"In this episode, Ms. Flournoy joins the podcast for a wide-ranging discussion of her career, the challenges of civilian leadership at the Pentagon, the military-industrial complex, and military politicization..." Download the full podcast here: Full Podcast

“'China is not going to take a position on North Korea over a fit of pique with Donald Trump, but at the same time, it is not unlike the Chinese to say, "Why the hell should we accommodate you or take risks in service of a U.S. priority when you’re doing this to us on one of our core interests?"' said Daniel Russel, who served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs in the Obama administration..." Read [...]

"Mehr news agency, quoting an 'informed source,' said it was unlikely that Rouhani would announce a full withdrawal from the agreement. In the past, Iran has threatened to limit access for the International Atomic Energy Agency’s monitors. "Another possible option, said Dennis A. Ross, who participated in U.S. negotiations in the Middle East through a number of administrations, would be to enrich a small amount of uranium to 20 percent — more than five times the level allowable under the agreement [...]

"Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan says the repositioning of U.S. forces is a response to 'indications of a credible threat by Iranian regime forces;' reaction from Michael Singh, former senior director at the National Security Council." Watch the full interview here: Full Interview

"In a distributed construct, the drones spread out across an area while the manned ship passively receives the data at a distance. But it’s a challenge to accomplish that in environments where an adversary such as China or Russia actively jams communications signals. "However, it’s a challenge the Navy must address, said Bob Work, the former deputy secretary of defense who championed unmanned technologies under the Obama administration. “'This is like carrier aviation in the interwar period,' Work said. 'This is [...]

"The era of untrammeled U.S. military superiority is over. If the United States delays implementing a new approach, it risks losing a war to China or Russia—or backing down in a crisis because it fears it would—with devastating consequences for America’s interests. "The U.S. Defense Department’s 2018 National Defense Strategy initiated a needed course correction to address this challenge. As then-Defense Secretary James Mattis put it in January that year, great-power competition—not terrorism—is now the Pentagon’s priority. But while the strategy’s [...]

"The threat to Taiwan from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) is increasing — sharply. Beijing is putting the nation under tremendous political pressure, but the military threat to Taiwan is especially alarming. China has spent the past 25 years working to undermine US and allied military advantages, above all with respect to Taiwan. "As US think tank RAND Corp and other sources have shown, helping Taiwan defend itself has gone from a relatively easy task in the 1990s for the [...]

"Many health-related AI technologies today are biased because they're built on datasets largely comprised of men and individuals of European descent. "Why it matters: An AI system trained to identify diseases, conditions and symptoms in people in these datasets could fail when presented with data from people with different characteristics..." Read the full article here: Full Article

"Few American foreign-policy challenges are more vexing or divisive than relations with Saudi Arabia today. U.S. interests would seem to dictate close ties, but American values argue otherwise. For President Trump, who is all about transactions, it is a no-brainer to focus on arms sales and oil, and little else matters. For Congress, there must be a price for the killing of the dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, as well as conduct of the war in Yemen. Congressional attempts to punish the [...]

"Michael Camilleri, a director at the Washington-based think tank Inter-American Dialogue, said social-media and online messaging services had become the most critical ways Venezuelans communicated beyond the reach of government censors. The opposition to Maduro has publicly mobilized on Twitter and Instagram and privately communicated through group chats on the encrypted messaging service WhatsApp... “'The Venezuelan government going back years now has essentially co-opted or silenced any independent media in the country. So the Internet has become an essential source of [...]