Both liberals and conservatives are convinced that the biggest threat to our freedom and well-being lies with Russia and China. And, well, also the terrorists, Muslims, drug dealers, illegal immigrants, North Koreans, Cubans, Syrians, Vietnamese, communists, Reds, and others. They are wrong. The biggest threat to our freedom and well-being is our very own federal government, especially the national-security branch of the federal government.The Framers clearly understood this. That’s why the Constitution strictly limited the powers of federal officials.Our American ancestors also clearly understood this. That’s why they demanded the enactment of the Bill of Rights. They knew that the federal…

Originally published by the Strategic Trade Research Institute. https://www.stimson.org/wp-content/plugins/wp-views/embedded/res/img/ajax-loader.gif","callback_next":"","manage_history":"enabled","has_controls_in_form":"disabled","infinite_tolerance":"0","max_pages":0,"page":1,"base_permalink":"/2022/advanced-conventional-weapons-emerging-technologies-recognizing-preempting-proliferation-threats/?wpv_view_count=67185-TCPID76749&wpv_paged=WPV_PAGE_NUM","loop":{"type":"","name":"","data":[],"id":0}}" data-permalink="/2022/advanced-conventional-weapons-emerging-technologies-recognizing-preempting-proliferation-threats/?wpv_view_count=67185-TCPID76749" style="box-sizing:border-box"> The proliferation of advanced conventional weapons (ACW) poses a grave threat to international peace and security. The acquisition by a growing number of countries of sophisticated advanced weapons systems follows a trend whereby the potency of specific ACW systems is compounded by integrating emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence/machine learning or robotics. Whereas the hardware – the equipment, materials, and components – for these systems can be manufactured indigenously or imported, access to and acquisition of ACW-related emerging technologies is a more daunting challenge. To mitigate the ACW proliferation…

During my teenage years, I came across “The Autobiography of Malcolm X.” The Muslim leader’s name grabbed my attention, but so did the author’s: Alex Haley. My dad swore by “Roots” and what it meant to a generation of Black people. A wave of conflicting emotions struck me when I read about biographer Jonathan Eig’s “alarming discovery” – that a quote from Haley’s January 1965 interview in Playboy Magazine in regards to King’s criticism of Malcolm X was fraudulent. I was saddened when I thought about previous claims of plagiarism attributed to Haley, along with the controversy that surrounded other Malcolm X biographers such as Manning Marable.…

The war comes home” is a misleading phrase that we should probably abandon. America’s endless foreign wars usually reflect violent economic, social, and political currents already within our borders and that stretch as far back as settler colonialism, chattel slavery, and the birth of racial capitalism. But foreign wars and domestic social ungluing certainly interact with each other, as when Chicago police commander Jon Burge tortured Black Chicagoans with electric shocks familiar from Vietnam. And you could see this dynamic this spring, when right-wing politicians and journalists embraced vigilantes, especially those with military backgrounds.   For several days after he fatally strangled…

Losing control of occupied Crimea is a "red line" for Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Estonian defense minister has said, though urged fellow NATO nations not to balk at a Ukrainian operation towards the peninsula regardless of fears over Moscow's nuclear arsenal. In an interview at the Estonian Defense Ministry last weekend on the sidelines of the Lennart Meri Conference, Hanno Pevkur told Newsweek that NATO allies have channels by which to warn the Kremlin against nuclear weapon use and that Putin's repeated atomic saber-rattling should not undermine Western support for Kyiv. "Our job here is to help Ukrainians and to be concerned that they can do their…