Foreign policy professionals discuss worst-case scenarios to be prepared for even unlikely eventualities, to see if there are fixes to possible security gaps. Common sense, law and custom tended to guard against extreme outcomes. But now, what was unthinkable has become our daily reality. Imagine one such situation. It’s the summer of 2025. The Supreme […]
When I was growing up in the 50s, 60s, and 70s, you heard folks asking not infrequently, “How could Hitler have taken power and do the things he and his government did?” My mother who was born in 1928 and lived through WWII often asked this question, once in the mid-1960s seeking but not really […]
The “Horizons Project”, a think tank headed by two former civil servants, has produced a series of eye-opening documents warning about creeping authoritarianism in the United States; one of these documents is the “Authoritarian Playbook.” After studying systems around the world and lessons in the United States from over the past several decades, the authors […]
The first 100+ days of the Trump regime have weakened both freedom in the US and also US leadership in the world. The more obvious assaults on our freedom include political kidnappings on our streets by plain clothed, masked thugs as well as the evisceration of federal agencies vital to our society. But these distract […]
During 36 years of service, I witnessed the critical value of accomplished, experienced, leaders—men and women—providing vital, level-headed, advice in the many complex situations they encountered.. Thanks for reading! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. The unexpected February dismissal of the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Chief […]
“Never, ever…was there ever a hint that an analyst would be fired because they produced conclusions that did not fit with the administration’s policy preferences. Until Now.” I served on the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in the mid-1990’s as the Deputy to the National Intelligence Officer for East Asia under Ezra Vogel, the brilliant and […]
“ The essential qualities of integrity, dedication and grit that lie at the heart of an intelligence professional ultimately may suffer as an unintended consequence of these firings and associated acts. And our senior executives who are making the policies that impact every American’s daily life and futures will be left to fly blind and […]
Repealing the Inflation Reduction Act will hurt Maine, by Robert Cekuta, in the Bangor Daily News, April 18, 2025. The Steady State endorses this opinion piece by Steady State member Robert Cekuta carried in the Bangor Daily News. The negative impacts of repealing the Inflation Reduction Act on Maine are being replayed in states and […]
REPUBLIC OF FREDONIA MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS (MFA) CABLE ID: 2025-0525-FRED/WASH/SITREP-003 DATE-TIME GROUP: 251649ZMAY25 FROM: EMBASSY OF FREDONIA, WASHINGTON, D.C. TO: MFA NAGADOCHES CLASSIFICATION: CONFIDENTIAL // FREDONIAN EYES ONLY SUBJECT: SITREP: U.S. POLICY DEVELOPMENTS (17–24 MAY 2025) SUMMARY: PRESIDENT TRUMP’S ACTIONS DURING THE REPORTING PERIOD CONTINUED A PATTERN OF UNILATERAL POLICYMAKING THAT STRAINED RELATIONS WITH […]