If the Trump Administration cares about America being “first” and all that connotes, then forcing the military to source its electricity from dying coal plants isn’t the way to go. The last time coal made up more than 40% of annual electricity generation was 2011. It can’t keep up with demand.

Americans have tended to believe the US spends way more money on foreign aid than it does because of our effective soft power (surely we must be spending more than 1% of our budget to get this result). It was the cheapest form of influence there was. Everything else is more expensive & less durable.

It may be small, but it's one of the consequences of I wrote about last year. "It is as impossible to perform only important experiments as it is impossible to only play winning lottery numbers. Trial and error isn't waste - it's the work."

councilonstrategicrisks.org/2025/02/26/t...

Bluesky! Hello! I direct the Converging Risks Lab, part of the @councilonstrategicrisks.org. I work at the intersection of emerging tech, climate change, grand strategy, and national security/defense policy. You can read my latest below. Let's talk convergence.

www.justsecurity.org/121289/ai-hi...

A whole lot of people who don't understand AI telling a whole lot of other people to use AI - all the time, without guardrails - is a recipe for disaster. DoD's approach of "any lawful use” without any constraints is particularly worrying.

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...