Shane McNeil
- Digital Marketing Specialist, Canada Life
Toronto
Mickey Toot’s great grandkid ... tweets my own, etc.
Is this you? As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.
Claim your profile
Articles by Shane McNeil
Corbett, China, and Counterintelligence
Corbett, China, and Counterintelligence Julian Corbett, the early 20th-century British naval theorist, offered a maritime strategy grounded not in dominance, but in utility. Read Full Article »
Proceedings - November 2025 Vol. 151/11/1,473
P CEO Notes CEO Notes Join us on 10 December at the International Spy Museum in Washington, D.C., for Defense Forum Washington. From Our Website: USNI.org Proceedings is more than just a print magazine. Here are excerpts from some of the online-only content you may have missed. P Commentary Corbett, China, and Counterintelligence The U.S. Navy has long been influenced by Mahanian orthodoxy—but as competition with China intensifies that doctrine may be dangerously outdated.
Corbett, China, and Counterintelligence
Mr. McNeil is the counterintelligence policy advisor on the Joint Staff and a doctoral student at the Institute of World Politics, specializing in statesmanship and national security.
Liberty, Equality, and the Security Clearance Process
The American experiment was founded on the principle that liberty and equality are not privileges granted by rulers, but rights inherent to every individual. These values shaped the Constitution and gave the United States its unique political identity. They also continue to matter for national security in ways that many often overlook. One of the clearest examples is the security clearance process.
Modernizing CI Training for Diplomats: New Legislation Aims to Sharpen the Shield Abroad
U.S. diplomats are facing sharper threats from foreign intelligence services, and Congress is taking notice. A recently proposed bill aims to overhaul counterintelligence training. The proposal comes as adversaries from Russia to China step up surveillance and influence campaigns against American missions abroad.
AI + Ubiquitous Tech = National Security Risk Multiplier
In the latest warning sign that AI is no longer a theoretical threat vector, OpenAI’s June 2025 report unveiled 10 distinct campaigns using its tools for coordinated cyber, espionage, and influence operations by adversaries, including China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran. These cases are no longer “what if” scenarios. They are active operations that leverage generative AI to scale deception, obfuscate origins, and manipulate digital ecosystems in real-time.
Diversity as Strategic Strength in National Security
The United States has long recognized that power is not only measured in terms of weapons or wealth, but also in terms of people. A society that draws strength from many different perspectives has an advantage over one that insists on conformity. For national security, this principle is not abstract. Diversity is one of America’s most critical strategic assets. The Problem of Groupthink History offers sobering lessons about what happens when decision-making is limited to people who think alike.
Sanding Decks, Selling Secrets: A Navy Sailor’s Betrayal and What It Means for National Security
The conviction of Navy sailor Jinchao Wei underscores how even junior personnel can cause outsized damage to national security. For just $12,000, Wei fed sensitive ship details to Chinese intelligence—proving that access and intent can be as dangerous as rank or position. He wasn’t a senior officer, and he didn’t have access to launch codes. He didn’t even have a job that raised any red flags in the counterintelligence world.
A Familiar Threat: UK Universities Now Grapple With Chinese Surveillance Tactics Seen in the U.S.
A new report out of the United Kingdom has confirmed what national security professionals in the United States have warned about for years: Chinese Communist Party (CCP)-linked pressure campaigns on foreign university campuses are not isolated incidents. They are coordinated, deliberate, and spreading.
The Idea of America as a National Security Asset
America has always been more than land or population. It has defined itself through a set of principles: liberty, equality, and human dignity. From the Declaration of Independence onward, these principles have shaped both domestic life and the nation’s international reputation. They have provided the United States with a source of strength that extends beyond its military or economic capacities.
Applying Project Management Principles Across the DoD
Without structure, campaigns risk becoming directionless and ineffective.
FROM CONCEPTS TO CAMPAIGNS: APPLYING PROJECT MANAGEMENT PRINCIPLES ACROSS THE DOD
Without structure, campaigns risk becoming directionless and ineffective. Within the Department of Defense, the term “campaigning” is often used too broadly, blurring the distinction between focused strategy and generalized activity. Doctrinally, a campaign is a coordinated effort with defined objectives, timelines, and measurable outcomes. Without structure, campaigns risk becoming directionless and ineffective.
The Social Contract: America’s Most Underrated Security Tool
From the beginning, the American republic was built on a bargain between the individual and the state. Citizens grant the government limited authority to protect their safety, and in return the state pledges to respect the liberties of its people. This balance, known as the social contract, remains central to both American political philosophy and national security strategy.
America’s Soft Target: How Division Became the New Weapon
America’s greatest vulnerability is not a foreign missile or a cyber exploit. It is internal division. When citizens begin to see one another as enemies, the idea of America—liberty, equality, and human dignity—weakens from within. Adversaries have recognized this for decades. Today, they actively seek to amplify polarization, exploit identity politics, and spread conspiracy theories to erode trust in American institutions.
Modernizing CI Training for Diplomats: New Legislation Aims to Sharpen the Shield Abroad
As hostile intelligence services become more aggressive in their targeting of American diplomats, a new legislative push on Capitol Hill is aimed at sharpening the counterintelligence posture of those on the front lines. On August 19, Congressman Mike Lawler (R-NY), Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Middle East and North Africa, introduced the Modernize Diplomatic Security Training Act.
