National Security News

The Daily Signal provides reports on national and homeland security issues, including military readiness, intelligence operations, border protection, and global conflicts. Featuring news, analysis, and commentary, this section explores how security policy decisions affect America’s national defense and freedom.
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  • opinion

    Active Cyber Defense Will Help Deter Future Threats
    On Tuesday, a massive cyberattack hit Ukraine. The very next day, professor Scott Jasper of the Naval Postgraduate School offered a systematic analysis of the United States’ existing strategic cyber deterrence options, of which active cyber defense will play the leading role in the years ahead. Active cyber defense may be the answer to the…
    Riley Walters | Mike Muller | Max Morrison
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  • opinion

    Meet the Socialist Leader Who’s Driving Bolivia Into the Ground
    Socialist Evo Morales has been president of Bolivia for over a decade. Although he claims to be working for the people, his populist policies have been a major roadblock on Bolivia’s path to economic growth and development. During the Morales years, Bolivia has plunged in The Heritage Foundation’s annual Index of Economic Freedom. It remains…
    Charles Busch | James M. Roberts
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  • opinion

    Getting the Opioid Epidemic Right
    The numbers are staggering. Until about a month ago, we had thought drug overdoses were responsible for some 52,000 American lives in 2015. Now the most recent reporting reveals that number may be closer to 60,000 in 2016. Think about that: We could now build the equivalent of one Vietnam Memorial Wall a year given…
    William Bennett | Robert DuPont
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  • opinion

    Amid the Ruins of Expo ’92 in Southern Spain, Where Socialism Grinds On
    The Heritage Foundation has been on the road in Spain’s southern region of Andalucía promoting economic freedom. One stop was Seville, a city that is sorely in need of hearing that message. Seville has been an important urban center since the Middle Ages. It was from the nearby Atlantic port of Cádiz that Christopher Columbus…
    James M. Roberts
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  • opinion

    Ukraine Was Hit by a Massive Cyberattack. Why the US Must Keep Up Support for This Key Ally.
    Large-scale cyberattacks against Ukraine on Tuesday reportedly hit government ministries, including the Cabinet of Ministers, several banks, a state power distributor, the Ukrainian postal service, a state-run aircraft manufacturer, and Boryspil airport in Kyiv, among other targets. The cyberattacks have also affected companies outside of Ukraine, including an advertising firm in the United Kingdom; Maersk,…
    Daniel Kochis
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  • opinion

    This Alternative to the Laptop Ban Would Tighten Airport Security at Low Inconvenience
    U.S. officials say they have uncovered evidence that the Islamic State was using Mosul University laboratories to develop bombs that could pass through airport screeners undetected. When the Islamic State, also known as ISIS, captured Mosul, it also took possession of the modern screening equipment at Mosul’s airport that would allow it to test its new bomb…
    Max Morrison | David Inserra
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  • opinion

    The Opioid Crisis Is Dire. Why We Need a National Conversation About It Separate From Obamacare.
    Whatever the merits or demerits of the recently released Senate version of the GOP health care bill, some have suggested that it should put more funding into treating opioid addiction. Let’s be honest—the opioid crisis in America is huge, it is severe, and it is devastating. But this partisan-fought legislation just isn’t the place to…
    Seth Leibsohn | Sean Noble
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  • news

    What a Wounded Veteran Thinks of Trump’s VA Reform
    Sgt. Mike Verardo’s military career ended seven years ago because of an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan, but he said the worst part of his injuries was dealing with a “broken VA” when he returned home. He had to go to the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital weekly, wait 57 days for a prosthetic leg, make…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Homeland Security: Russia Targeted 21 States in 2016, Changed No Votes
    Russians hacked or attempted to hack into election systems in 21 states, Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed to a Senate panel Wednesday, but stressed this didn’t affect any election outcomes. “All the way through the Cold War up to our most recent election, in my opinion they have tried to influence all of our…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    The Left Spent at Least $32 Million on 4 Special Elections. And They Still Lost All of Them.
    Sometimes, politics boils down to narratives. This was the case in Tuesday’s special election in Georgia, where Republican Karen Handel defeated Democrat Jon Ossoff to take a House seat previously occupied by Tom Price—now the secretary of health and human services. The election became a nationalized proxy war between Republicans and Democrats, drawing intense news…
    Jarrett Stepman
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  • opinion

