research paper topic national security

Journal of National Security Law & Policy

Counterterrorism & Countering Violent Extremism

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National & International Security

Articles & reports, arms & expenditures, armed conflict & terrorism, think tanks, hot topic: ukraine.

• Books on the Ukraine-Russia Crisis
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Harvard Kennedy School Research Guides

Other research guides.

• Lawfare A blog dedicated to national security issues, published by the Lawfare Institute in cooperation with the Brookings Institution.
• Politico Pro (Harvard Login) In depth news and analysis on current issues before Congress with extra subscriber-only content. Includes defense and cybersecurity news pages.
• Just Security National security blog with numerous contributors.
• Foreign Policy (Harvard Login) Leading magazine for in-depth analysis of U.S. foreign policy, and relations with Russia, North Korea, the Middle East and Europe.Direct link to site's security channel.
• Oxford Handbook on International Security (Harvard Login) The 48 essays collected in this Handbook use such questions to provide a tour of the most innovative and exciting new areas of research as well as major developments in established lines of inquiry in international security studies.
• Oxford Handbook on US National Security (Harvard Login) Contributors include senior practitioners in US national security institutions and top academics in the field. Essays are geared toward both scholars within academia as well as graduate students in practitioner-oriented programs.
• Research Handbook on the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy (Harvard Login) Examines the law, policy and practice of the EU’s Common Foreign and Security Policy, including the Common Security and Defence, and gauges its interactions with the other external policies of the Union (including trade, development, energy), as well as the evolving political and economic challenges that face the European Union.
• Routledge Handbook of Deradicalisation and Disengagement (Harvard Login)
• DTIC Online A searchable database for the full-text of U.S Department of Defense research publications. Includes technical reports, dissertations and Congressional testimony.
• Military & Government Collection (Harvard Login) Provides full text access to more than 300 journals on military and government topics.
• ProQuest Military Database (Harvard Login) Includes scholarly and trade publications covering a wide range of topics, from military technology and armaments to defense policy, national and international security, counterterrorism, etc.
• Oxford Bibliographies (Harvard Login) Recent articles written by academic experts, with commentary and annotations on a variety of international and national security topics.
• US Department of State,Country Reports on Terrorism Annual report on trends and events in international terrorism that occur in individual countries.
• National Academies Press Published reports by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. Includes large selection of security topics.
• East View Russia Military and Security Periodicals Russian defense and security journals from official and independent sources. Eastview also includes the leading English language Russian defense journal, Moscow Defense Brief
• U.S Declassified Documents (Harvard Login) The majority of these documents are presidential records and all of them were formerly classified. They provide a unique, behind-the-scenes view of the highest level of American policymaking on the most sensitive issues of national security and foreign policy.
• Digital National Security Archive (Harvard Login) Over 43,000 of the most important declassified documents that led to key policy decisions in the post-World War II era.
• Homeland Security Digital Library (Harvard Login) Access to U.S. policy documents, presidential directives, and national strategy documents.
• US Department of Defense Archives Includes speeches, press releases, stories, contracts and other publications dating back to the mid 1990s.

