The Intelligence Studies Project  is pleased to announce the winner and two semifinalists of its fifth-annual competition recognizing outstanding student research and writing on topics related to intelligence and national security. The recipient of the 2019 “Bobby R. Inman Award” for student scholarship on intelligence is Jeffrey Rogg, a Ph.D. candidate in history at the Ohio State University concentrating on conflict, peace and diplomacy.  His paper, Deciphering the “American Black Chamber,” chronicles the rise and fall of the Cipher Bureau and introduces a theory of “civil-intelligence” relations in the U.S.

Director of the Strauss Center’s Central America / Mexico Policy Initiative, Stephanie Leutert, wrote about her experiences seeing the “metering” program along the Mexican border in her article “What ‘Metering’ Really Looks Like in South Texas.” Leutert highlights that 18,000-people are waiting along the border due the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) metering policy.

In his article, “50 Years After Apollo 11, Don’t Let Space Become a Landfill for Equipment and Satellites,” Strauss Distinguished Scholar and Program Lead of the Space Security and Safety program, Moriba Jah argues that in the last fifty years since Apollo 11 we have developed enough perspective to realize the damage that could be done if space traffic was left unchecked. Professor Jah argues that the space domain is contested (a) geopolitically (b) economically (c) environmentally with significant concerns for each.

The Trumpcast podcast recently released a new episode “Understanding Mexico in the Migration Crisis,” where host Leon Krauze interviewed director of the Strauss Center’s Central America/Mexico Policy InitiativeStephanie Leutert. They discussed Mexico’s involvement in what has been labeled as a crisis at the United States southern border. Leutert argued that for border control agents, the number of people crossing may feel like a crisis, and that since migrants were forced to leave their homes and go on this long journey, they may also perceive the situation as a crisis. However, Leutert is quick to point out that the lack of resources from both governments and United States policies have aggravated the situation.