"From the Washington Post’s February report that U.S. Cyber Command took a Russian disinformation operation offline on the day of the 2018 midterms to fight election interference, to the Pentagon’s announcement last year that it would take more active measures to challenge adversaries in cyberspace, recent news about cyber operations suggests they are playing an increasingly important role in geopolitics. So how should the public understand how the United States deploys its cyber tools to achieve its goals? "To help answer [...]

"One of the errors of previous administrations in South Asia was the failure to assure Asian allies that America would come to their side in case they were attacked by China, as has been argued by foreign policy experts for quite some-time. Ely Ratner of the Center for American Security, for instance, has been calling for America to abandon its neutrality in the South China Sea region by supplementing diplomacy with military assurances. "In ‘The Stealth Superpower: How China Hid Its [...]

"On a recent flight back from New Delhi to Washington, my seatmate was a typical American success story in the making. The young man, who I'll call Ashok, said he was finishing his master's degree at a top 20 engineering school, where he applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to aeronautical engineering. "'So, where to after graduation?' I asked. 'Lockheed or Boeing? SpaceX? Some startup?' "'Oh, I'm not staying in America,' Ashok said bluntly. 'I'd have to hang around months hoping [...]

"For Trump, the purpose of exerting 'maximum pressure' on Iran through sanctions is 'the belief that he will bring them around and they’ll realize they need to do a deal and the terms will be better,' said Dennis Ross, a former diplomat who negotiated Middle East agreements for Republican and Democratic administrations. “'The point is, he still thinks there’s a deal he can do. . . . I think for him, the real measure, in his mind, is showing he improved over what [...]