Guests:

• Peter W. Singer, strategist at New America and the author of multiple books on technology and security, including Wired for War, Ghost Fleet, Burn-In, and LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media;
• And August Cole, non-resident senior fellow at the Scowcroft Center on Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council, and associate fellow at the Royal United Services Institute working on AI and future warfare. With Singer, he is the co-author of Ghost Fleet and Burn In.

Both authors have teamed up again for a new monthly series on Defense One called "Fictional Intelligence," which explores the future of technology and warfare through the lens of short speculative fiction. The first story, "Mission ahead, heavens above," was published in February.

This roundup includes developments from the following newsletters, which you can read in greater detail at the links below:

• Friday, Feb. 20 • Thursday, Feb. 19 • Wednesday, Feb. 18 • Tuesday, Feb. 17

And if you're not already subscribed, you can do that here.

This roundup includes developments from the following newsletters, which you can read in greater detail at the links below:

• Friday, Feb. 13 • Thursday, Feb. 12 • Wednesday, Feb. 11 • Tuesday, Feb. 10 • Monday, Feb. 9

And if you're not already subscribed, you can do that here.

This roundup includes developments from the following newsletters, which you can read in greater detail at the links below:

• Friday, Feb. 6 • Thursday, Feb. 5 • Wednesday, Feb. 4 • Tuesday, Feb. 3 • Monday, Feb. 2

And if you're not already subscribed, you can do that here.

This roundup includes developments from the following newsletters, which you can read in greater detail at the links below:

• Friday, Jan. 30 • Thursday, Jan. 29 • Wednesday, Jan. 28 • Tuesday, Jan. 27 • Monday, Jan. 26

And if you're not already subscribed, you can do that here.

A scholar of civil wars warns against repeating the past mistakes from U.S. military interventions abroad.

Guest: Monica Duffy Toft, director of the Center for Strategic Studies and a professor of international politics at Tufts University's Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy; her essay "Can the US 'run' Venezuela? Military force can topple a dictator, but it cannot create political authority or legitimacy" was published earlier this month in The Conversation.

A new audio roundup of leading national security news for the week ending January 23, 2026.

If you'd like to read our daily newsletter, The D Brief, you can find that here: https://www.defenseone.com/topic/The-d-brief/

And if you're not already subscribed, you can do that here: https://www.defenseone.com/newsletters/

Note: While we plan to use AI audio cloning in future "D Brief Weekly" episodes, we did not use it for this episode.

CFR's Paul Stares unpacks the latest annual survey of foreign policy experts bracing for what might lie ahead.

Guest:

• Paul Stares, General John W. Vessey senior fellow for conflict prevention and director of the Center for Preventive Action at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Read the 2026 Preventive Priorities Survey results published this week at CFR here.

The former Army Ranger explores how AI might reshape drone warfare, America's tech race with China, Russia's war in Ukraine, and much more.

Guest:

• Paul Scharre, executive vice president at the Center for a New American Security and author of several books, including "Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence," and "Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War."

The Virginia Republican discusses the Pentagon's acquisition reforms, the defense secretary's legislative-affairs bottleneck, and his priorities for the upcoming spending bills.

Guest: Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Tactical Air and Land Forces, in conversation with Defense One Executive Editor Bradley Peniston.