The (digital) arms race is on. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is pushing to massively expand his department’s cyber command forces from 900 to 4,000, and to increase America’s defensive and offensive cyber capacities. According to the NYT, Panetta’s plan is a response to the increasing role cyber attacks are playing in warfare: In October, Mr. Panetta warned […]

If high-speed rail works anywhere, it should work in France. The compact Gallic “hexagon”, as the French often call their country, is densely populated, and many of its cities are in the sweet spot for high speed rail: close enough so that a fast train competes effectively with air travel yet far enough away that […]

French forces are coming closer to recapturing Timbuktu from Islamist and Tuareg militants, but the city may be minus a few priceless historical and cultural treasures when they get there. The Mayor of the city recently told the AP that Islamists torched the library there, destroying a number of ancient documents of cultural and historical […]

President Obama’s core health care oath was bogus. That’s the evaluation of the Economist, which calls the President’s oft-repeated vow, “If you like your health-care plan, you can keep it,” an “empty promise”: In 2014 the main provisions of Obamacare will come into force. The biggest uncertainty is whether the law will prompt employers, which […]

Two decades ago, the Commandant of the Marine Corps declared that women serving in the infantry “would destroy the Marine Corps.” General Robert Barrow explained that, “in three wars—World War II, Korea and Vietnam—I found no place for women to be down in the ground combat element.” He cited the 1950 fighting retreat from the […]

[UPDATED to reflect breaking news]The situation in Egypt continues to darken; President Morsi has just declared a state of emergency and announced a curfew in three provinces following widespread riots. Hundreds of Egyptians have hit the streets in recent days to protest against President Mohamed Morsi and the death sentence handed down to 21 people […]

This week, we posted the latest installment of our series of essays on the decline of the blue social model and the emergence a new social structure to replace it (previous installments here and here). The piece examines how liberalism 4.0 shifted from a transformative ideology designed by elites to uplift the masses in the […]

The Pentagon announced yesterday that it will, in fact, begin aiding French forces in Mali by providing US air tankers to refuel French aircraft. This announcement comes after weeks of behind-the-scenes tension between the two countries, during which Paris has criticized the US has been dragging its feet on military aid, while Washington has been […]

On Friday, a court struck down a production quota for an advanced biofuel. Cellulosic biofuel is produced by breaking down plant matter, and has gotten a lot of hype lately: it passes every green test, can be harvested from marginal land, and has relatively high yields. Some see it as a potential replacement for corn-based […]

Israel’s top leadership is worried that chemical weapons are going to fall into the hands of the Syrian rebels or perhaps Hezbollah, and plans for “preventive operations” are already in place, Reuters reports: Should Lebanon’s Hezbollah guerrillas or rebels battling forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad obtain Syria’s chemical weapons, [Silvan] Shalom [Israel’s vice […]