Statistics & Data

• DoD Budget Request Materials The Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller's) budget materials site provides detailed documentation for the current and past DoD budget requests, including the National Defense Budget Estimates from 1998 to present (the "Green Book").
• Global Firepower rankings Commercial site that ranks countries by each nation's war-making capabilities.
• Military Balance (Harvard Login) Published by the IISS, the Military Balance is the annual assessment of the military capabilities and defense economics of 170 countries world-wide, produced annually by the IISS since 1961.
• SIPRI Military Expenditure Database Military expenditure data based on open sources only, including a SIPRI questionnaire which is sent out annually to all participating countries.
• SIPRI Yearbook: World Armaments and Disarmament (Print Only) This annual yearbook is a compendium of data and analysis in the areas of: security and conflicts, military spending and armaments and non-proliferation, arms control and disarmament.
• Small Arms Survey Includes the following data on global violent deaths,global firearms holdings, peace operations data set, small arms trade transparency barometer and unplanned explosions at munitions sites
• United Nations Report on Military Expenditures Searchable database of military expenditures by country.
• World Military Expenditures and Arms Transfers (WMEAT) Annual publication from the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance that provides statistical information and in-depth analysis on military expenditures, arms transfers, armed forces, and related economic data for each country of the world. Reports issued under previous administrations can be found in the "archived reports" section; most recently: 2017-2021 , 2009-2017 .
• Correlates of War Project Includes datasets on international relations topics, including international conflict, militarized international disputes, bilateral trade, and diplomatic exchanges.
• CPOST Suicide Attack Database Comprises the most complete and comprehensive list of suicide attacks since 1980. Hosted by University of Chicago's Project on Security & Terrorism.
• Global Terrorism Database Hosted by University of Maryland, an open-source database that includes information on terrorist events around the world. Includes data on domestic, transnational and international terrorist incidents.
• Terrorism & Preparedness Data Resource Center ICPSR-hosted archive containing data about terrorism, homeland security and government preparedness issues. Includes Terrorism and Preparedness Survey Archive with data from relevant surveys conducted around the world.
• World Handbook of Political Indicators A set of country-level measures of contentious political events. Covers 231 countries and territories using 40 event forms to identify 263,912 events. Political events are identified by searching Reuters news wire stories.

Organizations

• Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich An online library that specifically focuses on international relations and security studies. The library now includes approximately 75,000 open source books, chapters, articles, reports, transcripts, etc. Hosted by Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich
• Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments Think tank with detailed reports on national security strategy, defense planning and military investment options for the 21st century.
• Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) One of top US think tanks on national security and international relations.
• Federation of American Scientists Contains CRS reports, issue briefs and other publications on national and international security issues connected to applied science and technology.
• HKS Library Think Tank Search A Google Custom Search of nearly 700 think tanks and research center websites.
• International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) British research institute with a focus on international security and international relations.
• James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) Largest non-governmental organization in the United States devoted exclusively to research and training on nonproliferation issues.
• National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism A university-based research center committed to the scientific study of the causes and human consequences of terrorism in the United States and across the globe.
• Rand Corporation A non-profit research think tank that publishes over 17,000 reports dating from 1948. Topics include criminal justice, national security, terrorism and international affairs.

For context on the current crisis in Ukraine, here are a few resources: 

Articles and Reports

• HKS Insights and Analysis on the Russia-Ukraine War Read what Harvard Kennedy School faculty members and other experts are saying about the Russia-Ukraine war. From geopolitics to sanctions to the role of misinformation and cyberattacks, HKS scholars analyze the Russian invasion of Ukraine and what it means for the world.
• Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute The website of HURI features extensive information on Ukraine, both historical and contemporary, including MAPA: Digital Atlas of Ukraine and a dedicated page with background and updates on Russia's War on Ukraine .
• Congressional Research Service: Reports on Ukraine This links to a search for constantly updated research and analysis on Ukraine by CRS researchers.
• EastView Universal Databases (Harvard Login) This collection of databases covers news, scholarly periodicals, and a wealth of primary sources on Russia, Ukraine, and other former Soviet republics, including the Ukrainian National Bibliography .
• EMIS (Harvard Login) This database contains market research, company research, as well as economic information on emerging markets, including up-to-date information on Ukraine, Russia, and other parts of Eastern Europe.
• American Bibliography of Slavic and East European Studies (ABSEES) (Harvard Login) This database indexes English-language humanities and social science scholarship on Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, starting in 1989.
• Historical Abstracts (Harvard Login) This database surveys scholarship on world history from 1450 to the present and has excellent coverage of the history of Eastern Europe in a variety of languages.

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Digital National Security Archive  (available on campus or remotely with ASURITE) The Digital National Security Archive database provides primary source material related to twentieth and twenty-first century history, politics, and international relations. The digitized documents are made available in over 40 topic-based collections.

Defense Technical Information Center The Defense Technical Information Center, from the Department of Defense (DoD), is a searchable database for the full-text of DoD research publications. The database includes technical reports, dissertations, and Congressional testimony.

Foreign Intelligence Law Collection - Georgetown University Law Library The Foreign Intelligence Law Collection at Georgetown University is a  searchable digital repository of foreign intelligence-related statutory and regulatory instruments, legislative histories, publicly available and declassified opinions and orders issued by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC) and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review ( FISCR); reports, correspondence, and an annotated bibliography of secondary sources related to foreign intelligence law.

