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April 5, 2023 Biden weakness on Russia’s hostage-taking puts Americans abroad at risk Russian President Vladimir Putin dealt a significant blow to the safety of Americans living and traveling abroad last week with the abduction of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich. With... April 5, 2023 Lessons of the energy crisis Energy policy is national security policy. So when political leaders get energy policy wrong, they get national security policy wrong. An obvious example: Germany for years eagerly increased its dependence... April 1, 2023 Former Malaita Premier (and Noted China Critic) Gets Bipartisan Support for US Visa One day soon, Daniel Suidani, the former premier of Malaita Province, Solomon Islands, will walk into his interview for a U.S. short-term visa. Again. His first application, a few weeks ago, was denied. This... April 1, 2023 With Eyes on Israel, Biden Ignores Judicial Crisis in Neighboring Lebanon If President Joe Biden is worried about the implications of judicial reform in the Jewish state, with its long traditions of civil debate and compromise, he should be much more concerned about Lebanon,... April 1, 2023 Indonesia scores own goal with hostility to Israel Attempting to ban Israeli athletes proved to be a costly own goal for Indonesia. On Wednesday, FIFA stripped Indonesia of hosting duties for the under-20 soccer World Cup due to Jakarta’s inability... March 31, 2023 Composite Violent Extremism: Conceptualizing Attackers Who Increasingly Challenge Traditional Categories of Terrorism Excerpt Counterterrorism practitioners have increasingly drawn attention to acts of violent extremism which, in the words of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) director Christopher Wray, “don’t... March 30, 2023 WAR IN UKRAINE UPDATE: Lawmakers Want Pentagon to Pick Up Pace of Ukraine Aid A bipartisan group of senators is looking to free up more assistance for Ukraine by pushing the Pentagon to reassess its requirements for a potential war with Russia’s now-degraded military. Four Senate... March 29, 2023 Canada must put Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on terrorist list under Criminal Code “Excuses.” That’s how Hamed Esmaeilion, the former spokesperson for the Association of Families of Flight PS752 Victims, recently described Ottawa’s rationales for refusing to sanction Iran’s... March 29, 2023 Xi Jinping Says He Is Preparing China for War Excerpt Chinese leader Xi Jinping says he is preparing for war. At the annual meeting of China’s parliament and its top political advisory body in March, Xi wove the theme of war readiness through... March 29, 2023 Is Turkey about to ditch its Russian S-400 missile system? Turkey’s acquisition of the Russian-manufactured S-400 missile air defense system in 2019 (in place of United States or NATO-manufactured equivalents) resulted, not only in Turkey being... March 29, 2023 What DeSantis Should Know About the Fight in Ukraine Florida Governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis seems torn on Ukraine. Answering a mid-March questionnaire from Fox’s Tucker Carlson, DeSantis, perhaps seeking to protect his political... March 29, 2023 Alternatives to ‘peace through strength’ A policy of “peace through strength” means doing what is necessary to instill fear in our enemies, to convince them that we have both the capability and the will to cause them serious harm. If that... March 27, 2023 Erdogan’s Charm Offensive Will Not Satisfy Egypt, Syria, or Israel Turkey may have an opportunity to fix its relationship with Egypt, which it broke a decade ago. The outcome will depend entirely on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policy choices, and whether he remains... March 26, 2023 Iran-backed Militias Target U.S. Troops in Eastern Syria U.S. officials blame Iran-backed groups for targeting a facility housing U.S. military personnel near Hasakah in northeast Syria on Thursday. The attack killed one American contractor and wounded several... March 26, 2023 Interview – Where is the next Iranian threat coming from for Israel? Israel is facing multiple emerging threats, as well as the potential for Iran to shift support from Yemen to other fronts, as it positions itself for its latest challenge to Israel in the region. These... March 24, 2023 The United States’ Energy Future Needs Critical Minerals—and Latin America Energy is a weapon in wartime and a key to prosperity in peacetime. As the world moves towards greater adoption of renewable energy sources and electric vehicles, we need to ensure that America’s... March 23, 2023 The West’s Iran policy risks another