The National Association of State Chief Information Officers (NASCIO) has released a 104-page Cyber Disruption Response Planning Guide. “This guide is both a practical implementation document and a call to action for states to develop state cyber disruption response plans that include: a governance structure that clearly designates who is...
Europeans migrating to support the Islamic State (IS) has been an alarming issue for western nations ever since the group declared itself a caliphate in 2014. Europeans and the rest of the world have watched as angst over this issue has turned to horror when several of the individuals responsible...
On March 24th, the Administration released its Strategy for the Middle East and to Counter Violent Extremism. This document, intended to fulfill the requirements of section 1222 of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), outlines US objectives in the Middle East then provides a very broad outline of the strategy...
There is no denying that terrorism is one of the most prominent, if not the most dire threat to the national security of the United States and its western allies. Over the past year, attacks in European locations such as Brussels, Istanbul, and Paris have catalyzed western nations to review...
The Center for a New American Security published their report regarding new Presidential administrations and National Security. Through this report, having a foundation built upon historical insights, steps are given “in logical though not necessarily priority order,” for the next administration in 2017. It is important to note that the months between...
The Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard University recently published a report, Preventing Nuclear Terrorism: Continuous Improvement or Dangerous Decline? The report discusses the potential outcomes of the 2016 Nuclear Security Summit beginning March 31st in Washington D.C. The report paints two extreme potential paths to be taken at the end of...
The Research Brief titled Victims of Ideological Homicides, 1990-2014 was published by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), and presents data relating to victims of “al-Qa’ida and affiliated movements (AQAM) and the extremist far-right (FRE – Far-Right Extremists) in the United States from 1990 to...
On February 9, 2016, National Intelligence Director James R. Clapper presented the Worldwide Threat Assessment of the US Intelligence Community to the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee. This Threat Assessment is noted to be, “the most informative top-level products of the U.S. Intelligence Community that is publicly available[.]” Recently, the Center for Homeland Defense...
The House of Representatives’ Committee on Homeland Security Committee released the 2016 Terror Threat Snapshot, a monthly newsletter focusing on data and the statistics regarding terrorism. This issue illustrates ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) and the related arrests happening in the United States, homegrown jihadist cases, the converts who travel to become...
The Brennan Center for Justice has released a report, Overseas Surveillance in an Interconnected World, which discusses the many aspects of Executive Order (EO) 12333. This presidential directive from Ronald Reagan, deals with the National Security Agency’s (NSA) surveillance operations overseas. Though there has been constant debate about domestic surveillance, there has...
