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Our national security professionals continue to have their work cut out for them. Since the failed attempt to bring down a Northwest airliner on Christmas day, we've been told by the heads of our intelligence agencies that al Qaeda will execute another attack against the U.S. homeland within a three to six month timeframe. What kind of attack they are planning remains unknown at this point. But given al Qaeda's obsessive focus on certain types of targets, it's probably not a bad idea to keep a close eye on our airline industry.

Last week the Obama administration released its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and the President signed the new START (strategic arms reduction treaty) with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. This week, leaders from more than 40 nations have convened in Washington, D.C. for the Nuclear Security Summit to discuss global nuclear risk and a strategy for controlling insecure nuclear materials. YPNation spoke with William Schirano, an international security consultant based in Washington, D.C., about these recent events.

When it comes to national security, I can't say I've found myself in agreement with Karl Rove and Newt Gingrich for the past eight years. But after reading through their supportive remarks on the President's Afghanistan speech to West Point the other night, it's rather pleasing to see that slowly but surely, they're coming around to my view of the world. That isn't to say everything in the President's speech came up roses--the needless (and frankly hypocritical) criticisms on domestic policy, for example, or the failure to address the central issues that plagued our Vietnamese effort and the risk of repeating those mistakes in Afghanistan.

Tomorrow, I'll join fellow YPNation contributors Ethan Pollack and Marc Goldwein on a panel discussion about America's fiscal future. (Be sure to tune in here.) As Ethan previewed, we'll be investigating what young professionals need to know about the current state of fiscal affairs and what they can do to build a better economic future. For my part, I'll be discussing the federal budget picture and what the government should-or should not-do to get it's fiscal house in order.