Middle East war “We will not allow Iran to acquire a nuclear weapon,” President Joe Biden proclaimed before last fall’s United Nations General Assembly, a stance he has repeated numerous times throughout his... March 23, 2023 Xi, Putin Visit Light on Support for Russia’s Invasion Putin Hosts Xi for State Visit Days after the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for his arrest, Vladimir Putin hosted Chinese leader Xi Jinping for a state visit. The event marked a diplomatic... March 22, 2023 Beijing’s Subversive Political Warfare in the Pacific—and the Need for Greater Engagement by the United States and Taiwan Honduras has said it intends to shift diplomatic recognition from Taiwan to China. We know this story: with the exception of 2007, when St. Lucia switched from Beijing to Taipei, the trend has run in this... March 22, 2023 The ‘Yugoslavia Scenario’: How Russia Intends to Use an Anniversary in Its Ongoing Information War On Tuesday Vladimir Putin warned the U.K. against sending Ukraine depleted uranium shells. Maria Zakharova immediately called this plan the “Yugoslavia scenario,” accusing NATO of using ammunition... March 22, 2023 Wars of the Jewish state TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – How many simultaneous conflicts can a small country handle? Israel – whose land area is smaller than that of Djibouti, and whose population is smaller than that of Cairo – may soon... March 21, 2023 Popular Resistance Committees Attempts To Establish a Foothold in the West Bank On Tue., the Shin Bet said that in recent weeks it arrested four West Bank Palestinians attempting to carry out attacks against Israeli targets. The Shin Bet alleges that the Gaza-based Popular Resistance... March 21, 2023 How to Keep Antisemitism Away From Turtle Bay Another antisemite has turned up in the ranks of senior UN officials — this time in the body’s human rights arm, no less. Craig Mokhiber heads the New York section of the Office of the High Commissioner... March 21, 2023 No limits: What China stands to gain from Russia’s war with the West Just weeks before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Presidents Putin and Xi signed a joint statement declaring “no limits to Sino-Russian cooperation” and “no forbidden zones.” Beijing has not repudiated... March 21, 2023 Pray for Peace This Ramadan The Muslim holy month of Ramadan begins March 22. It celebrates the month during which Muslims believe Allah revealed the Quran to the Prophet Muhammad. The holiday, marked by fasting and prayer, is intended... March 20, 2023 Washington ignores Putin’s designs on Moldova at its peril One of Europe’s most modest countries is becoming a major center of conflict. Russia is targeting the small-but-strategic lands of Moldova as the next big front in its war on Ukraine. While Washington... March 20, 2023 Blind Sided In June 2022, Facebook and Twitter accounts suddenly focused their wrath on Australian company Lynas. The previous year, Lynas—the largest rare earths mining and processing company outside China—had... March 20, 2023 No US-Turkey Rapprochement Is Possible Under Erdogan Turkey’s Ambassador Murat Mercan recently argued in Defense One that “transitioning transatlantic security priorities to an era of great power competition inevitably will necessitate exploring venues... March 17, 2023 Could the Saudi-Iranian deal lead to peace with Israel? A joint trilateral Saudi-Iranian-Chinese statement surprised the world and prompted speculation that Riyadh might be switching sides, abandoning America and joining the anti-Western axis. Dragging its... March 17, 2023 Vultures at the gate: The national security risk of Silicon Valley Bank’s failure In 2008, as the U.S. financial sector melted down, Beijing saw opportunity. “The financial crisis was a rare opportunity for Chinese enterprises lacking resources and advanced technology to go... March 17, 2023 Building Virtue Into Virtual Assets The illicit use of crypto-currencies—with billions lost, stolen, or exploited by criminals, hackers, rogue states, and bad actors—has cast an understandable cloud over the industry. And both virtual... March 16, 2023 How Much Can Iranian Artillery Ammo Help Russia? British outlet Sky News reported last week that Iran had secretly supplied Russia with a considerable amount of ammunition and intends to send more. If true, this would be a boon for Moscow at a time... March 16, 2023 WAR IN UKRAINE UPDATE: Russians Down U.S. Drone, Iran Sends Putin Ammo Two Russian Su-27 Flanker fighter jets “conducted an unsafe and unprofessional intercept” of an American MQ-9 Reaper drone performing routine... March 16, 2023 Ukraine’s Cyber Defense Offers