now live — and our rulebook is nearly sixty [...] More

When Hackers Get AI Co-Pilots: Frontier AI and the National Security Clock

Five intelligence services rarely speak with one voice. When they warn the window of vulnerability has narrowed to months, the real question is [...] More

AI Agents Need Accountability That Travels With Them

Most enterprise AI agents today are still being deployed in controlled environments. They sit inside a platform, perform a defined task and operate [...] More

Congress Questions Pentagon Spending—and the Future of Trump’s Battleship

“I’m deeply concerned that the Presidential proposal for $350 billion mandatory funding [to be carried in a reconciliation bill and not an [...] More

America's Empty Counterterrorism Chair

The world's counterterrorism chiefs are meeting in New York this week. We brought a list of demands and not much else.A plot hatched in a chat room [...] More

Don’t Permit Iran to Enrich Uranium

Ideally, Iran should not be permitted to enrich uranium, even at the 3.67% low enriched uranium level, enough for nuclear reactors to generate [...] More

From Bombing Iran to Negotiating: Trump Explains His Red Line

“I had to stop them [the Iranians] because if they had a nuclear weapon, they would use it. And you want to see bedlam, let them blow up a couple of [...] More

Cuba’s New Spy Array Raises Concerns for U.S. Security

BLUFF — On 18 June, Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) researchers released a new study that says Cuba has completed construction [...] More

The Deal That Should Not Have Happened

The announcement of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran surprised many observers. The underlying conditions appeared unfavorable to an [...] More

Before the IC Trusts AI, It Needs to Prove It Can Assure It

Artificial intelligence is moving quickly into national security work. That is not a future trend. It is already happening in analysis, collection [...] More

Learning Velocity: The Next Strategic Advantage

Entrepreneurs realize that speed compresses learning. They know some of their initial assumptions will be wrong or only partially right, so going [...] More