How to Prevent the Next Edward Snowden

Intelligence Re-Reform

Sue Mi Terry
How to Prevent the Next Edward Snowden
Snowden and Obama make the front pages of newspapers in Hong Kong. (Reuters)
If the case of Edward Snowden -- the former contractor for the National Security Agency who smuggled classified information out of his workplace and provided it to news organizations -- has revealed anything, it is that the U.S. intelligence services made mistakes as they reformed after 9/11 and the Iraq war. Here is how to fix them.
Snapshot

Why Rouhani Won...

Suzanne Maloney
... and why Khamenei let him.
Snapshot

Defending Data at the VA

Daniel E. Geer, Jr. and Peter L. Levin
The controversy about an alleged breach of personal data at the Department of Veterans Affairs ignores the harsh realities of cybercrime. Rather than expecting network defenses to protect it against every possible attack, the United States needs to learn to isolate different cybersecurity problems and focus on what matters.
Capsule Review

Today's Book: Blowtorch

Lawrence D. Freedman
Perhaps the most lasting insights into counterinsurgency come from the career of a civilian: Robert Komer, an NSC staffer in the Johnson administration who was famed as a tough bureaucratic operator, hence his nickname, Blowtorch Bob.
Snapshot
The Turkish Media’s Darkest Hour
Piotr Zalewski

As protests have raged in Istanbul and across Turkey these last two weeks, the press has rolled over and deferred to the ruling party -- a new low point for the country already known as the world’s top jailer of journalists.
Snapshot
Iranian Foreign Policy After the Election
Farideh Farhi and Saideh Lotfian

As Iranians head to the polls, much of the world is focused on the country’s domestic politics not on how how the vote will change its foreign policy. Even so, the election has exposed the range of choices that is available to decision-makers and the political limits that are placed on those choices.
Essay
Syria's Collapse
Andrew J. Tabler

To stop Syria’s meltdown and contain its mushrooming threats, the United States should launch a partial military intervention aimed at pushing all sides to the negotiating table.
Snapshot
Energy and American Power
Tom Donilon

When U.S. President Barack Obama took office, the country’s energy future would have been listed among its liabilities. That is no longer the case.
Snapshot
Meet the Mattes
Roland Benedikter and Katja Siepmann

Viewed from the outside, Chile seems to deserve its reputation as a rising economic star. From the inside, though, the picture is less cheery. The tale of a powerful Chilean family that owns one of the largest paper companies in Latin America embodies that tension -- and the ambiguity between the country’s bright economic growth and its lackluster social and political development.
Snapshot
Triumph in Taksim Square?
Emiliano Alessandri, Nora Fisher Onar, and Ozgur Unluhisarcikli

The protesters remaining in Istanbul's Taksim Square have already won a victory of sorts: they have likely derailed Prime Minister Reccep Tayyip Erdogan's plans to transform Turkey into a presidential system with himself as its all-powerful leader.

Books & Reviews

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In the Magazine

Table of contents
May/June 2013, 3, 92
Comment
Regulatory MoneyballPremium Article available to subscribers and site license holders.
Cass R. Sunstein

Government regulators should take their cues from the statistics-obsessed sports geeks of Moneyball and use data and empirical evidence to evaluate rules, instead of relying heavily on intuition, anecdotes, dogmas, and impressions.

Discussion