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Item PTSD and Veterans' Benefits in the United States: A Historical Backgounder(Modern War Institute, 2018) Fazal, TanishaThat war and psychological trauma go together has always been known but not always well understood or popularly accepted. More accepted, at least in US history, has been the notion that military veterans should be thanked for their service on a long-term basis, with a system of benefits that has historically included some combination of compensation, pensions, and health care. How, though, has the veterans’ benefits system dealt with veterans who suffer from war-induced psychological trauma—some version of what is today called post-traumatic stress disorder—over time? This report provides a brief overview of the history of how the US military and veterans’ benefits programs have approached war-induced psychological trauma, with the aim of raising questions about both the causes and the consequences of these changes.Item Play to Win: Sticking to a Playbook in the Competition with Russia(Modern War Institute, 2019) Fust, GeorgeRussia docks a warship in Havana knowing it will provoke a response from the United States. How dare they. The US Navy dispatched a destroyer to shadow the vessel; after all, the United States has the Monroe doctrine to enforce. A few weeks prior, Russia sent around a hundred troops to Venezuela. This also provoked a response, albeit rhetorical. Despite these US reactions, Russia continues to play strategic games.Item Extending the American Century: Revisiting the Social Contract(Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, 2019) Matisek, Jahara; Robison, Travis; Jayamaha, BuddhikaAs the guns fell silent at the end of World War I, the US could no longer deny its great power status. Though abdicating the responsibilities inherent to this status during the interwar years, the US eventually fought on a global scale again during World War II. The conclusion of this conflict ushered the beginning of the Cold War and what came to be called the "American Century." The United States' efforts during the Cold War focused on protecting itself and its allies without compromising America's democratic system, values, and ideals.1 The US was generally successful at achieving these ends.2 Following the Cold War, the US enjoyed a brief period of primacy. The US was the sole global hegemon and exerted its ideological, political, economic, and military might to expand the world order it created after World War II. Three decades after the Cold War ended, American primacy is eroding and its influence is contested by revisionist powers. America's combat credibility is not in question, and rising powers could only threaten US leadership if American power is weakened on an absolute basis. The true challenge to continuing 21st-century American leadership therefore comes from within.Item REAL RISKS: UNDERSTANDING—AND MITIGATING— VULNERABILITIES IN THE MILITARY USE OF AI(Modern War Institute, 2022) Starck, Nick; Bierbrauer, David; Maxwell, PaulNo one likes to wake up in the morning, but now that artificial intelligence–powered algorithms set our alarms, manage the temperature settings in our homes, and select playlists to match our moods, snooze buttons are used less and less. AI safety-assist systems make our vehicles safer and AI algorithms optimize police patrols to make the neighborhoods we drive through, and live in, safer as well. All around us, AI is there, powering the tools and devices that shape our environment, augment and assist us in our daily routines, and nudge us to make choices about what to eat, wear, and purchase— with and without our consent. However, AI is also there when our smart devices start deciding who among us is suspicious, when a marginalized community is disproportionately targeted for police patrols, and when a self-driving car kills a jaywalker.Item YOU CAN’T SURGE TRUST: LESSONS ON WORKING WITH ALLIES AND PARTNERS(USMA, 2019) Fust, George“My hands are freezing,” I thought as I cradled my cold rifle while trudging along toward the objective. It was also too dark and foggy to see beyond a few feet and the calf-deep mud I kept slipping in only reinforced the debate I was having in my head over my poor life choices. “Could this get any worse?” My experience in the Army proved time and again that it could. My empty stomach was only interrupted by the drowsiness that missing two nights of sleep could produce. I had to stay alert, however. My soldiers were relying on me. I was also wearing a US flag on my right sleeve and the Romanian soldiers attached to us were watching and judging.