Situation Report
A weekly digest of national security, defense, and cybersecurity news from Foreign Policy reporters Jack Detsch and Robbie Gramer, formerly Security Brief. Delivered Thursday.
![Groundskeepers prepare the baseball field before NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg throws out the ceremonial first pitch at a baseball game between the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Cardinals in Washington, D.C. on July 8.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/NATO-Summit-Washington-Putin-Russia-Trump-Europe-GettyImages-2160612041.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
What to Watch for at NATO’s 75th Birthday Bash
Allies are bickering about whether to give Ukraine a path into NATO and worried about Biden’s fitness for office.
![U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. C. Q. Brown, Jr. speak during a press briefing at the Pentagon in Washington on April 26.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/US-military-Africa-counterterrorism-Niger-GettyImages-2150334561.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
U.S. Military Courts New Partners in Africa After Major Setbacks
Top military chief visits Africa to reassess U.S. presence.
![Flagpoles bearing national flags of NATO members adorn the entrance of NATO headquarters in Brussels on June 13.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/GettyImages-2156711900.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
NATO Hits Peak 2 Percent
Seventy percent of the alliance has now reached NATO’s defense spending target.
![Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to review the honor guards of the presidential regiment following his inauguration ceremony at the Kremlin’s Sobornaya Square in Moscow on May 7.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Putin-Russia-espionage-NATO-Europe-GettyImages-2151346630.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Russia Ramps Up Sabotage Operations in Europe
Western officials struggle to respond to a new wave of “hybrid warfare.”
![People pass a television showing footage of an attempted North Korean satellite launch during a news report at a train station in Seoul on May 28.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/North-Korea-balloons-South-Korea-military-tensions-GettyImages-2154452355.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Tensions Flare Between North and South Korea
It started with dung-filled balloons and spiraled from there.
![The liquefied natural gas tanker Vladimir Rusanov is seen after its arrival from Russia’s Arctic Yamal peninsula in Nantong, China, on July 19, 2018.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/China-Russia-Arctic-sea-maritime-trade-Northern-Sea-Route-GettyImages-1001536390.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
The Geopolitics of New Arctic Shipping Lanes
Turmoil in the Middle East makes the Northern route more attractive, if still treacherous.
![Smoke billows from the site of an Israeli airstrike on the outskirts of the southern Lebanese village of Alma el-Chaab near the Lebanon-Israel border on May 22.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/GettyImages-2153544637.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Israel and Hezbollah Inch Closer to War
Skirmishes in Israel’s north heighten risk of a new front in the war.
![Air Force One’s shadow is seen on farmland after taking off with then-U.S. President Barack Obama and the first family on board, seen in Merced County, California, on June 19, 2016.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/China-U.S.-farmland-GettyImages-541546840.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Chinese Companies Keep Buying U.S. Land Near Military Bases
National security experts warn that some of those purchases are too close for comfort.
![U.S. President Joe Biden sits with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the start of the Israeli war cabinet meeting in Tel Aviv on Oct. 18, 2023.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Biden-Israel-military-Gaza-GettyImages-1731162446.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Biden Draws a Red(Ish) Line on Israel
The U.S. president pauses some military aid as tensions with Israel mount.
![U.S. Representative Adam Smith, chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, speakings during a Congressional hearing on Afghanistan at the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Sept. 29, 2021.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/05/Congress-Ukraine-Israel-Democrats-Adam-Smith-GettyImages-12355802071.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Top House Democrat ‘Deeply Worried’ About Israel’s War Strategy in Gaza
Israel is losing the support of Democrats over how it’s prosecuting the war, lawmaker warns.
![Taiwan’s reserve soldiers take part in military training during a two-week education convocation at a local Taoist temple in Hsinchu, Taiwan.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-2088922563.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Congress Helps Steer Taiwan Toward the ‘Porcupine Strategy’
The national security bill gives Biden more leverage to tell Taiwan what weapons to buy.
![An Israeli army vehicle moves along the border with the Gaza Strip on Feb. 28, amid ongoing fighting between Israel and Hamas militants.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-2037753282.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Israel’s Military Risks Being Overstretched
It’s been at war for six months—and now faces another front with Iran.
![North Koreans stand next to a banner that reads “Tens of millions of people pledge to defy death for defending country!” as they attend a mass rally to mark the “Day of Struggle Against U.S. imperialism” in Pyongyang on June 25, 2023.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/North-Korea-nuclear-Biden-US-Asia-GettyImages-1259065241.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
North Korea Is Ghosting the Biden Administration
Experts say it’s a question of when, not if, Pyongyang will carry out its seventh nuclear weapons test.
![NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg holds a press conference at a meeting of allied foreign ministers, coinciding with NATO’s 75th anniversary, at the alliance’s headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, on April 3.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-2135738044.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
NATO Tries to Trump-Proof Ukraine Aid
NATO wants to help Ukraine for the long term. But Kyiv needs help now.
![Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu confers with Defense Minister Yoav Gallant during their meeting with U.S. President Joe Biden in Tel Aviv.](https://cdn.statically.io/img/foreignpolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Biden-Israel-tensions-Hamas-war-Gaza-Netanyahu-GettyImages-1731162446.jpg?w=800?quality=90)
Biden-Netanyahu Tensions Roil U.S.-Israel Ties
American abstention on a U.N. vote this week caused a major public spat between the two partners.