    How to Resolve Tangled Relationship Between Congress and Homeland Security
    With homeland security being such a national priority, one would expect Congress and the Department of Homeland Security to have a well-organized relationship. Unfortunately, that is not the case. On Wednesday, the House Homeland Security Committee marked up a bill that would reauthorize the Department of Homeland Security for the first time since 2002, when…
    David Inserra | Max Morrison
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  • opinion

    We Hear You: Put Blame for Opioid Epidemic Where It Belongs
    Editor’s note: Our five-part series by Josh Siegel about the opioid epidemic and its devastating effects in one poor New Hampshire county generated ardent responses from readers. Here are some of them.—Ken McIntyre Dear Daily Signal: The first  part of Josh Siegel’s series on the opioid crisis in Coos County, New Hampshire, struck a chord with me (“This…
    Ken McIntyre
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  • news

    Trump Administration Keeps Obama LGBT Policies at Pentagon, Other Agencies
    The Defense Department recently held an LGBT Pride Month event, while the Army conducted transgender sensitivity training, moves that baffled retired Army Lt. Gen. Jerry Boykin and some other conservatives. “Every dollar we spend on social engineering is one dollar less we are spending on defense,” Ken Boehm says. They had expected that the new command, under…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    What the Treasury’s New Recommendations Would Mean for Financial Reform
    This week, in response to President Donald Trump’s February executive order, the U.S. Treasury released the first in a series of reports examining the U.S. financial regulatory system. The report identifies policies that would improve federal financial regulation in a manner consistent with the Trump administration’s seven core principles. Treasury incorporated a wide range of…
    Norbert Michel
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  • opinion

    These 2 Solar Companies Want Special Treatment. Here’s Why That Would Harm Green Technologies.
    In recent weeks, two U.S. manufacturers of solar energy components—Suniva and SolarWorld—have petitioned the U.S. International Trade Commission to impose tariffs on the imports of various products used in the production of solar panels. Such an initiative has been rightly condemned by the solar industry itself. Such a tariff would benefit Suniva and SolarWorld for…
    Charles Busch | Katie Tubb
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  • opinion

    Mattis Is Punting the Military Buildup to 2019
    Secretary of Defense James Mattis has news for Congress and for the nation: The military buildup will have to wait until next year. Mattis delivered that message in a back-to-back series of appearances before Congress, one of them taking place in a rare prime-time hearing on Monday night. During both testimonies—which were delivered before the…
    Frederico Bartels
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  • news

    EPA Cleared in Agency-Caused Environmental Disaster, Despite Official’s Admissions
    A government watchdog reported Monday that the Environmental Protection Agency committed no wrongdoing in an environmental disaster, but the auditors ignored crucial inconsistencies in officials’ stories. The EPA breached Colorado’s Gold King Mine on Aug. 5, 2015, resulting in an estimated 3 million gallons of toxic pollution being dumped into a river that provides drinking water…
    Ethan Barton
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  • news

    VA Secretary Says This Bureaucratic Fix Could Help Prevent Veteran Suicides
    The Department of Veterans Affairs and Defense Department soon will have the same medical data, ending a turf battle between the agencies to achieve what Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin said will be “seamless” information sharing on veterans’ health. Shulkin said having an electronic health record, or EHR, that follows a veteran from the time he…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    A Short History of Special Counsels and Presidents
    James Comey managed to play a role in appointment of the two most recent special counsels to investigate possible wrongdoing in a presidential administration. And both cases featured leaks to the press. Comey, ousted as FBI director by President Donald Trump, admitted last week in testimony before the Senate Intelligence Committee that he leaked a…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    With Army Stretched Too Thin, Military Buildup Should Begin Right Now
    Testifying in front of the Senate Appropriations’ defense subcommittee last Wednesday, Army Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley was characteristically blunt. When asked, he told the assembled senators that in his opinion, the Army does not have enough soldiers to accomplish the missions it has been assigned. Acknowledging that Secretary of Defense James Mattis is…
    Thomas Spoehr
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