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Military Spouse Unemployment: A Retention Issue Hiding in Plain Sight
In the summer of 2024, a Major in the Air Force received "career-enhancing" orders for a Permanent Change of Station (PCS) from a joint assignment in D.C. to a remote installation in the Midwest. For his spouse—a licensed pediatric nurse with a decade of seniority—the move was a professional derailment. Within ninety days, she had resigned her position, navigated a gap in pay, and hit a wall of state licensing delays that kept her out of the workforce for six months. When tha
Security and Democracy Forum
Apr 64 min read


The War Clause at 250: Congress Must Reassert Its Constitutional Role in War Decisions
In 2026, the United States will mark the 250th anniversary of its founding, a milestone that invites both celebration and reflection. Amid the festivities, Congress should revisit one of the most neglected provisions of the Constitution: the War Clause. For too long, the authority to decide when and how the nation goes to war has drifted from Congress to the executive branch. This erosion of legislative war powers undermines democratic accountability and threatens the integri
Security and Democracy Forum
Mar 233 min read


Back to Basics: Why Future Wars Will Look a lot Like Old Ones
The defense world is enamored with the future. From AI-enabled targeting and swarming drones to hypersonic missiles and autonomous tanks, tomorrow's wars are being imagined as sleek, digital, and surgical. These innovations are viable and worth pursuing. But they will not re-write the rules of war, and they are not a substitute for the basics. In fact, when militaries overlook the fundamentals, they tend to lose the war before the first algorithm boots up. Soldiers will still
Security and Democracy Forum
Mar 93 min read


The Role of Institutions for Environmental Security
Studies have shown that environmental stresses are increasingly correlated with conflicts. Miguel et al. (2004) posit that economic growth is strongly negatively correlated with civil conflict in Sub-Saharan Africa, with rainfall being an exogenic instrumental variable for economic growth. Another study by Ash and Obradovich (2020) found that climate-induced internal migration led to increased political instability in Syria, which exploded into the Syrian Civil War in 2011. E
Bryan Fok
Feb 234 min read
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