International Security Program

At the worldwide threats hearings, the Trump administration’s top intelligence officials named illicit drug actors, China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea as top threats to the United States. But questions about the Signal chat largely overshadowed the hearings.

Military exercises and doctrine suggest the leading war plan for Beijing to compel Taiwan is a joint blockade, and critical elements of China’s strategy will be implemented in the cyber and space domains in peacetime.

Today's Trump-Putin phone call included some encouraging developments, such as a ceasefire on deep strikes and a process for continued negotiations. However, there is no 30-day ceasefire, and frontline fighting will continue unabated. This is only the first step in a long process.

The Pacific is where China is testing the edges of U.S. resistance by refining its ability to exploit gaps in governance, security, and perception management. The Trump administration has an opportunity to integrate a sustained, proactive approach to deny China the ability to shape the competitive space unchallenged.

The United States has a major vulnerability it needs to address: China is exploiting an immigration loophole in the U.S. territory of Saipan, posing a security and counterintelligence threat to U.S. bases and installations in the region.

The Trump-Zelensky meeting ended disastrously, with the future of U.S. aid in doubt. Yet, Ukraine needs a steady flow of weapons, munitions, and supplies to continue its resistance, and Zelensky has worried that Ukraine would “have a low chance to survive without support of the United States.” Is Ukraine doomed?

As Ukraine devises ingenious ways to defend its population from Russia’s precision aerial bombardment, Russia’s Shahed one-way attack drones continue to operate with a cruel logic of attrition.

Washington is at a pivot point on how government does business. That pivot must be away from old, buggy, patchworked IT and toward a modern IT system that is secure and ready for the AI revolution. The first step in the change will be to upend how the government funds IT.