Threat Status for Tuesday, January 27, 2026. Share this daily newsletter with your friends, who can sign up here. Send tips to National Security Editor Guy Taylor.
President Trump’s Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby told an audience in South Korea on Wednesday the “Indo-Pacific is now a primary center of gravity of global growth, a hub of global manufacturing … and the geopolitical hinge of the 21st century.”
… Mr. Trump’s obsession with Greenland stems partly from the reality that radars at Pituffik Space Base in the Arctic island’s north act as the Pentagon’s eyes against potential long-range missile attacks from China and Russia.
… The prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland are holding new talks with German and French leaders, following Mr. Trump’s declaration last week that he reached a deal with NATO to grant the U.S. “total access” to Greenland.
… Mr. Trump’s overall push on the Greenland issue has created tensions between MAGA and Europe’s far right.
… British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is walking a tightrope between relations with the Trump administration and Beijing.
… The Chinese military’s most senior general under investigation for corruption reportedly leaked nuclear secrets to the United States.
… The Quantum computing company D-Wave has selected Boca Raton, Florida, as the location of its new corporate headquarters and a key U.S. research and development facility.
… And Pentagon Correspondent Mike Glenn takes stock of the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier group’s arrival this week in Middle East waters amid new tensions with Iran.
Mr. Trump has put the U.S. on an expansionist path not seen since the early 1800s, trying to increase national territory and influence with an ironclad view that the Western Hemisphere, if not most of the globe, belongs to America.
It’s already led to the toppling of a dictator in South America and a framework deal to bolster the U.S. presence in Greenland, and it could transform the war-torn Gaza Strip into a resort mecca shaped largely by American influence. White House Correspondent Jeff Mordock examines the situation, writing that Mr. Trump’s strategy is about removing what the president sees as obstacles to U.S. security and economic strength while exerting influence across the Western Hemisphere with impunity.
Critics, however, say the president’s expansionist ideology has disrupted financial markets and alienated allies with little to show for the effort. “This hasn’t gone anywhere of substance that’s valuable to the United States,” argues Jim Townsend, an adjunct senior fellow of trans-Atlantic security at the Center for a New American Security. “It’s been a lot of bluff and bluster that’s resulted in nothing of value, and it’s going to result in undermining things of value like relations with important countries like Canada and the NATO alliance because no one’s going to trust us anymore.”
Claims of progress in end-of-war negotiations by the Trump administration and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stand in stark contrast to Russia’s attempts to replenish its infantry forces as the four-year anniversary of Moscow’s invasion approaches next month. Recent weeks have seen the Kremlin pulling out the stops to find new troops to send into Eastern Ukraine.
For criminals seeking to escape the harsh conditions and abuse in prison, it’s a chance for freedom. For immigrants hoping for a better life, it’s a simplified path to citizenship, according to The Associated Press. All they have to do is sign a contract to fight in Ukraine.
Some come from abroad to fight in what has become a bloody war of attrition. After signing a mutual defense treaty with Moscow in 2024, North Korea sent thousands of soldiers to help Russia defend its Kursk region from a Ukrainian incursion. Men from South Asian countries, including India, Nepal and Bangladesh, complain of being duped into signing up to fight by recruiters promising jobs. Officials in Kenya, South Africa and Iraq say the same has happened to citizens from their countries.
Defense and National Security Correspondent John T. Seward offers an inside look at the U.S. Army’s updated M1E3 Abrams battle tank in an exclusive video from last week’s Detroit Auto Show, where American military officials rolled out the new prototype that combines Motor City muscle and Formula 1 performance.
Gen. Randy George, Army chief of staff, was flanked by automotive industry executives as he presented the tracked weapon to show attendees. The Army is actively recruiting American auto manufacturers to jump back into the defense industry after more than a 60-year hiatus, one official said, as part of the Trump administration’s effort to build what the Pentagon calls the “Arsenal of Freedom.”
The roughly $75 million operational prototype on display was assembled by Roush, the Detroit-based, high-performance auto modifications company and racing manufacturer. The Army expects a full platoon of four tanks to conduct experimental field operations this summer, starting with initial safety and gun testing.
Interim Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa is violating an agreement he made with the Trump administration to secure the easing of U.S. sanctions on Syria, according to Morhaf Ibrahim, the president of the Alawites Association of the United States.
“Recent attacks by Syria fly in the face of the conditions set by the United States to lift the Caesar Act sanctions under the National Defense Authorization Act,” Mr. Ibrahim writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times.
“The lifting of sanctions was never intended to be a blank check for Damascus. Among the most central requirements were commitments to protect minorities, uphold minority rights, ensure accountability for abuses and demonstrate a meaningful departure from sectarian repression,” Mr. Ibrahim writes. “Yet just weeks later, multiple minority communities in Syria have been subjected to serious attacks, signaling that the country is moving not toward compliance but in the opposite direction.”
Michelle Thibeau and Amber Smith home in on the issue of women in combat. “We are women who served in the United States military. We are proud of that service, proud of the men and women we stood beside and deeply aware of what war demands of those sent to fight it. That is precisely why we support the Pentagon’s decision to review the effectiveness of women in ground combat roles,” they write.
“This review is not an insult to women in uniform. It is not a rollback of dignity or respect,” Ms. Thibeau and Ms. Smith write in an op-ed for The Times. “It is a necessary act of responsibility by an institution whose sole purpose is to fight and win wars.
“Anyone who has served knows this truth: The military is not designed to make statements about social progress. It exists to prepare young Americans for the most violent and physically punishing task a nation can ask of them. Combat isn’t theoretical or symbolic,” write Ms. Thibeau, a graduate of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point who deployed to Afghanistan in Operation Enduring Freedom, and Ms. Smith, who is a military adviser for the Coalition for Military Excellence, former U.S. Army combat helicopter pilot and former deputy assistant to the secretary of defense. “It is governed by biology, exhaustion, fear, injury and death. Policies that ignore those realities do not empower service members; they endanger them.”
• Jan. 29 — Pax Silica: Under Secretary of State Jacob Helberg on the Artificial Intelligence Race and Economic Security, Hudson Institute
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