President Barack Obama held a press conference on August 9, 2013, to discuss oversight and transparency of the National Security Agency's surveillance programs.

The NSA released this document on August 9, 2013, after Edward Snowden leaked classified documents related to the U.S. government's telephone and internet data collection and surveillance programs. This document details the history and mission of the NSA, the authority and process under which it operates, and the estimated size of its data operations.

"Europe is under pressure, both internally and from its allies, to take more responsibility for defence and security, especially in its immediate neighbourhood. The post-Cold War history of European deployments in Europe and joint NATO missions provide abundant evidence of such demands. Currently, US defence spending represents 72 percent of the NATO total – up from 63 percent in 2001."

A divergence of opinions between males and females is an "enduring characteristic of polls on the use of military force, regardless of the weapons system employed, military mission undertaken, whether the intervening force is unilateral or multilateral, and the strategic objective proposed," says Micah Zenko. Citing polls from the early 1990s to today, he investigates why this persistent difference in opinion exists and what it may mean for U.S. foreign policy.

"Azerbaijan is arming to the teeth. Armenia is growing increasingly disillusioned with Russia, its main protector. And the potential for armed conflict in the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region appears higher than it has been in years."

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon reports that agreement on a post-2014 bilateral security deal between Washington and Kabul is in sight.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper authorized the declassification and public release of documents submitetd by the National Security Agency to Congress, requesting reauthorization to collect telephone metadata, as permitted in Section 215 of the PATRIOT Act.

The issue of gun control is far from limited to the domestic politics of the United States: transnational gun trafficking makes armed violence a continental problem. The United States and Brazil, home to the largest arms industries in the Hemisphere, should partner to safeguard weapons stocks and staunch the flow of illegal weapons to illicit groups writes Julia Sweig.

A clear sign of a new Iranian nuclear posture will be if incoming president Hassan Rowhani pursues bilateral talks with the United States, says former top U.S. arms official Gary Samore.

On July 30, 2013, Judge Denise Lind, an army colonel, ruled in the United States v. Private First Class Bradley Manning trial that Manning is not guilty of aiding the enemy, but guilty on other counts of violating the espionage act. Manning released secret diplomatic cables and classified military reports from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars to Wikileaks.

Policymakers are currently debating the appropriate level of U.S. military spending given increasingly constrained budgets and the winding down of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The following charts present historical trends in U.S. military spending and analyze the forces that may drive it lower.

On July 31, 2013, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel provides an overview of the Department of Defense's Strategic Choices Management Review, which analyzed how the department will operate and what it must cut after sequestration.

Julia Sweig argues that the Obama administration should tighten regulations of firearm sales—both at the domestic and at the import-and-export level—in order to reduce rates of gun violence in Latin America.

Spanning from the Singapore and Malacca straits to the Strait of Taiwan, the South China Sea is one of the world's most hotly disputed bodies of water. China lays claim to nearly the entire sea, overlapping with the maritime claims of Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, and the Philippines. With sovereign territory, natural resources, and national pride at stake, this dispute threatens to destabilize the region and even draw the United States into a conflict.

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The African Union has achieved some peacekeeping successes but needs to improve coordination with the UN to strengthen African security, writes expert Alfredo Tjiurimo Hengari.

"The Philippines has set off on a risky mission to do what no nation in the region has managed to do: thwart China in its drive to control the vast waters around it."

Frank Klotz examines the history of the United Kingdom's nuclear deterrent and the British government's new analysis of alternatives to the proposed replacement submarines.

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses the consequences of leaving Afghanistan.

Following President Barack Obama's remarks on the Trayvon Martin case, Micah Zenko highlights the inconsistency in Obama's policies towards justice. Although the president has stated in reference to the case that it is wrong to profile individuals based on their "appearance, associations, or statistical propensity to violence," and the use of lethal force cannot be justified as self-defense unless there is reasonable grounds to fear imminent harm, those are the exact foundational principles of U.S. signature strikes.

"Be skeptical of concepts that divorce war from its political nature, particularly those that promise fast, cheap victory through technology."