The Department of Defense's contributions to health security at home and abroad rest overwhelmingly on the human skill base of the Military Health System (MHS). However, it may be difficult for the MHS to effectively meet its mandates in the face of of planned reductions of up to 17,000 military healthcare workers, or 20 percent of the current force.

SOURCE: "What Covid-19 Taught Us about Strengthening the DOD's Global Health Security Capacities?" by CSIS's Thomas Cullison and J. Stephen Morrison. 

This week, well into his 35th consecutive year in power, Yoweri Museveni was sworn into his sixth term as president of Uganda. However, the campaign was marred by contested results and uncontested brutality. Uganda's opposition party, the National Unity Platform (NUP), released a list of more than 200 people who it argued were arrested and whose whereabouts were unknown.

SOURCE: "Fault Lines in Five More Years of Museveni's Rule" by CSIS' Maria E. Burnett. 

In the race to achieving herd immunity for Covid-19, finding new ways to address the challenge of vaccine hesitancy has never been more important. A number of educational programs have begun reaching out to key populations to help those who are hesitant, including a $50 million campaign from the Ad Council and COVID Collaborative to reach the communities hardest hit by the pandemic.

SOURCE: "Why Vaccine Confidence Matters to National Security" by CSIS's Katherine E. Bliss, J. Stephen Morrison, and Heidi J. Larson. 

The Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) held a special leader’s summit to discuss the escalating crisis in Myanmar and invited the country's military chief Min Aung Hlaing, who seized power from Myanmar’s democratically elected government on February 1. Despite the summit's "Five-Point Consensus" demanding an immediate cessation of violence in Myanmar, the military has continued its violent crackdown on protestors—killing 769 people and is detaining 3,696 as of May 5.

SOURCE: "Is Myanmar Headed for Collapse or Revolution?" by CSIS's Gregory Poling and Simon Tran Hudes.