Global Terrorism Database  This open source database provides information on terrorism events from 1970 forward. Published by the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) at the University of Maryland.

Homeland Security Digital Library  The Homeland Security Digital Library ( HSDL ) is a collection of documents related to homeland security policy, strategy, and organizational management. The HSDL is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's National Preparedness Directorate, FEMA and the Naval Postgraduate School Center for Homeland Defense and Security. 

Military & Government Collection  (available on campus or remotely with  ASURITE ) Designed to offer current news pertaining to all branches of the military and government, this database offers a thorough collection of periodicals, academic journals, and other content pertinent to the increasing needs of those sites. The Military & Government Collection provides cover-to-cover full text for nearly 300 journals and periodicals and indexing and abstracts for more than 400 titles.

National Security Archive    George Washington University - Gelman Library in Washington, D.C. houses the National Security Archive, a repository for declassified documents obtained from the U.S. government through Freedom of Information Act requests.

U.S. Declassified Documents Online  (available on campus or remotely with ASURITE) Includes full text of declassified U.S. government documents. Covers nearly every major foreign and domestic event from the end of World War II through the 1970s: the Cold War, Vietnam, foreign policy shifts, the civil rights movement, etc

U.S. Department of Defense This Department of Defense (DoD) webpage provides access to speeches, press release, articles, contracts, and other DoD publications dating back to the mid-1990s.

U.S. Department of State Country Reports on Terrorism The State Department provides Congress with an annual report on terrorism for all countries that meet guidelines set by law. The full-text of these reports are available on State Department's website.

Bloomberg Homeland Security Briefing  (Bloomberg Law password required) The Homeland Security Briefing is published each business day on Bloomberg Law; it provides information on significant federal and state actions related to security and anti-terrorist policies.

Bloomberg Privacy & Security Law Report  (Bloomberg Law password required) The Privacy and Security Law Report on Bloomberg Law is published weekly; it offers coverage of legal, regulatory, legislative, and judicial news in the privacy and security fields.

Just Security The Just Security blog is based at the  Reiss  Center on Law and Security at New York University School of Law. It publishes articles and commentary from a variety fo contributors on national security topics.

Lawfare The  Lawfare  blog was started in 2010 by academics  Benjamin  Wittes ,  Robert Chesney , and  Jack Goldsmith . Content on the blog focuses on "that nebulous zone in which actions taken or contemplated to protect the nation interact with the nation’s laws and legal institutions."

Harvard National Security Journal The Harvard National Security Journal is a student-edited online journal dedicated to improving scholarship and discourse in the field of national security. It is available through HeinOnline  (2010- current),  Lexis (2010-current), and  Westlaw  (2010-current).

Journal of Law & Cyberwarfare The Journal of Law & Cyber Warfare is a peer-reviewed journal that publishes articles authored by business, legal, and military professionals concerning the legal issues businesses and governments arising out of cyber attacks or acts of cyber war. It is available through  Westlaw  (2012-current).

National Security Law Brief The National Security Law Brief is a student-run publication from the American University Washington College of Law. The Brief publishes articles on "the legal dimensions of United States national security law and policy." It is available through  HeinOnline  (2010-current).

National Security Law Journal The National Security Law Journal is published by the Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University. It publishes articles on national security law, including topics relating to foreign affairs, intelligence, and national defense. The journal is available through HeinOnline (2013-current), Lexis (2013-current), and Westlaw (2013-current).

There are a number of treatises in the Law Library collection related to administrative law. You can search for relevant books in the ASU Library catalog  by using the subject headings  National security -- Law and legislation -- United States and   United States -- Foreign relations -- Law and legislation .

Guide to Homeland Security (2019) This two-volume treatise provides coverage of acts and regulations related to homeland security. The title is available on Westlaw as an ebook (Westlaw password required).

National Security Investigations and Prosecutions  (David Kris and J. Douglas Wilson, 2019) National Security Investigations and Prosecutions presents the law governing, and related to, national security investigations (NSIs). These investigations are conducted by the United States government to acquire information about foreign threats to the national security. This title is available on  Westlaw  as an ebook (Westlaw password required).

