‘Equating Abundance With Stability’ Is an Existential Threat to the U.S. Food System

Agricultural Scientist Molly Jahn Explains How Our Food Supply Became a National Security Problem

Agricultural scientist Molly Jahn started her career inventing new varieties of squashes and melons. But that work led her to wonder and worry about the security of our global food supply in the face of changing climate, growing population, and new forms of war. Eventually, Jahn realized that the long-term food security of the nation was not assured—and that no one at the highest level of government was working on the problem.

Jahn, who is currently a project manager at DARPA, visited Zócalo on Tuesday with Issues in Science and Technology …

After a Historic Election, Asha Rangappa Looks Ahead | Zocalo Public Square • Arizona State University • Smithsonian

After a Historic Election, Asha Rangappa Looks Ahead

The Yale Legal Scholar Talks 11th-Hour Declassifications, Special Prosecutors, and the Damage Done to America’s National Security Institutions

The title question for Zócalo’s event—“What Do We Do Now?,” posed just days after the historic presidential election of 2020 was finally decided—is also the last line of a 1972 …

Can Spies Be Ethical?

In an Age of Terrorists, Agents for Liberal Democracies Must Balance the Need to Stop Bad Actors With Moral Responsibility

Codes of ethics help define our expectations of the professions. Teachers should not seduce their students; fund managers should not embezzle clients’ money; doctors should not harm patients. So too, …

Why Taiwan Would Be Better Off Neutral

A Citizen of Switzerland and Sweden Argues That a Stance of Non-Aggression Can Protect Small, Vulnerable Democracies

How can Taiwan best defend its democracy from the explicit threats of mainland China—and the security machinations of great powers in the Pacific?

Neutrality might be the answer.

I was born and …

The New Deal Origins of Homeland Security

During FDR’s Administration, the First Lady and the Mayor of New York Clashed Over Guns, Butter, and American Liberalism

Ever since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Americans have faced a set of seemingly unprecedented national security challenges and anxieties. Our society has been consumed with debates …

Reforms at Home, and Abroad

Hao Wu on the Promise of Transformation in China and Kevin Bankston and Rebecca MacKinnon on Curbing the NSA

Documentarian and New America fellow Hao Wu explains to Anne-Marie Slaughter why the Chinese government has announced a recent slew of economic and social reforms. But he’s not sure they’ll …