United States Congress

America runs on GPS. It needs a backup plan

Most Americans think GPS merely provides directions: open the map, follow the blue dot and get where you need to go. But that’s just the consumer application. The national security applications of GPS...

Elon Musk built the rockets. Washington forgot to build the roads

American rockets are launching more frequently than ever, yet getting a ride to orbit is becoming harder. SpaceX broke the record for the shortest interval between two orbital launches in August, sending...

Maritime Cyber Incidents Test Coast Guard Cyber Preparedness

The Coast Guard and the FBI are investigating multiple suspected cyberattacks on oil tankers that have disrupted trade routes throughout the Atlantic Ocean. On August 7, an oil tanker bound for the United...

Tehran’s Transnational Repression Strategy Is Evolving

The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands have exposed an Iranian regime spyware campaign targeting Iranian dissidents around the world. In a September 15 advisory, they warned...

Previewing the Trump-Xi Summit 

Import Controls

Tools to Counter the CCP's Industrial Policy and Supply Chain Threats

10 Ways the U.S. Can Strengthen Deterrence in the Taiwan Strait

Saudi Nuclear Deal Raises Concern Over Diluted U.S. Nonproliferation Standards

In a notable loosening of decades of U.S. nonproliferation practice, the bilateral nuclear cooperation agreement between the United States and Saudi Arabia now being reviewed by Congress would open the...

Syria Is Off the Terror List, but Washington Still Has Leverage

US President Donald Trump has fulfilled the promise he made to Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa in May 2025, to give Syrians “a chance at greatness.” At the end of August of this year, Trump...

Prohibiting the Importation and Marketing of Certain Covered UAS and UAS Critical Components and Equipment Listed in Section 1709 of FY2025 NDAA

7 Ways the U.S. Is Trying To Defend Its Water System From Hackers

In the wake of nationwide cyberattacks on America’s water infrastructure, the Trump administration launched Project Watershed 250 on August 31. The six-month pilot, based in Texas, pairs local water...

Trump Administration Sends Secretive U.S.-Saudi Nuclear Deal to Congress for Review

The Trump administration appears poised to upend long-standing U.S. policy restricting the spread of nuclear fuel-making technologies. It has transmitted a U.S.-Saudi nuclear cooperation agreement to...

Zero Shells for $533 Million

Turkey’s Expanding Stake in America’s Munitions Base On Aug. 12, ProPublica documented what the Pentagon’s inspector general had already confirmed in July: a Texas plant built...

How Putin’s Black Sea food fight puts the world — and your grocery bill — at risk

The oil war in the Black Sea between Russia and Ukraine is turning into a food fight — with potentially disastrous implications. Moscow, fuming at strikes on its “shadow fleet” of sanctions-evading...

Drone Warfare

US rescinds Syria’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism

On August 24, the US rescinded Syria’s designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism. “I congratulate the Syrian people on the official removal of Syria’s name from the list of state sponsors...

5 Things To Know About China’s Coercion Campaign Against Taiwan and the Limits of Leader-Level Diplomacy

President Donald Trump emerged from his May 2026 summit with Chinese leader Xi Jinping embracing a new framework for U.S.-China relations. The White House said the two leaders agreed to build a “constructive...

Why a Saudi Nuclear Program Is Not Worth Ending US Nonproliferation Policy

It is unlikely that Russia or China would be willing to support a Saudi nuclear program if the United States refuses to do so.

Washington Should Not Reduce Military Exercises With South Korea

President Donald Trump ordered the Department of Defense to “substantially reduce” military exercises between the U.S. and South Korean militaries on Sunday. These regularly occurring combined exercises...

Open-Source Intel Makes U.S. Troops an Easier Target for Iran

Iran is reading American service members’ social media feeds to deadly effect. The fact is that not all intelligence must be gleaned from secret, closed sources for it to be effective, and Tehran...