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Viewing 1 - 10 of 308 books in Military and Defense Studies

Emerging Science and Technology to Address Naval Undersea Medicine Needs: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief  (2024)

Integration Readiness Levels: Assessing Their Potential for Speeding Technology into the Soldier's Hands: Proceedings of a Workshop–in Brief  (2024)

Chemical Terrorism: Assessment of U.S. Strategies in the Era of Great Power Competition  (2024)

Nuclear Terrorism: Assessment of U.S. Strategies to Prevent, Counter, and Respond to Weapons of Mass Destruction  (2024)

Risk Analysis Methods for Nuclear War and Nuclear Terrorism: Phase II (Expanded Abbreviated Report of the CUI Version)  (2024)

Risk Analysis Methods for Nuclear War and Nuclear Terrorism: Phase II (Abbreviated Report of the CUI Version)  (2023)

Test and Evaluation Challenges in Artificial Intelligence-Enabled Systems for the Department of the Air Force  (2023)

Nuclear Proliferation and Arms Control Monitoring, Detection, and Verification: A National Security Priority: Summary of the Final Report  (2023)

Risk Analysis Methods for Nuclear War and Nuclear Terrorism  (2023)

Testing, Evaluating, and Assessing Artificial Intelligence–Enabled Systems Under Operational Conditions for the Department of the Air Force: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief  (2023)

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Defense & National Security

Nato seen favorably in member states; confidence in zelenskyy down in europe, u.s..

NATO is seen more positively than not across 13 member states. And global confidence in Ukraine’s leader has become more mixed since last year.

How Americans and Israelis view one another and the U.S. role in the Israel-Hamas war

Americans and Israelis now see one another’s leaders more negatively than in the recent past, and other key views have shifted as well.

A growing share of Americans have little or no confidence in Netanyahu

The share of Americans who have no confidence in Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has increased 11 percentage points since 2023.

Rising Numbers of Americans Say Jews and Muslims Face a Lot of Discrimination

40% of U.S. adults say there’s a lot of discrimination against Jews in society, and 44% say there’s a lot of discrimination against Muslims.

Younger Americans stand out in their views of the Israel-Hamas war

33% of adults under 30 say their sympathies lie either entirely or mostly with the Palestinian people, while 14% say their sympathies lie with the Israeli people.

How U.S. Muslims are experiencing the Israel-Hamas war

Seven-in-ten Muslim Americans say they think discrimination against Muslims has risen in the United States since the Israel-Hamas war began.

How U.S. Jews are experiencing the Israel-Hamas war

Nine-in-ten American Jews say they think discrimination against Jews has risen in the United States since the Israel-Hamas war began.

Majority in U.S. Say Israel Has Valid Reasons for Fighting; Fewer Say the Same About Hamas

57% of Americans express some sympathy with both Israelis and Palestinians, including 26% who say their sympathies lie equally with both groups.

State of the Union 2024: Where Americans stand on the economy, immigration and other key issues

Ahead of President Joe Biden’s third State of the Union address Americans are focused on the health of the economy and immigration.

How Americans view the conflicts between Russia and Ukraine, Israel and Hamas, and China and Taiwan

74% of Americans view the war between Russia and Ukraine as important to U.S. national interests – with 43% describing it as very important.

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The National Security Consequences of the Major Questions Doctrine

