Trust — earning and keeping it, while treating others respectfully — is the key to effective diplomacy, as in all human relations. When trust is damaged between countries, adverse national security consequences will inexorably follow. So, it’s of great concern that our closest trading- and security partners have reasons not to trust America’s word anymore. […]
FROM: EMBASSY OF FREDONIA, WASHINGTON, D.C. TO: MFA NAGADOCHES CLASSIFICATION: CONEOFSILENCE//FREDONIAN EYES ONLY SUBJECT: SITREP 14: “ THE FREDONIA PROJECT” OBSERVATIONAL DISPATCHES FROM AMERICA IN CRISIS AUGUST 13 2025 SUMMARY: IN ACCORDANCE WITH MFA DIRECTIVE 1826-APRIL-1, THIS EMBASSY HAS INITIATED A REGULAR SERIES OF ANALYTICAL DISPATCHES REGARDING THE INTERNAL DYNAMICS OF THE UNITED STATES. THE […]
ORIGINAL LETTER Re: Concerns regarding intelligence sharing with Five Eyes Partners Dear Chairman Cotton, Vice Chairman Warner, Chairman Crawford, and Ranking Member Himes, The Steady State[1] is an association of more than 320 senior veterans from the U.S. national security, homeland security, and diplomatic communities. We have dedicated our careers to the principles of an […]
Most Americans have never heard of the Guarantee Clause. But in the wrong hands, this obscure sentence in the U.S. Constitution could become a pretext for the most serious federal overreach in our nation’s history. The “Guarantee Clause” (Article IV, Section 4) obligates the federal government to “guarantee to every State in this Union a […]
In recent months, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has joined Donald Trump, Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, and others in promoting the claim that former President Barack Obama and his senior national security officials—including James Clapper and John Brennan—weaponized the U.S. Intelligence Community (IC) to fabricate the so-called Russia collusion “hoax” and undermine […]
A recent Washington Post article describes President Donald Trump’s ‘freewheeling use of tariffs as a tool of American power,’ or a kind of Swiss Army knife of American diplomacy, as he uses the threat of punitive tariffs, not just to redress what he sometimes describes as unfair trade practices of other countries or to reduce […]
From the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, to Iranian nuclear reactors to nuclear submarines, it may be useful to have a basic understanding of The Nuclear Realm for discussion and consideration. In this series of three articles, we are attempting to demystify the core concepts and components, and distinct characteristics of both, alongside critical safety […]
We write to you as former members of the U.S. intelligence, diplomatic, defense, and national security communities—veterans of service to both Republican and Democratic administrations. We are The Steady State, a nonpartisan group of professionals who have served in the CIA, FBI, State Department, Department of Defense, NSA, DHS, and the uniformed military. Together, we […]
In modern intelligence analysis, the application of indicators to assess democratic decline or authoritarian drift is an increasingly vital function in an era of rising autocracy and democratic backsliding. While traditional warning indicators focused on military threats or coup preparations, today’s analysts often monitor a different set of political, legal, and institutional developments to detect […]
In the practice of intelligence analysis, the term “indicators” refers to observable actions, conditions, or behaviors that signal the potential occurrence of a particular event or shift in state, especially one relevant to national security. These indicators are not predictions but evidence-based signposts, carefully selected and monitored to warn decision-makers of developing threats. The concept […]