The Mecca Defense Alliance — created last month among Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan — is an unprecedented bid by three U.S. allies to build a security architecture that operates independently of Washington. Threat Status Special Correspondent Jacob Wirtschafter examines how each of the three nations brings a distinct strength to the pact.

Turkey’s booming weapons industry is looking for markets, the Saudis have cash, and Pakistan, with its estimated 170 warheads, is the Muslim world’s only nuclear arsenal. All three say the new alliance is purely for defense, but make no mistake, the development has captured the wary attention of the U.S. and is generating concern in India and Israel.

The Turkish Defense Ministry said last week that the new alliance, established five months into the American-Israeli war with Iran, is already planning joint military exercises. Ministry spokesman Rear Adm. Zeki Akturk called on the world to act against Israel’s “genocide.”

A conflicted South Korea is considering sending military forces to the Persian Gulf to aid the U.S. war against Iran, a move that could give Seoul diplomatic capital with Washington amid friction between the two allies. Seoul announced Monday that it was consulting with regional allies about a possible deployment.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry responded with a Korean-language social media post threatening that a South Korean deployment “will have serious consequences.” Asia Editor Andrew Salmon notes in a dispatch from Seoul that an Iranian double-tap drone strike damaged a South Korean tanker in the Persian Gulf in May.

South Korea’s decision comes amid uncertainty over key issues with the U.S. No movement has been made on either a promised South Korean $350 billion investment pledge in America or on a U.S. agreement to supply Seoul with nuclear submarine technologies. Mr. Trump, meanwhile, scaled back joint summer military drills with South Korea. All the while, Seoul faces the reality that some 70% of its oil comes from the Middle East.

The U.S. faces a “severe” shortage of qualified engineers and technicians needed to rebuild or replace satellites targeted by China or Russia in a theoretical 21st-century war in space, according to a new Rand Corp. study that comes as the U.S. seeks to bolster its space-based warfighting and defensive capabilities.

The study, released last week, comes as the U.S. Space Force expands rapidly and assumes an even more central role in American military strategy. At the same time, ambitious new projects such as Mr. Trump’s proposed Golden Dome missile shield depend heavily on space-based assets, as does the modern American military’s ability to operate globally with reliable communications, GPS and other crucial tools.

America’s adversaries are keenly aware of the Pentagon’s heavy reliance on space. Critical satellites would almost certainly be targets in a future great-power war. But the Rand study says the U.S. could face serious problems trying to quickly repair or replace satellites that may be damaged or destroyed.

Iran’s rubber-stamp legislature approved a framework bill last month that effectively says Iranians who send videos, photographs or audio recordings to non-state outlets can face six months to two years in prison, according to Ilan Berman.

By criminalizing contact with Persian-language Western media outlets, Tehran is “signaling that it sees information as a discrete domain of battle — and is willing to act decisively to eliminate threats emanating from that domain,” Mr. Berman writes in an op-ed for The Washington Times.

“The U.S. and other Western governments would do well to take notice,” writes Mr. Berman, senior vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council think tank. “They would do even better to treat the issue of information as seriously as the Iranians do.”

U.S. national security “demands that we consider not only what we learned from the 9/11 terrorist attacks but also what al Qaeda, the Islamic State group and their affiliates have learned about us over the past 25 years,” writes Daniel N. Hoffman, a retired CIA Clandestine Services officer.

“The CIA’s human-source penetrations of terrorist groups are vital to our national security precisely because that is how we stay a step ahead of them,” Mr. Hoffman writes in his biweekly column for The Times. “This strategy means that we can detect threats and preempt them before any harm is done to our citizens and homeland.

“Only by relentlessly stealing the terrorists’ secrets can we reckon with the lessons they have learned and incorporate that vital intelligence into our own tactical and strategic planning.”

• Sept. 8-10 — Billington Cybersecurity Summit 2026, Billington Cybersecurity

• Sept. 9 — Bend but Do Not Break: Shaping the Future of the All-Volunteer Force, Center for Strategic & International Studies

• Sept. 9 — Global Affairs Expert Webinar: China’s Influence in the Americas, Council on Foreign Relations

• Sept. 10 — 38 North: Engaging North Korea on the Ground, with Jerome Sauvage, Stimson Center

• Sept. 11 — The 9/11 Terrorist Attacks at 25: Assessing the Legacy, Addressing the Future, Brookings Institution

• Sept. 12-13 — AFA National Convention, Air & Space Forces Association

• Sept. 17 — A Conversation with Undersecretary of State Jacob Helberg on Securing America’s Artificial Intelligence Supply Chain, American Enterprise Institute

• Sept. 22-23 — Nuclear Energy Policy Summit 2026, Atlantic Council