Department of Defense (DoD)
295 Articles
So Far, Trump’s Border Guard Deployment Expected to Cost $180 Million
Because it was unsuccessful securing the amount of funding it wanted to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border, the Trump administration is moving ahead with its plan to deploy…
Google Employees’ Ire Over DoD’s AI Work Shows Need to Bridge Tech and Security
Years ago, at a conference of national security types, I asked a pointed question of two former senior intelligence officials about encryption, and whether it was good for the…
Exclusive: Mattis Drafting Specific Options for Using Defense Dollars to Pay for Trump’s Wall
Defense Secretary Jim Mattis feels that, at the very least, he owes Trump options for how the military could build the border wall, but all of them are fraught with political and…
Two Notable Omissions in the Mattis National Defense Strategy
The Pentagon has a new National Defense Strategy (NDS), its first in 10 years, and, on Friday, released an 11-page summary of it. Signed by Defense Secretary James Mattis, the…
Words Matter in War
Command Sergeant Major John Wayne Troxell, the senior enlisted adviser to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, shared this attention-grabbing message with his more than…
Giving Thanks While Safeguarding Our Country’s Most Important National Security Assets
What are our country’s most important national security assets? While new weapons and hardware (drones, the latest fighter jet or technological wonder) receive a significant…
Military Planning for the Climate Century
Climate change has been described as the world’s greatest environmental threat. But it is also increasingly understood as a national security threat, that serves as both a “threat…
Acknowledging the Harm Done to Civilians by the U.S.-Led Coalition in Syria
Ahed is an 11 year-old Syrian girl whose life was upended on the evening of March 20 when an airstrike hit the school near Raqqa where she and her family had sought shelter. Ahed…
Animus, Not Readiness: Trump & Mattis Move Full Steam Ahead on Unconstitutional Trans Military Ban
While it all started with an early morning tweet (as it so often does), this week President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary James Mattis both took steps to enshrine Trump’s…
Just Another Mattis Pep Talk?: How “Hold the Line” speaks to civilian and military audiences
A video clip of Defense Secretary James Mattis speaking with troops deployed in Jordan has been making the rounds on various social media outlets, with varied and strong…
Tweets, Trans, and the American Military
On the morning of July 26, President Donald Trump turned out a triptych of tweets taking a policy position banning transgender people from serving openly in the U.S. military.…
The “Leahy Law” Prohibiting US Assistance to Human Rights Abusers: Pulling Back the Curtain
With almost weekly news reports of US support for foreign governments with track records of gross human rights abuse—think torture in Yemen by Emirati security forces, violations…