AEI This Week

AEI's weekly digest of top commentary and scholarship on the issues that matter most

THE DRONE THREAT

Homeland Defense in the Age of Cheap Weapons

September 12, 2026

Recent incursions at American and European military bases have underlined the vulnerability of the home front, especially fixed infrastructure, to attack from cheap drones. In a new AEI report, AEI Nonresident Senior Fellow John G. Ferrari and Dillon Prochnicki present a strategy to develop low-cost counter-drone measures as a permanent homeland defense mission.

AEI scholars are leading efforts to restore genuine viewpoint diversity in American higher education. Codirectors of AEI’s Center for the Future of the American University Benjamin Storey and Jenna Silber Storey reflect on the success and broader prospects of AEI scholars’ collaborations with Johns Hopkins University to bring more conservatives into teaching and research.

Why are young adults today so anti-American? It may be because that is what teachers have been trained to teach. In a new AEI report, AEI Conservative Education Reform Network Director Daniel Buck investigates how graduate schools of education are teaching prospective teachers progressive ideology and critical theory (at the expense of basic pedagogical techniques).

The Inflation Reduction Act dramatically increased the costs of Medicare Part D’s prescription drug plans while keeping premiums artificially low through temporary subsidies that will expire in 2030. In a new AEI report, AEI Senior Fellow Benedic N. Ippolito assesses the uncertain long-run viability of the prescription drug plan market and offers policymakers several reforms to better contain out-of-control cost growth.

After the Supreme Court struck down Trump’s tariffs imposed under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, the administration reimposed 10 percent tariffs between February and July using Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974. In a new amicus brief to the US Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit, AEI Senior Fellow Stan Veuger and an assortment of leading economists explain why these tariffs also lack a legal basis.

Will New Transportation Technologies Increase Urban Density?

Will 21st-century transportation innovations decrease urban density, as the car did in the 20th century, or promote urban centralization, as the railroad did in the 19th century? In a new National Bureau of Economic Research working paper, Edward L. Glaeser analyzes the urbanizing effects of four trends in transportation technology: shared mobility (such as Uber), autonomy (such as Waymo), vertical travel (such as drones, air taxis, and gondolas), and green mobility, as provided by bike lanes. As people spend more time traveling in denser, large areas, innovations that reduce the time cost of travel, such as autonomous cars, seem likely to complement urban living, as long as they don’t excessively increase traffic. However, the forces of inertia, which include regulation and legacy infrastructure, are likely to limit the impact of any new technologies in Europe and the US.