Lessons for Taiwan The Ukraine war has filled the world with graphic images of a surprisingly capable underdog resisting the advances of a lumbering aggressor. But while the pictures are far less compelling, the story... March 15, 2023 How Iran’s Regime Is Threatened by Its Clerics Fereydoon Abbasi is a hardline parliamentarian and former head of Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization. In 2010, he barely survived what looked like an Israeli assassination attempt. And in December 2022,... March 15, 2023 Hezbollah suspected in cross-border attack inside Israel On Wednesday, the Israeli military said a suspect who crossed into Israeli territory from Lebanon carried out a roadside bomb attack adjacent to the Magiddo Junction in northern Israel. The military’s... March 15, 2023 The Axis of Tyrannies On November 1, 1936, Italian dictator Benito Mussolini gave a speech celebrating the treaty he had signed with German dictator Adolf Hitler. “This Berlin-Rome protocol is not a barrier, it is rather... March 14, 2023 Amid Ukraine War, Russia’s Global Hunt for Weapons Turns Up Surprisingly Little Russia’s attempt to procure suicide drones from Beijing appears to have failed, as the Chinese Foreign Ministry quickly denied any plans to provide lethal aid. By contrast, dozens of countries are... March 14, 2023 Turkey’s Erdogan grasps desperately for Kurdish votes Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has expanded the number of political parties affiliated with his “People’s Alliance” to include a far-right Islamist party: Huda Par, a religiously... March 13, 2023 Can something be done in wake of the Saudi-Iranian deal? Israeli National Security Advisor Tzachi Hanegbi and Strategic Affairs Minister Ron Dermer have recently held very important meetings with US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and his team, with the... March 13, 2023 Who Is Poisoning Iranian Schoolgirls? Excerpt Iranian news outlets began reporting three months ago that schoolgirls were falling ill with headaches, dizziness, nausea, fatigue and breathing difficulties. The shrine city of Qom, historic seat... March 10, 2023 America Is Still Losing the Information War In late January, the Russian Foreign Ministry launched its latest disinformation campaign, claiming that Moscow had acquired more than 20,000 documents about a supposed secret U.S. biological... March 10, 2023 Hamas Lauds Terror Attack in Tel Aviv, Hints of Role Behind Shooting On Thu., Hamas issued a statement praising Mutaz al-Khawaja for carrying out a shooting attack near a Tel-Aviv café that left three people wounded. The terror strike follows an ongoing wave of violence... March 9, 2023 WAR IN UKRAINE UPDATE: Russia Advances; Moscow Continues to Benefit from Western Technology Russians Take Eastern Bakhmut, While Zelenskyy Vows to Hold the Rest Russia’s Wagner paramilitary group has captured the eastern part of Bakhmut, Kremlin-connected businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, who heads... March 9, 2023 Micronesia’s President Writes Bombshell Letter on China’s ‘Political Warfare’ David Panuelo, the president of the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) has written a letter to FSM leaders providing extraordinary details on Beijing’s political warfare and grey zone activity in the... March 8, 2023 Biden’s State Department ignores Iranian death plots inside America It took quite a bit longer than it should have, but the State Department finally released its 2021 Country Reports on Terrorism. As ever, the document covers the countries that experienced attacks, those... March 8, 2023 Why Are US Universities Rehabilitating a Convicted Palestinian Terrorist? College seminars on terrorism do not usually feature an actual terrorist, yet Sami al-Arian spoke at just such a panel at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis last December. The moderator introduced... March 8, 2023 Blinken Builds a Palestinian Hezbollah in the West Bank While the Biden administration has been busy encouraging and funding the Israeli protest movement against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms,... March 8, 2023 China’s global supremacists Code Pink, among the looniest groups on the far left, last week attempted to disrupt a hearing of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Protestors held up signs and wore t-shirts... March 7, 2023 Iran’s Slow Boil The clerical regime in Tehran has held the streets. It remains to be seen, however, if the strategies employed to keep the ayatollahs afloat will prevail. When Mahsa Amini, a young Sunni Kurdish-Iranian...

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