Michigan Law Review, Vol. 122, 2023

Duke Law School Public Law & Legal Theory Series No. 2022-43

Vanderbilt Law Research Paper No. 22-30

43 Pages Posted: 7 Aug 2022 Last revised: 21 Apr 2024

Timothy Meyer

Duke University School of Law

Ganesh Sitaraman

Vanderbilt Law School

Date Written: November 4, 2023

The rise of the major questions doctrine—the rule that says that in order to delegate to the executive branch the power to resolve a “question of ‘deep economic and political significance’ that is central to [a] statutory scheme,” Congress must do so expressly—threatens to unmake the modern executive’s authority over foreign affairs, especially in matters of national security and interstate conflict. In the 21st century, global conflicts increasingly involve economic warfare, rather than (or in addition to) the force of arms. In the United States, the executive power to levy economic sanctions and engage in other forms of economic warfare are generally based on extremely broad delegations of authority from Congress. The major questions doctrine (MQD) threatens the ability to fight modern conflicts for two reasons. First, classic national security-related conflicts—wars of territorial conquest, terrorism, nuclear proliferation—increasingly are met with economic measures. But the statutes that authorize economic warfare actions are incredibly broad and recent administrations have interpreted these statutes in ways that risk running afoul of an expansive and free-form MQD. Second, “foreign affairs exceptionalism,” in which the Court decides not to apply the MQD to statutes involving foreign affairs, is not likely to work well as a response because what is “foreign” and “domestic” cannot be easily distinguished and attempts to do so will have perverse consequences. The most likely consequence is that if applied to economic delegations that touch foreign commerce, the MQD will turn judges—and particularly lower court judges—into some of the key policymakers in shaping the future of American foreign policy and national security. This prospect should be troubling, as judges are ill-suited to be foreign policymakers.

Keywords: major questions doctrine, administrative law, national security, international trade, foreign relations law, international economic law

JEL Classification: K10, K33

Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation

Timothy Meyer (Contact Author)

Duke university school of law ( email ).

210 Science Drive Box 90362 Durham, NC 27708 United States

Vanderbilt Law School ( email )

Nashville, TN 37240 United States

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Does Income Affect Health? Evidence from a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Guaranteed Income

This paper provides new evidence on the causal relationship between income and health by studying a randomized experiment in which 1,000 low-income adults in the United States received $1,000 per month for three years, with 2,000 control participants receiving $50 over that same period. The cash transfer resulted in large but short-lived improvements in stress and food security, greater use of hospital and emergency department care, and increased medical spending of about $20 per month in the treatment relative to the control group. Our results also suggest that the use of other office-based care—particularly dental care—may have increased as a result of the transfer. However, we find no effect of the transfer across several measures of physical health as captured by multiple well-validated survey measures and biomarkers derived from blood draws. We can rule out even very small improvements in physical health and the effect that would be implied by the cross-sectional correlation between income and health lies well outside our confidence intervals. We also find that the transfer did not improve mental health after the first year and by year 2 we can again reject very small improvements. We also find precise null effects on self-reported access to health care, physical activity, sleep, and several other measures related to preventive care and health behaviors. Our results imply that more targeted interventions may be more effective at reducing health inequality between high- and low-income individuals, at least for the population and time frame that we study.

Many people were instrumental in the success of this project. The program we study and the associated research were supported by generous private funding sources, and we thank the non-profit organizations that implemented the program. We are grateful to Jake Cosgrove, Leo Dai, Joshua Lin, Anthony McCanny, Ethan Sansom, Kevin Didi, Sophia Scaglioni, Oliver Scott Pankratz, Angela Wang-Lin, Jill Adona, Oscar Alonso, Rashad Dixon, Marc-Andrea Fiorina, Ricardo Robles, Jack Bunge, Isaac Ahuvia, and Francisco Brady, all of whom provided excellent research assistance. Alex Nawar, Sam Manning, Elizabeth Proehl, Tess Cotter, Karina Dotson, and Aristia Kinis were invaluable contributors through their work at OpenResearch. Carmelo Barbaro, Janelle Blackwood, Katie Buitrago, Melinda Croes, Crystal Godina, Kelly Hallberg, Kirsten Jacobson, Timi Koyejo, Misuzu Schexnider, and the staff of the Inclusive Economy Lab at the University of Chicago more broadly have provided key support throughout all stages of the project. Kirsten Herrick provided help with the nutrition diary data collection effort of this project. We are grateful for the feedback we received throughout the project from numerous researchers and from our advisory board, as well as useful feedback from seminar and conference participants. This study was approved by Advarra Institutional Review Board (IRB).We received funding for this paper from NIH grant 1R01HD108716-01A1. Any views expressed are those of the authors and not those of the U.S. Census Bureau. The Census Bureau has reviewed this data product to ensure appropriate access, use, and disclosure avoidance protection of the confidential source data used to produce this product. This research was performed at a Federal Statistical Research Data Center under FSRDC Project Number 3011. (CBDRB-FY24-P3011-R11537). The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

MARC RIS BibTeΧ

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King's Speech 2024: background briefing notes

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