The United States cannot deter what it cannot detect. Two decades of twenty-first-century national security policies and strategies identify homeland defense as the top priority. Despite commitment...
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Shield Notes
A joint project by the Modern War Institute at West Point and the Homeland Defense Institute at the US Air Force Academy to identify, explore, and advance our understanding of the challenges of homeland defense.
Homeland Defense in the Information Space: Learning from Russian Influence Campaigns in Eastern Europe
On August 23, 2021, unknown organizers coordinated the “Baltic Way 2021” celebration to mark thirty years of freedom in the Baltic states, with advertising across social media promoting it. However,...
From Little Green Men to Little Blue Helmets: Imagining the Future of Russian Aggression—and What to Do About It
The Russian bear isn’t going to wear the same outfit the next time it decides to invade another neighbor. While Moscow used the pretext of defending ethnic Russians and peacekeepers in South Ossetia...
Extreme Takeover, Russian Edition: How to Salami Slice Off Your Own Little Piece of Europe
Real estate’s expensive these days. It doesn’t matter where you are. But if you happen to be in one of the thirty-eight countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, home...
From Kabul to Kyiv: Strengthening Deterrence Amid Questions About American Resolve
Deterrence smells like tank exhaust and feels like an earthquake. Hundreds of armored vehicles rumbled over streets, thousands of troops marched in formation, and dozens of planes flew overhead as...
America the Undefended: The Flawed Assumption at the Heart of US Homeland Defense
Just before COVID-19 shuttered the world, I submitted an essay to a publication. The editor kindly dismissed the essay in large part over my inclusion of one historical fact about New Zealand. I had...
Sending in the Troops: The Kerner Report, Civil Unrest, and the US Military
In June 2020, scenes unfolded on American television and social media of the National Guard mobilized to the District of Columbia in response to civil unrest. I was part of that mobilization. These...
One Year Later: Reflections on My Deployment to the National Capital Region During Last Summer’s Protests
At 1400 on June 1, 2020—a year ago this week—my company was starting our weekly training meeting. The first five months of 2020 had already proved chaotic. Our battalion was activated as an...
Deterrence, Fast and Slow
Two centuries ago, Napoleon embodied warfare’s changing character. This conqueror of Europe took advantage of new ways of thinking about warfare and its organization to bend Europe to his will. Of...
What the Saudi Oilfield Strike Says about Modern Deterrence and Homeland Defense
A little over a week ago, two of Saudi Arabia’s major oil facilities, Aramco’s Abqaiq and Khurais, were hit by a series of strikes. A Houthi rebel group in Yemen (aligned with Iran) claimed...
What the Armed Forces Can, Can’t, and Might Do at the Border
President Donald Trump’s decision to deploy the military to the US southern border generated heated debate prior to this month’s midterm elections—where immigration policy continued to be a leading...
America’s Mumbai
Editor's Note: This article was originally published on October 17, 2017. It will take months, possibly years, to fully understand how the senseless attack in Las Vegas will change American...
Home Depot or Homeland Security?
After the Cold War, the Defense Department began to rely on private logistics solutions for emergencies, but there are major risks with that, writes MWI Non-Resident Fellow Max Brooks.