While voters went to the polls this week, AEI scholars considered challenges that may confront policymakers for years to come.

Elaine McCusker finds that the Department of Defense's budget is spent on more than just defense. In a new AEI report, McCusker estimates that nearly $109 billion out of $773 billion in the 2023 defense budget goes to "programs and activities that do not directly contribute to military capability."

Kori Schake and Joe Tavares argue that strategic competition with Communist China will require a different US strategy than the Cold War did. Highlighting differences between Communist China and the Soviet Union, Schake and Tavares outline a new strategic course "that emphasizes economics and focuses less on the types of ideological and military struggles that characterized the Cold War."

As protests roil the Iranian theocracy, Danielle Pletka envisions the Middle East without interference and subversion by Iran's aggressive regime. Pletka details the destabilizing impacts of Iran's interventions throughout the region and support for militant groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas. 

Max Eden and Keri Ingraham argue that school choice can help students overcome the learning losses they suffered during the pandemic. "Concerted efforts to catch students up are few and far between" at traditional public schools, according to Eden and Ingraham. "Concerned parents deserve more power to help their students get back on grade level and beyond."

Matthew Continetti meditates on the 2022 midterm elections and the GOP's failure to win the sweeping victory that many observers expected. A key reason, Continetti contends, is that voters could differentiate between President Joe Biden and the Democrats on the ballot.