Matthew Waxman argues that closing the facility would cause the Obama administration to spend a great deal of political capital, but would actually leave some of the most difficult issues unresolved.

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.

President Barack Obama gives a series of speeches on his vision for the economy, which he calls "A Better Bargain for the Middle Class."

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon discusses the consequences of leaving Afghanistan.

There has never been greater urgency for expanding and improving U.S. workforce training programs. In this Working Paper, Thomas Hilliard argues that the federal government should corral the country's siloed and disjointed workforce-development programs in line with a common national strategy.

The ingredients for Detroit's longterm economic recovery are already there. It is worth noting that "the quality of knowledge institutions, its International airport, and openness to global talent put Detroit in a different category than other hard-pressed Rustbelt cities."

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."

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, requested that General Martin Dempsey provide an "unclassified assessment of options for the potential use of U.S. military force in the Syrian conflict" and General Dempsey responded on July 19, 2013.

Shannon O'Neil discusses how Mexico has gotten better at exposing corruption but also why it still falls short in prosecuting the accused and convicting perpetrators of these types of crimes.

New York Times Chief Washington Correspondant David Sanger interviewed Deputy Secretary of Defense Ash Carter during the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado, on July 18, 2013. They discussed military strategy transitioning from two wars, cybersecurity forces, sequestration, nuclear weapons, and intelligence leaks.

Office of the Director of National Intelligence General Counsel Robert Litt delivered remarks titled, "Privacy, Technology, and National Security: An Overview of Intelligence Collection," at the Brookings Institution on July 18, 2013.

Vice President Joe Biden spoke at George Washington University's Center for American Progress on July 18, 2013, to discuss the Obama administration's continued "elevated engagement in the Asia-Pacific," which is also often referred to as the U.S. pivot, or rebalance, to Asia.

Although revelations of NSA spying provoked an angry reaction last week in Brazil, the U.S. and Brazilian administrations should treat this crisis as an opportunity, writes Julia Sweig.

This chart book shows the growth in foreign ownership of U.S. assets over time.

"Marlin saved itself by facing a truth that few threatened manufacturers can stomach: It was failing because it had gotten everything wrong. It had the wrong customers; it had the wrong products; it had the wrong prices. Greenblatt realized--just in time--that even wire baskets could be innovative. The simplicity of Marlin's technology is not what we typically associate with innovation--there's no algorithm, no microchip, no touch screen. Instead, Marlin learned how its products could help its customers, providing the quiet innovation that can give a fellow U.S. factory a critical edge and help keep jobs in the United States."

On July 10, 2013, President Barack Obama's National Economic Council, Domestic Policy Council, Office of Management and Budget, and the Council of Economic Advisers released a report on the "range of benefits to the U.S. economy that would be realized from passage of commonsense immigration reform, and the high costs of inaction."