Besides many popular and successful events, there are other notable and worthy celebrations and demonstrations to mention.
One example is the Tidal X benefit concert series, which has featured artists like Beyoncé and JAY-Z to raise money for various social causes. Another example is the Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Harvey Relief telethon, which was a one-time event that brought together multiple celebrities and artists to raise money for those affected by Hurricane Harvey.
Tidal X: This is a concert series presented by the Tidal music streaming service. It's known for featuring high-profile artists and raising money for various social justice and disaster relief initiatives.
Hand in Hand: A Benefit for Hurricane Harvey Relief: This telethon, which aired in September 2017, raised money for those affected by Hurricane Harvey. It featured a wide range of celebrities and musicians.
This is much more serious than a poorly attended parade. It is about our diminishing national security.
We raise a critical point about national security governance. How incremental changes can accumulate and weaken our government’s capacity to anticipate, prepare for, and respond to serious threats.
Here’s a breakdown of the key issues involved and potential ways forward:
National Security Issues
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Institutional Erosion
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Agencies responsible for national security (e.g., intelligence, defense, homeland security) may face mission creep, fragmentation, or lack of coordination.
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Political interference or frequent leadership turnover undermines continuity and institutional memory.
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Personnel Challenges
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Loss of expertise due to retirements, morale issues, or politicization of appointments.
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Undermining of career civil servants and national security professionals.
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Difficulty attracting and retaining talent with specialized skills (e.g., cyber, AI, foreign languages).
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Budgetary Instability
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National security budgets may be subject to short-term political pressures rather than long-term strategic planning.
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Over-prioritization of military spending at the expense of diplomacy, development, and intelligence.
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Cuts to key agencies or programs that play essential roles in non-military aspects of security (e.g., CDC, USAID).
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Policy Inconsistency
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Frequent shifts in national security doctrine, foreign alliances, and threat prioritization reduce credibility and preparedness.
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Failure to integrate emerging threats like climate change, pandemics, cyber warfare, and disinformation campaigns into national security frameworks.
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Lack of Strategic Foresight
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Institutions often operate reactively rather than proactively.
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Siloed risk assessments prevent a comprehensive view of interconnected threats (e.g., how climate change influences migration, which in turn can fuel conflict).
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Reforming National Security
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Institutional Reform
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Reinvest in and modernize national security institutions with an emphasis on inter-agency collaboration and strategic foresight.
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Establish independent commissions to assess vulnerabilities and recommend structural reforms.
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Human Capital Investment
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Strengthen pipelines for national security careers (e.g., through fellowships, educational incentives, depoliticized hiring).
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Elevate and protect nonpartisan civil service roles.
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Balanced, Sustainable Budgeting
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Shift toward a whole-of-government approach to security: fund not just defense but diplomacy, intelligence, health security, and resilience.
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Introduce multi-year budgeting for critical programs to avoid disruptions.
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Coherent, Long-Term Strategy
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Develop a bipartisan National Security Strategy that can guide successive administrations.
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Incorporate non-traditional threats as core elements of national security (e.g., climate, AI, biosecurity).
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Public Accountability and Transparency
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Strengthen oversight mechanisms (e.g., GAO, congressional committees).
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Encourage investigative journalism, academic research, and civil society involvement in tracking institutional performance.
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