Emerging issues are areas where foreign policy and national security are shaped by technology, nature, and shifts in global power. They often lack long-settled rules, so governments work out responses as they go. The president, Congress, the military, and intelligence agencies work alongside allies and private companies to meet them.
An independent team explaining how government works
In February 2026, SpaceX will launch four astronauts to the International Space Station—two NASA astronauts along with crew members from ESA and Roscosmos, on a NASA-funded…
Videos of security forces firing on crowds kept appearing on social media during Iran's January 2026 internet shutdown. Activist networks continued coordinating. Photographs documenting the crackdown…
The United States Navy, the preeminent maritime force of the modern era, is trapped in a logistical and economic paradox. Despite a shipbuilding budget that has…
In the popular imagination, the internet is a "cloud"—an ethereal, wireless network that transmits data through the air. This metaphor masks the physical reality of the…
Artificial Intelligence and Emerging Technology covers advanced tools with military uses, Disinformation and Information Warfare covers efforts to sway public opinion, and Space Policy covers government plans for orbit and beyond.
Climate Change and Security looks at how a changing environment affects security, and Energy Security looks at reliable supplies of power.
Great Power Competition covers competition among the world's most powerful countries.
While the foundational legal structures of the Taiwan-US relationship—the Taiwan Relations Act, the Three Joint Communiqués, and the Six Assurances—remain technically operative, the reality…
More than a year ago, the Commission on the National Defense Strategy issued a report with a stark conclusion: the United States faces the…
The White House has released a document that dismantles the post-Cold War consensus on American foreign policy. The 2025 National Security Strategy (NSS), signed…
The geopolitical map of Europe is being redrawn. Not by the shifting frontlines of the Donbas, but by the pen strokes of diplomats in…
The specter of nuclear testing—a practice most Americans associate with Cold War-era footage of mushroom clouds—has returned to the headlines with alarming force. Vague…
The multiyear effort by the United States to force Chinese company ByteDance to sell TikTok represents a true geopolitical drama of the digital age.…
From the mission of the U.S. Space Force to NASA's ambitious return to the Moon, American space policy remains profoundly shaped by the Cold…
From the Cold War panic that birthed NASA to the modern establishment of the U.S. Space Force and the rise of private spaceflight, America's…
Outer space has transformed from a frontier of pure exploration into a critical domain for American prosperity and security. U.S. efforts are driven by…
From checking the morning weather on your phone to GPS guiding your commute, daily life is powered by invisible satellites orbiting hundreds of miles…
