Mr. Trump signed an executive order Thursday that detailed several sweeping goals for the nation’s space policy, including sending Americans back to the moon within three years, establishing a lunar outpost by 2030 and developing nuclear power in space, including readying nuclear reactors to launch by 2030.

The order also explicitly calls for “developing and demonstrating prototype next-generation missile defense technologies by 2028 to progressively and materially enhance America’s air and missile defenses” — a key reference to the president’s previous demand for the establishment of a next-generation Golden Dome missile defense shield with space-based assets.

Thursday’s order separately calls for the deployment of technology in space that can ensure the “ability to detect, characterize and counter threats” to U.S. space interests “from very low-Earth orbit and through cislunar space, including any placement of nuclear weapons in space,” while also “creating a responsive and adaptive national security space architecture by accelerating acquisition reform, integrating commercial space capabilities and enabling new market entrants.”

Somalia has been a key focus of the Trump administration’s counterterrorism efforts in Africa. It is believed to be the first country for which Mr. Trump authorized a military strike after his return to office. Now, Somali pirates are stalking commercial shipping in the Indian Ocean in coordination with Iran-backed Houthi militants and terrorist groups operating in the Horn of Africa.

The distance between Yemen and Somalia is just a few hundred miles across the Red Sea. These waters remain critical for U.S.-linked trade and military logistics transit. The two countries have long been linked culturally and economically, with maritime links serving smugglers trading in narcotics, people and weapons. Chinese- and Iranian-made small arms can sell in Somalia for five times their value in Yemen.

Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization, are a Zaydi Shiite movement. Despite ideological differences, the group has cultivated ties with Sunni extremist organizations, including al-Shabab and ISIS-Somalia. Reviving Somali piracy is part of a broader campaign of regional instability and asymmetric warfare in which Houthis seek to develop new proxies in Africa.

The Navy launched its first one-way attack drone from the deck of a warship operating in the Middle East this week, marking what military officials said was a “significant milestone” in its ability to deliver a full range of unmanned combat power.

The USS Santa Barbara, an Independence-class littoral combat ship, successfully fired the Low-Cost Unmanned Combat Attack System from its flight deck while operating in the Arabian Gulf, Navy officials confirmed Thursday.

The LUCAS drones are designed to operate autonomously and be launched using several platforms, including catapults, rocket-assisted takeoff and mobile ground and vehicle systems, Navy officials said.

Designating Russia as a state terror sponsor would represent a “dangerous provocation and is a roundabout way of allowing military strikes on Russian targets,” writes Mr. Paul, who asserts: “No one can doubt this or say it’s hypothetical. Just ask the Venezuelans. All the ‘kinetic strikes’ on Venezuelan targets have been justified by Venezuela’s designation as a terrorist sponsor.

“In its insistence that Moscow be a permanent enemy of the United States, the foreign policy establishment is pushing to impose more punitive measures on Russia that may make globalists in Washington feel virtuous but, in reality, will do nothing to help Ukraine,” he writes in a column for The Washington Times. “Nor will they bring peace to Europe or make Americans safer or more prosperous.

“The effort to designate Russia as a state sponsor of terrorism also directly undermines President Trump’s diplomatic efforts to end the four-year-old war in Ukraine,” Mr. Paul argues. “It is no coincidence, as undoing the president’s diplomacy is exactly the point.”

The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy is “correctly focused on the importance of the Indo-Pacific region,” according to Joseph R. DeTrani, who notes in a column for The Times that the strategy “calls for expanding commercial and other relations with India to contribute to Indo-Pacific security” and “calls on the Quad — Australia, Japan, India and the U.S. — to align its actions with allies and partners to prevent domination by any single competitor nation.

“The strategy cites the need for the U.S. to invest in research to preserve and advance our advantage in cutting-edge military and dual-use technology, including undersea, space, nuclear, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and autonomous systems, and the energy to fuel these domains,” writes Mr. DeTrani, a former associate director of national intelligence and opinion contributor to Threat Status.

“The National Security Strategy — correctly, in my view — focuses on Taiwan, its dominance of semiconductor production and its direct access to the Second Island Chain, and the implications of this for the U.S. economy,” he writes. “The strategy is transparent in stating that deterring a conflict over Taiwan is a priority, making clear that the U.S. does not support any unilateral change to the status quo in the Taiwan Strait.”

• Jan. 12 — Next Steps for the U.S.-Japan Alliance: Deterrence, Cybersecurity and Indo-Pacific Partnerships, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Jan. 14 — A New Direction for Artificial Intelligence and Students: Findings from the Brookings Global Task Force on AI and Education, Brookings Institution

• Jan. 15 — The Future of U.S. Foreign Assistance, Center for a New American Security

• Jan. 15 — Ten Conflicts to Watch in 2026, Chatham House

• Jan. 20 — The Future of Biosafety: Confronting Gain-of-Function Research, Heritage Foundation

• Jan. 21 — Artificial General Intelligence: America’s Next National Security Frontier, Institute of World Politics