Intelligence Archive

The composition of a U.S. president’s national security team is always important, but it is particularly so for Donald Trump. Most recent U.S. presidents took office with some experience at policymaking and international affairs, and with ties to their party’s foreign and national security policy experts. Trump did not. This is one reason that getting his people in place is taking so long. Of the 549 senior government positions that require Senate confirmation, 14 of Trump’s nominees have been confirmed, and 20 are awaiting confirmation. No one has yet been named for the remaining 515 slots. That said, Trump did […]

MARRAKECH, Morocco—Tensions among governments over how to prevent terrorism are evident, from the confusion over U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to clamp down on migration to disputes between neighbors in Europe, the Middle East and Africa over border controls. But the will to cooperate is strong. The challenges center around mismatches in legal authorities and capabilities, and the ever-changing nature of the enemy. Both trends were on display at the annual Marrakech Security Forum this past week, where security officials and experts from Arab, African and European countries gathered to discuss the obstacles they face, but also the progress they’ve […]

The U.S. war in Laos began in early 1961, when President Dwight Eisenhower, on one of his last days in office, approved a paramilitary CIA mission known as Operation Momentum to arm the ethnic Hmong population against communist forces. Under Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon, the proxy war grew to become the largest CIA paramilitary operation in U.S. history. In his new book, “A Great Place to Have a War: America in Laos and the Birth of a Military CIA,” drawing on declassified CIA files and interviews with key players, Joshua Kurlantzick reframes the Laos war […]