In this article, The New York Times reports that in recognition of the potential national security implications of climate change, the Obama Administration has quietly endorsed the renewal of Medea (Measurements of Earth Data for Environmental Analysis). This program has facilitated collaboration between the intelligence and scientific communities to understand climate trends through the use [...]

Washington, DC – The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) recently re-launched a program to share surveillance and other data with scientists monitoring climate change.  Images from spy satellites—declassified and degraded—will be invaluable to scientists as they monitor the effects of climate change on sea ice, glaciers, tropical rainforests, and other natural phenomena.  While some have criticized [...]

Last month, Navy Secretary Ray Mabus committed to making the US Navy a “green fleet” – by 2020, 50% of all energy consumed by the USN will be supplied by renewable energy sources. To that end the Navy will expand its use of hybrid vehicles, solar and wind, and perhaps even pave the way for [...]

At the end of October, Iraq began lobbying the IAEA and UN to rebuild at least one of the nuclear reactors destroyed during the first Gulf War. This development prompted Foreign Policy to add Iraq to their ongoing list of “The Future Nuclear Powers You Should Be Worried About” (note:  the article is about future [...]

The National Review Online today featured a Flashpoint post from ASP Senior Fellow Bernard Finel on the need for a changed U.S. strategy in Afghanistan, praising his sound, comprehensive analysis of the reasons behind and feasibility of “success” in our current operations there.
Read the NRO post here; read Bernard’s full posting on the subject, “The [...]

ASP Board Member and former Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel has a fantastic piece in the Post today. In it he lays the case for a new American national security paradigm, based in the realities of the 21st century rather than the habits of the 20th, and calls for a reevaluation of our mission and ambitions [...]

The United States Navy drew attention to its continuing concern over climate change in a recent Stars and Stripes article highlighting security and readiness concerns raised by rapid Arctic ice melt. According to NOAA projections, Arctic summers may be completely ice-free by 2030. That is startlingly soon.
The prospect of iceless, unregulated Arctic waters opening for [...]

An August paper from the Strategic Studies Institute at the Army War College, Taking Up the Security Challenge of Climate Change, adds another unequivocal call for preparative action from the US government and military to address security risks posed by climate change.
The paper lays out the importance of US leadership in the global response to [...]

Stephen Biddle is the single best defense analyst working today. His arguments are usually carefully considered and well supported empirically. For a generation of younger defense intellectuals, he is very much the gold standard, the model to emulate.
His recent essay in the American Interest (Is It Worth It? The Difficult Case for War in Afghanistan) [...]

There is a frustrating tendency in media coverage of the defense budget, that is the assumption that if Congress adds anything to a the Department of Defense’s budget request it is an example of political pork (Pork-Laden Defense Bill Weighed). Often it is, but sometimes it isn’t. In the current defense appropriation bill, [...]