Topic: Foreign Policy

Can the Pentagon Lead the Tech Sector Again?

Can the Pentagon Lead the Tech Sector Again?

Silicon Valley was built on defense dollars, but bureaucracy and a rise of Big Tech and startups have left the U.S. military behind in defense acquisitions.

A Fake Raid, A Fake Village, and a Sinking Track

"We’re piled on top of each other at 15, sometimes 20 at a time, in a vehicle built for 12." A Marine reflects on a narrow escape at sea.

Betrayal, Sedatives, and the Long Road Home

The Army had been her life until it turned into her enemy. A former combat medic reflects on the ultimate betrayal of giving her all in service and feeling abandoned in return.
A burn pit in Balad, Iraq. Photo courtesy of Dan Clare

Burn Pits—The Military’s Next Agent Orange

Burn pits have been poisoning soldiers serving in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 11 years. But Veterans Affairs seems reluctant to do anything about it.

The Coast Guard, a Rubber Dinghy, and Plucking “Fleeing Souls”

Sarah Holzhalb wonders if the migrants she and her Coast Guard boat scooped out of the water are alive today, and what lives they returned to.
The al-Shaymeh Education Complex for Girls after it was struck by missiles fired by the Saudi Arabia-led coalition. Hodeidah, Yemen. November 9, 2015. Photo Courtesy Amnesty International

“No One Is Winning”—U.S. War in Yemen “Fundamentally a Stalemate”

Tangled alliances with allies and their foes make this one messy war.

“Wars Are Real, Bullets Can Kill.”—Recalling the Death of My Invincibility

A Marine officer reflects on his youthful fearlessness—and its end.