The ancient Chinese military strategist Sun Tzu once declared that subduing your enemy without fighting is the acme of skill. For China today, that goal is closer to being realized through new weaponry and capabilities that Beijing calls cognitive warfare.

Mr. Gertz offers a deep dive on how People’s Liberation Army researchers are working on advanced warfare capabilities that combine high-technology hardware with biotechnology research focused on the human brain. While most details remain closely guarded U.S. government secrets, the Pentagon has disclosed that Beijing in 2016 launched something called the “China Brain Project,” a multiyear program designed to unlock human cognitive functions and neural pathways in support of civilian and military applications.

U.S. military officials say the research has included brain-computer interface activities that enable humans and computers to interact and exchange information through implants in the brain or on the skull. There also have been experiments with mind control of remote machines — technology that could give PLA commanders and troops optimized command-and-control networks and the ability to maximize the use of advanced weapons systems and other military equipment for more rapid and precise attacks.

The latest episode of the Threat Status weekly podcast dives into the debate about whether the Trump administration’s purge of so-called woke policy from the Pentagon has played a role in the surge in U.S. Army recruiting. The implications of Ukraine’s massive drone attack on bases deep inside Russia and the Justice Department’s investigation of an alleged Chinese “agroterror” plot are also discussed.

Then, Chris Jones, chief technology officer at Virginia-based intelligence and cybersecurity firm Nightwing, joins the show for an exclusive interview on a range of topics, including American offensive cyber operations and risks associated with multinational cybersecurity.

“Think the weakest link in almost any system winds up, unfortunately, being the people,” Mr. Jones says. “You can harden as much as you can the infrastructure. You can look at the software, you can create, you know, hardware solutions. You can put physical security and perimeter around things. But at the end of the day, you do have to educate and train and rely on humans in that wheel.”

South Korean President Lee Jae-myung, who was sworn in this week, faces the immediate problem of tariffs that Mr. Trump has threatened to impose on Seoul next month. Questions are swirling over the extent to which Mr. Lee will attempt to tie the tariffs issue to a wider reevaluation of U.S. forces’ role in defending South Korea against North Korea and an increasingly aggressive China.

The Trump administration wants South Koreans to pay more for U.S. protection. Mr. Lee and other prominent South Korean leaders are openly questioning whether it’s time to reduce the country’s dependence on the U.S. Mr. Lee affirmed the importance of the U.S. relationship in his first speech as president, but also signaled that his country was at a crossroads.

He said Seoul will “approach relations with neighboring countries from the perspective of practicality and national interest.” That may raise eyebrows in regional democracies and Washington, where the Trump administration seeks to end conflicts in Europe and the Middle East to free up U.S. resources to concentrate on China and the Indo-Pacific.

Anthropic says it has made a custom set of artificial intelligence models exclusively for the U.S. government, particularly those working with classified information in defense and intelligence agencies.

The San Francisco-based AI company said in a statement that it expects the government to use its “Claude Gov” models for intelligence analysis and threat assessment as well as operational support and strategic planning. 

“The models are already deployed by agencies at the highest level of U.S. national security, and access to these models is limited to those who operate in such classified environments,” Anthropic said.

The United States and Taiwan “must simultaneously prepare for the most dangerous” scenario — a cross-strait invasion by China or a full-scale blockade — and the “most likely scenario: a comprehensive, cyber-enabled economic warfare campaign,” writes retired U.S. Navy Rear Adm. Mark Montgomery, who says Washington and Taipei “must work together to make Taiwan siege-proof and protect America’s ability to mobilize and project power.”

“The United States and Taiwan have been losing ground in their ability to deter and defeat [Chinese Communist Party] aggression, but it is not too late to reverse this trend,” writes Mr. Montgomery, a senior fellow with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

“Building up Taiwan’s offensive and defensive warfighting capabilities and cyberdefense capacity will improve the nation’s societal resilience,” he writes. “If this is coupled with targeted investments in U.S. critical infrastructure security and cyber and missile defense, the two countries can and will strengthen their ability to fight and win against China.”

• June 9 — Why the U.S. Needs to Win the Biotechnology Race Against the CCP, Hudson Institute

• June 10 — U.S.-China Competition and the Value of Middle East Influence, Defense Priorities

• June 10 — Adapting the U.S. Nuclear Posture in Response to Adversary Threats, Hudson Institute

• June 12 — What is the Opportunity Cost of State AI Policy? Cato Institute 

• June 25 — The New IC, Intelligence and National Security Alliance

• June 26 — The Realities of an Invasion of Taiwan, Stimson Center