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

    5 Things You Need to Know About the Defense Department’s New Gender Identity Policy
    Last week, the Department of Defense ended its recognition of service members’ biology and supplanted it with a radical ideology pushed by the Obama administration. As other commentators pointed out recently (here and here), there is no military justification for this move. According to a study the Department of Defense commissioned, personnel who consider themselves transgender currently…
    Daniel Briggs
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  • opinion

    Booker T. Washington and the Promise of Racial Reconciliation
    We are all trying to recalibrate our praise and blame of Americans once revered as “great.” Yale University is rightly conflicted over John C. Calhoun, and the state of Maryland is rightly conflicted over Roger B. Taney. Given the major role these two men played in hardening pro-slavery sentiment and hastening the Civil War, I…
    Diana Schaub
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  • opinion

    Pentagon’s Transgender Policy Defies Common Sense
    On Thursday, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter announced that the U.S. military is dropping its policy of treating male and female troops according to their biology—to be replaced by a policy based on a radical new gender ideology. This change was not precipitated by military needs but by political correctness. After all, the military is not stretched…
    Roger Severino
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  • opinion

    NATO Designates Cyber as Official Domain for Warfare
    While the claim that hackers linked to the Russian government hacked the Democratic National Committee to steal research on GOP candidates certainly grabbed headlines, a more important story on cyberspace was unfolding in Brussels. In a press conference on June 14, NATO Allied ministers formally agreed to include cyber operations in its war domain along…
    Anna Ferrara | David Inserra
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  • opinion

    Social Security Programs Face Depletion in Near Future
    Social Security’s programs are in deep trouble. According to the just-released 2016 report of the Board of Trustees for the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds, both programs’ trust funds will be depleted in the near future—old-age and survivors insurance in 2035 and disability insurance in 2023. Trust Fund Depletion Should Congress…
    Romina Boccia | Rachel Greszler
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  • opinion

    Politicians Are Wrong About NAFTA
    In 2012, 51 leading economic experts were asked what they thought about the following statement: On average, citizens of the U.S. have been better off with the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) than they would have been if the trade rules for the U.S., Canada, and Mexico prior to NAFTA had remained in place. One…
    Bryan Riley
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  • opinion

    CIA Director Affirms Obama’s ISIS Strategy Is Not Working
    No, President Barack Obama—we aren’t winning the war against the Islamic State. The head of the CIA, John Brennan, testified on Thursday that, “Despite all our progress against [the Islamic State] on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capacity and global reach.” In fact, the Islamic State, also…
    Bridget Mudd
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  • news

    Amid Process Battle, Conservatives Complain of GOP Financial Support of More Liberal Republicans
    An LGBT measure threatening the House appropriations process has exposed old fault lines inside the Republican conference while also forging a pragmatic alliance between leadership and conservatives. The amendment introduced by Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney, D-N.Y., doomed an energy and water spending bill before Memorial Day—but only after 43 Republicans bucked the party line to…
    Philip Wegmann
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  • opinion

    House Republicans Go Strong on National Security
    The United States is under growing threats, and House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and his team deserve credit for recognizing that threat and outlining a plan for making America safer, stronger, and more prosperous. During the last seven years under President Barack Obama, the United States has grown less safe. Threats are rising, such as…
    Justin Johnson
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  • opinion

    Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand’s ‘Military Justice Destruction Act’
    For the third time in as many years, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., is pushing her radical scheme that, if enacted, would render the military justice system unworkable and ineffective. Don’t be fooled by the false label of her scheme—The Military Justice Improvement Act. In the last two years, she forced a vote on her idea,…
    Cully Stimson
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  • news

    TSA ‘Needs to Do More,’ Aviation Officials Say
    Aviation officials described current affairs at the Transportation Security Administration at a House subcommittee hearing in a bleaker light than the organization’s head did the day before. After the Homeland Security Committee’s interrogation of TSA Administrator Peter Neffenger last Wednesday, top airline officials testified before the Transportation Security Subcommittee the next morning on the skyrocketing…
    Andrew Egger
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  • news

    Federal Officials Delayed San Bernardino Terrorist Attack Probe
    A new report from the Department of Homeland Security inspector general concludes that the field office director at the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services “improperly delayed” investigators from Immigration and Customs Enforcement from conducting a “lawful and routine law enforcement action” after the San Bernardino terrorist attack last December. Inspector General John Roth conducted the investigation…
    Sharyl Attkisson
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  • opinion

    How NDAA Could Impact US Missile Defense
    The U.S. House of Representatives recently took a first step to enact the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2017 into law. The bill is one of the major congressional vehicles to advance policies related to U.S. national security issues. The NDAA advances several important nuclear weapons and missile defense policy positions….
    Michaela Dodge
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  • news

    He Blew the Whistle on a Global Financial Firm, Then Broke Open Swiss Bank Secrecy
    This Sunday on “Full Measure,” we have the incredible story of a whistleblower sent to prison after turning evidence against one of the biggest and most secretive banks in the world. Released from prison four years ago, Bradley Birkenfeld is a wealthy man thanks to a record $104 million settlement paid to him by the U.S….
    Sharyl Attkisson
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  • news

    Senator Urges Privatizing Airport Security to Get Around TSA’s ‘Huge Bureaucracy’
    With long wait lines at airports across the country, the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee is calling on the TSA to “get their act together” and consider more cost-effective and efficient options. “This has to be fixed. TSA is going to have to raise their game because you can’t have people sitting in lines…
    Kyle Stewart
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  • news

    5 Takeaways From Congress’ TSA Hearing
    As security wait times reach all-time highs at airports across the country, the Transportation Security Administration administrator was brought before a House committee. TSA Administrator Peter V. Neffenger testified before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday morning to address his agency’s critics and propose solutions. Here are the highlights from “Long Lines, Short…
    Andrew Egger
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  • opinion

    Ben Rhodes Proves the National Security Council Needs to Be Reformed
    Recent remarks by Deputy National Security Advisor Ben Rhodes to the New York Times shows us that the National Security Council (NSC) as an institution is urgently in need of an overhaul. Rhodes, who handles the president’s strategic communications, takes pride in how he sold the Iran nuclear deal to the American press. In the absence…
    Helle Dale
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  • opinion

    3 Ways TSA Could Improve Wait Times
    We’ve all had to awkwardly stand in line at airport security as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) herds hundreds of passengers to departure gates. Long lines only add to the already stressful event of flying. Our current airport security process has become a running joke (along with long waits at the DMV or the “simplicity” of doing…
    Riley Walters
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  • opinion

    China’s Challenge to International Cybersecurity
    Chinese activities in cyberspace regularly garner a great deal of attention. Chinese hackers have been accused of stealing millions of records from U.S. government databases, such as the Office of Personnel Management, as well as various corporations. Chinese leadership sees information as inextricably linked to not only the broader national interest, but also to regime…
    Dean Cheng
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  • opinion

    6 Facts Highlight Why We Need to Rebuild Our Military
    The U.S. military seems to be breaking. Senior military leaders have made dire statements before Congress, and story after story is revealing the potentially deadly challenges facing our men and women in uniform. As Congress considers the annual defense authorization bill, here are six clear, real-world examples of why Congress needs to use the defense…
    Justin Johnson
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