David Welna

Trump isn't the first commander in chief to invoke national security as grounds for implementing controversial policies. From tariffs to his travel ban, how Trump's using the national security card.

Secretary of State Pompeo leaves for Pyongyang on Thursday, his first trip there since the U.S. and North Korea signed a declaration stating Pyongyang would work to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

The Pentagon has stopped reporting troop levels for Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria following President Trump's declaration that the U.S. would not talk about troop numbers in Afghanistan.

The president wants a "separate but equal branch" of the military to watch over the final frontier, but only Congress can make it happen.

Turkey is scheduled to get its first F-35 jet fighters next week, but it is also considering buying Russia's most advanced anti-aircraft system. Congress is moving to block delivery of the warplane.

A four-minute fake movie trailer created by the Trump administration for Kim Jong Un is decidedly odd. Culture critic Glen Weldon asks National Security Correspondent David Welna what it all means.

The Trump administration's terms for North Korea's denuclearization verge on the impossible, some former negotiators say: "There's no way of doing something that's irreversible, that I know of."

Nearly a quarter-century ago, the U.S. signed an agreement aimed at stalling North Korea's drive for nuclear weapons. That deal collapsed eight years later.

President Trump says he wants North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program permanently. Those who've seen the program say denuclearization, if it happens, would likely take a very long time.

Gina Haspel, nominee to be director of CIA, vows before a Senate committee at her confirmation hearing that she won't "restart a detention and interrogation program."

Even as the Trump administration excoriates Iran and North Korea on nuclear arms, Congress is set to fund a new, "low-yield" atomic weapon. The Pentagon says one is needed to plausibly deter any plans by Russia to use smaller nukes. Critics say such a "useable" nuke would increase, not decrease, the likelihood of the nuclear war that military planners say they want to avoid.

President Trump has threatened military action in response to a suspected chemical attack in Syria. We look at the implications and the legal basis for a strike.

House Speaker Paul Ryan says he will not run for re-election. Also, we look at the legality of potential U.S. missile strikes on Syria and Russia's response.

A suspected chemical weapons attack this past weekend on a rebel stronghold near Damascus, Syria has prompted international outrage and threats from President Trump of a military response.

Syria is a signatory to the Chemical Weapons Convention and says it neither possesses nor uses chemical weapons. Evidence indicates otherwise.

The Trump administration aims to turn up the heat on the Taliban and force those fighters into peace talks proposed by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani. Positive assessments by U.S. commanders there during a visit by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis are a stark contrast to darker appraisals from the U.S. intelligence community and a top Afghanistan scholar.

There are no survivors from the crash of the HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter. U.S. military officials say the aircraft went down after hitting a power line in western Anbar province.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is traveling in the Middle East after a two-day trip to Afghanistan. NPR's David Welna is traveling with Mattis and talks with NPR's Ari Shapiro about the Trump Administration's goals to end the war there.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is in Oman to discuss U.S. efforts to block Iranian arms shipments to Houthi rebels in Yemen. U.S. special forces are fighting al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Adm. Michael Rogers says Russian President Vladimir Putin has concluded he can continue to meddle in U.S. cyberspace with little price to pay.