Tag: Intel

Some may think free school meals are a welfare issue, but they are so much more. Free school meals are a major investment in our country’s future. Nutrition and healthy diets are important parts of children’s health. Obesity is one preventable diet-related disease that continues to affect too many children in the United States. The… Continue reading Reimagining School Meals to Improve Health for All Children

The June 6 announcement by the infamous Wagner Group private military company that it will end its three-and-a-half-year-long deployment in Mali is an important development in Russia’s evolving mercenary landscape. Even as one Russian mercenary group is leaving, the country’s presence in Africa is not going anywhere. The Kremlin seized control of Wagner’s operations, most… Continue reading The Wagner Group Is Leaving Mali. But Russian Mercenaries Aren’t Going Anywhere

U.S. and Chinese officials convened in London on 9 June for the first meeting of the economic and trade consultation mechanism—a channel of communication agreed upon during their first negotiation in Geneva this past May. The framework agreed in London on the one hand offers temporary relief to businesses and markets, and time for both… Continue reading As U.S.-China Trade Talks Continue, Europe Needs a Plan to Navigate Uncertainty

Last week’s Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear program and military assets and Iran’s responding missile strikes represent a significant escalation in the long-standing tensions between the two nations. While covert operations and proxy conflicts have defined much of their rivalry in recent years, this overt military strike signals a dramatic shift in the nature of… Continue reading The Israel-Iran Conflict: Q&A with RAND Experts

The realization hit me somewhere around mile three of my usual run with my running partner. As the miles ticked by and our conversation flowed, I noticed that nearly every story I told was punctuated with curse words. My running partner, in contrast, kept her language clean. Her stories were just as animated, her frustrations… Continue reading My Post-Pandemic Potty Mouth: A Psychologist’s Perspective

Seppuku, also called hara-kiri, is an incredibly painful way to die. A ritualistic Japanese way to kill oneself in feudal times involved cutting open one’s abdomen for the purpose of disembowelment. There also is a metaphorically painful way important decisions can die, one that involves sacrificing national interests due to slow decisionmaking. It is called… Continue reading Death by Nemawashi

On 21 May, the Polish navy intercepted a mysterious vessel in the Baltic Sea performing suspicious manoeuvres near a power cable which connects Poland and Sweden. The vessel was part of Russia’s ‘shadow fleet,’ an ageing collection of poorly maintained oil tankers and other vessels, often with opaque ownership and improper insurance, which enable the… Continue reading Protecting Europe’s Critical Undersea Infrastructure Depends on Coordination and Collaboration

In any drawn-out military confrontation, the U.S. must support its ground forces with food, fuel, ammunition and weapons. In a conflict with China over Taiwan, however, that material will be coming from as far away as the Philippines and Japan. That means relying on the large, mostly unarmed, civilian-crewed ships, such as those operated by… Continue reading A Swarm at Sea: Supplying Troops with On-Demand Autonomous Watercraft

Russia has a vast lead over the United States in nuclear forces in and around Europe and exploits it with frequent nuclear bullying. An overconfident Kremlin could miscalculate or think superiority might bring strategic advantage. At its June 24–25 summit in The Hague, NATO might weigh how to lessen the imbalance. In intercontinental-range nuclear forces,… Continue reading Redressing the Nuclear Imbalance in Europe