Security Clearance Modernization, and More Hearings
The Department of Defense denied security clearances to 8,065 individuals in 2008, according to a recent congressional hearing volume. “These numbers represent a small percentage of the total number of security clearance investigations. The vast majority of investigations are adjudicated favorably.” See “Security Clearance Reform: Moving Forward on Modernization,” Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, September 15, 2009 (published April 2010). (Update: The statistics on clearance denials are given on page 92 of the PDF version of the hearing.)
Among other recently published congressional hearing volumes on national security topics are these:
“An Uneasy Relationship: U.S. Reliance on Private Security Firms in Overseas Operations” (pdf), Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, February 27, 2008 (published March 2010).
“Reauthorizing the USA PATRIOT Act: Ensuring Liberty,” Senate Judiciary Committee, September 23, 2009 (published April 2010).
“A Strategic and Economic Review of Aerospace Exports” (pdf), House Foreign Affairs Committee, December 9, 2009 (published April 2010).
This report outlines a framework relying on “Cooperative Technical Means” for effective arms control verification based on remote sensing, avoiding on-site inspections but maintaining a level of transparency that allows for immediate detection of changes in nuclear posture or a significant build-up above agreed limits.
At a recent workshop, we explored the nature of trust in specific government functions, the risk and implications of breaking trust in those systems, and how we’d known we were getting close to specific trust breaking points.
tudents in the 21st century need strong critical thinking skills like reasoning, questioning, and problem-solving, before they can meaningfully engage with more advanced domains like digital, data, or AI literacy.
When the U.S. government funds the establishment of a platform for testing hundreds of behavioral interventions on a large diverse population, we will start to better understand the interventions that will have an efficient and lasting impact on health behavior.