Articles & Multimedia
Showing 21-40 of 50 Publications
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The Pentagon's Transparency Problem
Commentary
With the war in Afghanistan now in its 17th year, the U.S. military is engaged in the longest stretch of armed conflict in its history. And yet its leaders are keeping the Ame...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Alice Hunt Friend
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John Bolton thinks he can be tough. Can he also be fair?
National Security Council staff usually stumble onto White House grounds every morning around 7, before most of the Beltway has had its first cup of coffee. The gate closing b...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman
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Frustrations at the White House and the Pentagon
Commentary
In early February, months-long tensions between the White House and the Pentagon over how to address North Korea spilled out into the public scene. As officials revealed to th...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Julianne Smith
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Too Many Secrets
Commentary
Last week’s decision by House Intelligence Committee Republicans and the White House to declassify a misleading, politically charged memo about evidence in the Russia investig...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Ilan Goldenberg
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How Many Battles Can the Pentagon Fight in Washington at Once?
Commentary
Agenda SecDef relaunched earlier this year with advice for then-new Secretary James Mattis, warning against the demands of unreasonable expectations in order to focus on five ...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Lauren Fish
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Washington Is Never Quite Sure Where It Is at War
Commentary
The United States is a nation at war. But for much of the past two decades, a great deal of the Pentagon’s overseas activities would not technically classify as combat, with a...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman
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The Necessity of Questioning the Military
Commentary
On Thursday morning, I planned to write a pointed screed decrying President Trump’s propensity to view the military community as a problem he can buy off with a check. Then, o...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman
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Loren DeJonge Schulman in The Washington Post on Sabotaging America's Future Diplomats
Commentary
Stephen K. Bannon pledged to destroy the American “administrative state.” Russian President Vladimir Putin is devoted to ending America’s global leadership. One of their most ...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman
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Can This National Security Council Handle a Real Crisis?
It’s hard to believe, but this administration has not experienced a genuine national-security crisis in more than six months in office. Yes, missile tests in North Korea and a...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman
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Why Trump’s Solo Meeting With Putin Was a Big No-No
The latest Washington scandal reads like a 19th century morality tale: The president met with Vladimir Putin by himself! Without his own interpreter! For an unscheduled hour! ...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman
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The Rocky Relationship Between Washington & Silicon Valley
The Trump administration inherited a decent foundation on which to build collaborative ties between Washington and hubs of American innovation like Silicon Valley. Both Presid...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman, Alexandra Sander & Madeline Christian
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Defense Problems as People Problems: Mattis's Human Capital Challenge
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis’s arrival in the Pentagon in late January was to launch an era of intra-Pentagon harmony — familiar face, familiar knife hands, well-known to b...
By Katherine Kidder & Loren DeJonge Schulman
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Too Many Generals in the Situation Room?
From the moment President Trump nominated James Mattis as his secretary of defense, the swamp has made hand-wringing over civil-military relations a fine art. There are vetera...
By Amy Schafer & Loren DeJonge Schulman
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Trump's First Presidential Trip Abroad: What Could Go Wrong?
On my first presidential overseas trip I got stranded outside a Russian checkpoint, frantically texting sleeping colleagues about whether I could allow security guards to scan...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman
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The Role of the Commander-in-Chief
I really just see the bigness of it all, but also the responsibility. And the human responsibility. You know, the human life that’s involved in some of the decisions.” — Presi...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Janine Davidson
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The Importance of the Civil Service
In a signature theme of its first 100 days, the Trump administration, encouraged by conservative media outlets, has launched an assault on civil servants the likes of which sh...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Whitney Kassel
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Keeping Up Civ-Mil Relations
James Mattis was sworn in as secretary of defense in what is arguably one of the more fraught periods in civil-military relations in decades. While civilian control in the Uni...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman & Mara Karlin
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Bannon’s Demotion Means the Trump Team Is Learning — Even if Trump Isn’t
The Trump administration announced on Wednesday that it would remove White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon from the National Security Council (NSC). National security wonk...
By Julianne Smith & Loren DeJonge Schulman
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For an Audience of One: Re-Booting Agenda SecDef
Since Jim Mattis accepted the role of secretary of defense, his proverbial rucksack has been loaded up with expectations: convincing President Trump that torture is not effect...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman, Shawn Brimley & Mara Karlin
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The Deep State Is a Figment of Steve Bannon’s Imagination
Here’s a handy rule for assessing the credibility of what you’re reading about national security in the Trump era: If somebody uses the term “Deep State,” you can be pretty su...
By Loren DeJonge Schulman
