Pentagon
47 Articles
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…
Exclusive: White House Officials Push For Widening War in Syria Over Pentagon Objections
A pair of top White House officials is pushing to broaden the war in Syria, viewing it as an opportunity to confront Iran and its proxy forces on the ground there, according to…
Leaving the Paris Climate Agreement: A Veteran’s Perspective
Early in the summer of 2003, as we made our initial push from the Kuwaiti border up through central Iraq and then on into Anbar Province, our armored cavalry unit was not meeting…
The Updated DoD Law of War Manual and the Precaution of Military Objective Selection
[Editor’s Note: On Tuesday, the Department of Defense released an updated version of its Law of War Manual. Just Security is hosting an online “mini forum” to discuss the…
Defense Department Releases Second Round of Revisions for Law of War Manual
The Defense Department published new revisions to its Law of War Manual this evening. This is the second time the document has been changed since it was first released in the summer…
Technology and Autonomy in Warfare: A Consideration of the Issue by the US Defense Science Review Board
A new report from the Pentagon’s Defense Science Review Board (DSRB) provides a useful examination of the technical issues concerning the fielding of autonomous weapons. Unquestionably,…
Periodic Review Board Hearings start up at Gitmo this week – but why in Secret?
Although the Pentagon this week will finally start holding review hearings for Guantanamo detainees who remain in indefinite detention and haven’t yet been cleared for release…
The Process of Transferring Drone Operations from the CIA to the Pentagon: Slow Track, Just Stalled, or Terminal?
On Tuesday evening, Foreign Policy published an exclusive report, with a headline suggesting that the administration has terminated the idea of transferring drone operations from…
Good Reasons May Exist to Close CIA Drone Program—But Claim that CIA Agents are “Unprivileged Belligerents” is Not One of Them
Senator John McCain has vowed to accelerate the effort to transition control of drone operations from the CIA to the Pentagon, and he will likely have support from top Senate Democrats.…