Douglas Dillon Fellow Micah Zenko asserts that shifting lead executive authority for U.S. drone strikes from the CIA to the Pentagon is the essential first step toward greater transparency and oversight.

A panel of experts discuss the new HBO documentary film, Manhunt, which details the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

A panel of experts discuss the new HBO documentary film, Manhunt, which details the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

President Obama gave a speech on April 15, 2013, after explosions went off near the finish line of the Boston Marathon. In a second speech on April 16, he said the case will be investigated as an "act of terrorism" and on April 19, he discussed the federal and local coordination in locating and taking into custody one of the suspects and in collecting intelligence.

Grounded in a realistic assessment of technology, Matthew C. Waxman and Kenneth Anderson outline a practical alternative with which to evaluate the use of autonomous weaponry that incorporates codes of conduct based on traditional legal and ethical principles governing weapons and warfare.

Experts discuss what lessons the military learned during the Iraq war, and how the war in Iraq will influence future policy making.

Experts discuss what lessons the military learned during the Iraq war, and how the war in Iraq will influence future policy making.

Assistant Secretary Shapiro discusses the integration of diplomacy and defense in meeting national security challenges.

Assistant Secretary Shapiro discusses the integration of diplomacy and defense in meeting national security challenges.

Director of National Intelligence James Clapper testified before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence on March 12, 2013, and before the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligenceon April 11, 2013, regarding the Intelligence Community's Worldwide Threat Assessment. He discussed the effects of sequestration on the intelligence community and listed cybersecurity as the top threat to U.S. security.

"The hypocrisy behind U.S. targeted killings has long been apparent to casual news readers, and it is now confirmed by internal intelligence documents," according to Micah Zenko.

Carla Anne Robbins discusses the mismatch between the new Pentagon budget and Washington's fiscal and political realities.

For many senior Pakistani spies, the man sitting in the jail cell represented solid proof of their suspicions that the C.I.A. had sent a vast secret army to Pakistan, men who sowed chaos and violence as part of the covert American war in the country. For the C.I.A., the eventual disclosure of [Raymond] Davis's role with the agency shed an unflattering light on a post–Sept. 11 reality: that the C.I.A. had farmed out some of its most sensitive jobs to outside contractors — many of them with neither the experience nor the temperament to work in the war zones of the Islamic world.

The diplomatic strength and economic power of the United States depend upon a functioning global order and a system of international trade based on uncontested access to the global commons—the world's shared land, sea , air, and space—for all. Command of the global commons is what makes the United States a super power.

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After former secretary of state Hillary Clinton's speech on April 5, Gayle Tzemach Lemmon observes, "the Clinton megaphone no longer requires a Washington translator."

In the past ten years, U.S. special operations forces have honed their counterterrorism manhunting ability with great operational success. They now are at a critical inflection point in their development where resources should be realigned to successfully employ the other of their two basic capabilities—working alongside indigenous forces to combat national and transnational threats.

Cyber weapons are different from conventional weapons in that their effects do not directly manifest themselves in the "real world." There are three broad categories of potential effects of cyberattacks: personal, economic, and physical.

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Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel delivered his first major policy speech as Pentagon chief at the National Defense University in Washington, D.C., April 3, 2013. The speech outlined potential departmental changes in acquisition, personnel, and organization, especially with the sequester, and addressed U.S. responses to North Korean threats.

Despite Pyongyang's aggressive public posturing in recent days, the greatest threat from North Korea will likely be a surprise guerilla-style provocation, says CFR Korea expert Scott Snyder.

In 2009 the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Center of Excellence (NATO CCD COE) asked a panel of international law experts to "apply standards of international law to a virtual battlefield." The panel released this report on March 28, 2013, as "an expression of opinions of a group of independent experts acting solely in their personal capacity."