national security

Why George Kennan Thought He Failed His Biggest Challenge

by Patrick Iber

After urging the United States to firmly oppose the expansion of Soviet influence as a way of bringing the USSR's internal weaknesses to the forefront, Kennan grew disillusioned at the militarized tack later versions of "containment" took. A new book revisits and challenges canonical studies of the diplomatic thinker. 

Historians on Trump's Post-Presidential Legal Issues

Trump's legal difficulties increased significantly with the announcement of a federal indictment on charges related to the improper possession of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago. 

At 75, the CIA is Back to Battling the Kremlin

The common objectives and concerns that engaged the Central Intelligence Agency at its 1947 founding are familiar to the intelligence community today, showing the continuity of American involvement in other nations' affairs. 

9/11 Forever

by Joseph Margulies

"By creating the impression that the stakes were not merely consequential but existential, the attacks of September 11 normalized previously unimaginable cruelty."

From Saigon to Kabul, American Leadership has Doubled Down on Ignorance

by Jim Sleeper

The American promise of exporting democracy and prosperity to Afghanistan was undermined not just by Afghan politics but by the failure of the United States to deliver those things at home.

The Afghanistan War Was Founded on Lies. Some People Are Still Telling Them

by Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison

"It was a lie every time pundits and officials insisted that victory was around the corner."

Should Immigration Courts Operate under the Attorney General? History Says this is an Accident that Should be Undone

by Alison Peck

Franklin Roosevelt was pushed fear of a Nazi fifth column and big business's hostility toward foreign-born labor leaders to shift immigration courts from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice, where they act as an extension of law enforcement. Legislation to make them independent is long overdue. 

Secrets That Were No Secret, Lessons That Were Not Learned

by Andrew Bacevich

The Pentagon Papers are a document of the hubris and ignorance of American military leaders in the Vietnam era, but Andrew Bacevich warns that the idea that global problems are amenable to being solved by American arms remains dangerously popular. 

Risk of Nuclear War Over Taiwan in 1958 Said to Be Greater Than Publicly Known

Daniel Ellsberg disclosed a page from a 1966 study of the 1958 Taiwan Strait crisis that indicate many military leaders were anticipating the necessity of using nuclear weapons to defend Taiwan against the People's Republic of China. 

Stop the Music

by Richard H. Kohn

President-Elect Biden has allowed too much speculation about his choices for Secretary of Defense and unwisely floated the name of a retired Army general for the job. He needs to make a quick commitment to a nominee whose national defense experience comes from the civil, not the military, arena.

Jonathan Pollard: Revisiting a Still Sensitive Case

The National Security Archive is republishing its trove of declassified documents related to Jonathan Pollard, a US Navy analyst convicted of spying for Israel in the 1980s. Pollard's parole recently ended. 

We Dare Not Repeat the Mistakes of 9/11

by Jennifer Rubin

The Washington Post columnist argues that the delayed transition to the George W. Bush presidency in 2000 and 2001 limited the nation's preparedness for a terrorist attack. 

H.R. McMaster on Trump's White House and American National Security (Video)

A "60 Minutes" interview with former Trump national security adviser H.R. McMaster paints a picture of weakened American leadership and confusion in foreign policy. 

Opening Up New Avenues to Understanding the Path to War in Iraq

by Joseph Stieb

National security historian Joseph Stieb reviews journalist Robert Draper's account of the drive to war against Iraq in 2003, concluding that Draper explains how the principals built a case for war out of selectively embroidered intelligence, but not why war appeared as a positive option or much of the American political establishment got on board. 

C.I.A. Uncensors Memoir of F.B.I. Agent Who Protested Torture of Terrorists

The uncensored memoir makes the claim that torture interrupted and undermined effective interrogations by other means. 

Missing in Action: Accountability Is Gone in America

by Karen J. Greenberg

A crucial part of the history of the neoconservative invasion of Iraq and the use of torture in the War on Terror is the utter lack of accountability or consequence for the people who made those decisions. 

The Myth of Henry Kissinger

by Thomas Meaney

Barry Gewen's new biography of the American national security figure argues that Kissinger's perspective was shaped by stories older German emigres told him about the end of the Weimar Republic and the rise of Nazism. 

After the Coronavirus, Don’t Repeat 9/11’s Mistakes

The drastic changes to American national security policy instituted after 9/11 helped make the nation vulnerable to the COVID-19 outbreak and less able to fight it. 

Judgment Day for the National Security State

by Andrew Bacevich

Deferred for far too long, Judgment Day may at long last have arrived for the national security state.

If the Pentagon is worried by climate change, shouldn’t we be worried too?  

by David Carlin

As the world warms, Syria offers a cautionary tale about how climate change may destabilize societies and sow global chaos.