Washington

Israel’s AI advantage is strategic, but humans in the IDF remain responsible

AI can help process intelligence, identify threats, and support operations, but it does not replace human judgment in battlefield decisions.

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...

Letting the Houthis Control the Red Sea Coast Would Be a Gift to Tehran

What happened to not negotiating with terrorists? American officials met with a Houthi delegation in Oman in the days after the Iran-backed group’s advance on Yemen’s west coast, which...

The Three Quiet Victors of the Iran War

Turkey, Pakistan, and Qatar have played their hands well since February 28, without disrupting their relations with either the United States or Iran.

Previewing the Trump-Xi Summit 

The Heart Attacks Fueling Suspicion in Syria

When a commander in the Syrian army’s 52nd Division died in March, a Syrian Telegram channel announced the news in the language of an ordinary obituary: Nader Mutlaq, better known as Abu Hatem...

Russia Is Practicing Attacks on Undersea Cables in the Arctic. The Consequences Could Reach Space.

Hidden underneath the frigid Arctic waters, Moscow is rehearsing attacks on allied infrastructure.  According to a September 10 Reuters report, U.S., UK, and Norwegian forces disrupted a covert...

Syria’s Fuel Protests Expose the Limits of Its Economic Recovery

“We don’t want new roundabouts or malls. We just want to live.” That was the message from one protester in Aleppo as demonstrations over soaring fuel prices spread across Syria on September...

Countering Chinese AI Distillation: The Case for Federal Action

China’s AI models are improving quickly, but it’s not all through innovation. Much of the progress is thanks to stolen American tech. On September 8, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency...

IAEA Ends Syria’s Nuclear Noncompliance Finding

A unanimous vote by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) Board of Governors on September 9 formally ended consideration of Syria’s nuclear noncompliance.  The decision followed cooperation by...

Israel Razes Hilltop Hezbollah Stronghold, Securing Buffer Zone in South Lebanon

After a siege lasting nearly three months, Israeli forces are now in control of a strategic hilltop in southern Lebanon dubbed Iran’s “second front” against the Jewish state. The Ali al-Taher...

U.S. Space Command Is Testing Maneuver Warfare To Prepare for Next Generation of Fighting

It won’t look like a dogfight from Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica, but in a future war, U.S. satellites may need to maneuver to survive. Space Command (SPACECOM) is practicing the right way to do...

Inside the White House on 9/11

U.S. Sanctions on Iranian Aviation Should Be Followed by Operational Isolation

Washington first tightened the chokehold on Tehran at sea and is now extending it to the skies. On September 8, the U.S. Department of the Treasury sanctioned all 27 remaining active Iranian airlines...

Russia’s AI Blueprint Exposes an Authoritarian Playbook

Russia, China, and Iran are all sharing the same playbook for corrupting Western elections. The United States is on track to be the next target this November. A troveof...

The UK Sanctions Hezbollah’s Shadow Bank. Lebanon Should Shut It Down.

The United Kingdom has put Hezbollah’s shadow bank in its crosshairs. On September 8, British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband announced sanctions on “Lebanese Hezbollah’s financing arm, al-Qard al-Hassan...

IAEA Refers Iran’s Nuclear File to UN Security Council

In the first such action in 20 years, the International Atomic Energy Agency’s (IAEA’s) Board of Governors voted to refer Iran’s noncompliance with its nuclear nonproliferation obligations to the...

Qatar still hosts Hamas’s top brass, one year after they were targeted

One year ago today, Hamas officials in Qatar narrowly escaped death. On September 9, 2025, Israel launched an airstrike on a Hamas meeting in Doha. The strike failed to wipe out Hamas’s upper ranks....

Israel-UK Relations Nosedive as Foreign Secretary Announces Punitive Measures

Bilateral relations between Israel and the United Kingdom have plummeted to depths unseen in the decades since the sunset of the British mandate over Palestine in May 1948.  In a September 8 announcement to...

Yes, China’s State-Owned Shipping Giant Is Spying on the United States

COSCO’s cover is blown. On September 1, Reuters reported that the Chinese state-owned shipping giant — one of the largest maritime services companies in the world — uses equipment concealed aboard...