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In their new book, Andrew Hoehn and Thom Shanker argue that America has entered an age of danger that may come to rival anything in its history. They explain why the national security system needs an overhaul as we face a growing array of threats, from cyber attacks to climate change.

Mitigating the effects of climate change will require a whole-of-government approach and a redefinition of national security to embrace a more panoramic set of risks. Government officials are saying lots of the right things. But is it being done, and done quickly enough?

A new U.S. grand strategy has been emerging, one that requires not only resources but patience and commitment: the promotion of democracy and freedom abroad. The U.S. armed forces will continue to be among the myriad contributors necessary to achieve this goal. In the face of increasing complexity, changing tactics, and tight budgets, the defense establishment will need to change in multiple ways, yet must also not risk its historic strengths. This volume draws together and integrates insights derived from a wide range of research efforts undertaken at RAND over the past few years. Some of the

Before Donald H. Rumsfeld entered his second tenure as Secretary of Defense in 2001, the selection of senior U.S. military officers for top-ranking positions within the Department of Defense (DoD) was largely decided within the uniformed services, and the Secretary of Defense did not typically challenge the recommendations. However, to support his goal of transforming the defense establishment, Rumsfeld decided to become personally involved in the selection process. Rumsfeld's changes resulted in a process that featured long-term succession planning, identified qualifications for senior positions, built a slate of highly qualified officers, and sought to arrive at a series of "best fit" decisions for the top military positions. The process also focused on planning for the future by identifying highly capable leaders and associating them with a series of assignments that would prepare them for the top military positions. When Rumsfeld left DoD in 2006, parts of the process he developed were retained, and others were changed significantly or discarded. The process has continued to evolve, at times rekindling some of the efforts Rumsfeld initiated but reshaping them to suit the leadership style of current DoD officials. The authors review senior leader selection and succession planning in general, describe the process developed by Rumsfeld, and investigate how the process evolved after Rumsfeld left office. In conclusion, they identify key system attributes that future DoD officials should consider as they contemplate how senior officer selection and assignments will be managed

The United States has never invoked a ten-year rule regarding preparations for long-term military competition with China, as Great Britain did after World War I. But there have been times when the United States has behaved as if such a rule were in place.

The more we learn about the war in Ukraine, the more we come to know that drones will play an increasingly important role on the modern battlefield. But how is the U.S. military thinking about what role these aircraft might play in future wars? When paired with modern sensors, could they offer an asymmetric advantage in future competitions?

The recent NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, left the world asking a hard question: "Are we in a new Cold War with Russia?" Our answer is to a different, and harder, and more important question: Is Russia already at war with the West?

NATO's success in Afghanistan--or lack thereof--will have significant implications for the alliance itself. Success could promote the image of a capable global security alliance. Failure, or even an indeterminate outcome, would cloud the alliance's own future. The authors examine the risks, commitments, and obligations of the current mission in light of NATO's history and with an eye toward the future, as well as the effects on the alliance's internal dynamics. Drawing on a wide range of sources, the authors describe how NATO came to be involved, concerns and tensions that have developed over the investments and risks that member and nonmember states have in the operation, management of the expectations of nations and peoples, and the need for a coherent, comprehensive, and coordinated long-term strategy. The list of issues NATO faces is long and daunting and extends beyond the borders of the member countries. If the goal is indeed to look toward the future, however, the alliance must confront them; failure to do so would risk the long-term success and sustainability of the alliance

During the last years a great range of computer aided tools has been generated to support the development process of various products. The goal of a continuous data flow, needed for high efficiency, requires powerful standards for the data exchange. At the FZG (Gear Research Centre) of the Technical University of Munich there was a need for a common gear data format for data exchange between gear calculation programs. The STEP standard ISO 10303 was developed for this type of purpose, but a suitable definition of gear data was still missing, even in the Application Protocol AP 214, developed for the design process in the automotive industry. The creation of a new STEP Application Protocol or the extension of existing protocol would be a very time consumpting normative process. So a new method was introduced by FZG. Some very general definitions of an Application Protocol (here AP 214) were used to determine rules for an exact specification of the required kind of data. In this case a product model for gear units was defined based on elements of the AP 214. Therefore no change of the Application Protocol is necessary. Meanwhile the product model for gear units has been published as a VDMA paper and successfully introduced for data exchange within the German gear industry associated with FVA (German Research Organisation for Gears and Transmissions). This method can also be adopted for other applications not yet sufficiently defined by STEP.