National Security Advisor (NSA) Jake Sullivan Responsibilities Called the “the best foreign policy job in government,” the NSA serves as the top aide to the president on national security and foreign policy. The NSA is generally a low-profile, high-influence position that plays a foundational role in the National Security Council (NSC). Created in 1947…
By Catherine MacaulayBy pushing work online – and partially paralyzing Congress – COVID-19 has highlighted shortfalls the co-founder of the Cyber Caucus has warned about for 19 years.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The National Security Council, Air Force Space Command, the Missile Defense Agency, and NASA among others will share analysis about, warnings of, and potential responses to cybersecurity threats to satellites and ground stations with industry under a new public-private partnership.
By Theresa Hitchens“If it’s a hurricane, [at the Defense Department], they’ve got the mission assignments. They know, ‘OK, we’ve got to send people to fill sandbags,'” DHS’s Jeanette Manfra explained. For cyber responses, she said, “that part is not mature enough.”
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Severe instability in the national security establishment raises questions not about the president’s policy judgements, but about the government’s ability to plan for and implement those decisions.
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: The entire US government — not just the Pentagon — needs to wake up to the intertwined threats of cyber warfare and political subversion, Army and National Security Agency officials say. It’ll take a major cultural change to get the whole of government to compete effectively in the grey zone between peace and war.…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.Shanahan spent much of his first formal (albeit off-camera) Pentagon pressroom briefing as SecDef emphasizing continuity with his ousted predecessor, Gen. Jim Mattis. He made a point of praising Mattis’s National Defense Strategy, America’s allies, and even the press – not exactly favorites of President Donald Trump.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.For insights about how the US military currently views the realities of space war, it’s helpful to consider the recently concluded annual Schriever War Game.
By Colin ClarkFast doesn’t meant out of control. Brig. Gen. Grynkewich took pains to emphasize that civilian oversight remains intact and the Pentagon’s role will be rigorously defined under the new National Security Presidential Memorandum NSPM-13.
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.The Trump Administration is putting the final touches on a plan to speed up arms sales to allies, and play catchup to China and Israel in selling armed drones.
By Paul McLearyWASHINGTON: There’s no “feuding” or “chaos” in the Trump White House, National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster insisted yesterday. Anyone who pushed their personal agenda at the expense of the president’s is now either gone or neutralized by Chief of Staff John Kelly, McMaster added. Both men are military officers, as is Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. McMaster…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.WASHINGTON: Is the Defense Industrial Base study required by the Trump Administration’s new Executive Order the groundwork for a new Buy America push or a bold strategic act reminiscent of President Eisenhower’s Solarium project, begun just four months after he took office? Many of the defense analysts, industry people and acquisition experts I’ve spoken with…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: Fact. China controls 90 percent of the world’s trade with North Korea. When President Trump met with Chinese President Xi Jinping at his Mar a Lago club there was, “frank recognition that China does have a great deal of control — a great deal of control over that situation, mainly through the coercive power…
By Colin ClarkWASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has shaken this staid capital city by making policy pronouncements over Twitter. Far from the social media spotlight, however, Trump’s National Security Council, led by warrior-intellectual H.R. McMaster, is coordinating a comprehensive series of policy reviews that are deliberative, collegial and strategic, NSC staffer Christopher Ford said today. The new North…
By Sydney J. Freedberg Jr.