When the Job Offer Is a Trap: Chinese Espionage Campaign Targets Laid-Off Feds
In the aftermath of widespread downsizing across federal agencies, thousands of former employees turned to LinkedIn and online job boards in search of their next opportunity. Many of them never imagined that simply submitting a resume could make them a target for foreign intelligence.
Counterintelligence Warfare: Putting Info Warheads on Spy Foreheads
It’s long past time to stop treating counterintelligence (CI) like a legal compliance back office. In today’s battlespace, CI isn’t a support function—it’s a warfighting discipline. And if the Department of Defense wants to survive the next war with a near-peer adversary like China, it needs to start thinking of counterintelligence not as a protective layer but as an offensive tool—one capable of achieving real effects.
The American Way of Unrestricted Warfare: Competing Without Becoming China
In 1999, two Chinese colonels published a slim volume called Unrestricted Warfare—a blueprint for defeating a stronger adversary through the erosion of rules, the fusion of war and peace, and the use of every instrument of national power. At the time, few American readers took it seriously. Today, it reads more like a prophecy. China has weaponized nearly every dimension of globalization: capital markets, infrastructure projects, research partnerships, telecom networks, and even Hollywood scripts.
Traveling With a Security Clearance? Lock Down Your Phone Before You Leave
Cleared professionals don’t just carry phones. They carry risks. Whether you are headed to a government meeting overseas or just visiting family abroad, your smartphone is a high-value target. Foreign intelligence services, criminal syndicates, and even opportunistic hackers see mobile devices as windows into your professional and personal life. If you are not securing your phone before you travel, you are effectively handing out copies of your passport, travel itinerary, and inbox to adversaries.
Bumble, AI, and the GDPR: A Privacy Test Case for U.S. Tech Abroad
Tech companies often move fast, but European regulators are moving faster. Once again, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is being tested. This time, the target is Bumble, the U.S.-based company best known for its dating platform, but now expanding into new AI-powered social tools. One such tool is part of the Bumble for Friends app. A feature known as “Icebreakers” is under formal scrutiny from European privacy advocates for allegedly failing to secure proper user consent.
Taiwan’s Internal Spy Scandals Signal a Broader Chinese Espionage Threat
Recent espionage charges in Taiwan have exposed a troubling and escalating pattern: Chinese intelligence operatives continue to target the heart of democratic institutions using human assets embedded in trusted positions. Taiwan’s latest prosecution of multiple former political staffers is not just a national scandal—it is a global warning.
Your Devices Are Watching-Here’s How to Outsmart Ubiquitous Surveillance
It’s easy to sound dramatic when talking about modern surveillance. And let’s be honest—phrases like “your car tracks you even when it’s off” don’t exactly reassure. But we need to get something straight: this isn’t the end of privacy. It’s the beginning of a smarter approach to it. Ubiquitous technical surveillance (UTS) is real. It’s ambient, persistent, and mostly invisible. But it’s not omnipotent.
China’s Latin America Playbook: Malign Influence, Strategic Infrastructure, and the National Security Blind Spot
For decades, Washington treated Latin America as its strategic backyard. Today, Beijing treats it as a forward operating base. The Chinese Communist Party’s growing political, economic, and military footprint across Latin America should ring every alarm bell inside the national security community—particularly for cleared professionals whose missions could be affected by China’s ability to undermine regional stability and project influence dangerously close to U.S. borders.
The Most Overlooked Counterintelligence Tool? Your Local Police Department
For decades, counterintelligence (CI) has been viewed as the exclusive domain of federal agencies — the realm of the FBI, DoD CI units, and other three-letter organizations. But in today’s threat environment, where foreign intelligence activities blend seamlessly with criminal tradecraft and commercial activity, that model is no longer sufficient. State and local law enforcement The challenge is simple: hostile intelligence activity is no longer limited to embassies and defense installations.
The New Human Terrain: Surveillance Capitalism as a Counterintelligence Threat Vector
In military planning, understanding the human terrain used to mean studying tribes, loyalties, customs, and fault lines. Now, it means studying your digital footprint—where you eat, how fast you drive, what time you wake up, who you text, and what you binge-watch after a long day at the SCIF. And the twist? You volunteered all of it. Welcome to surveillance capitalism—the only intelligence collection program you willingly subscribe to, pay for, and carry in your pocket.
Defense in Depth: Building a Forward Operating Base for Your Data
Imagine you’ve just been dropped into a contested environment. You establish a forward-operating base. You don’t pound some pickets, build a fence, and call it a day—you build in layers. You secure the perimeter, set up obstacles, dig fighting positions, install observation posts, and prep quick reaction forces. You don’t assume the enemy might come. You plan for when they will. Now, shift the terrain from kinetic to digital. Instead of a physical FOB, you’re building a privacy posture.
Disinformation vs. Misinformation: How China and Russia Exploit Social Media Against the U.S.
The terms “disinformation” and “misinformation” are often used interchangeably, but for cleared professionals operating in national security, understanding the distinction is critical. These two concepts play distinct but overlapping roles in the information operations of adversarial states like China and Russia.
How Cleared Professionals Can Spot Disinformation and Misinformation on Social Media
The digital age has revolutionized the way we consume information, but it has also opened the floodgates for adversaries to weaponize social media against the U.S. Disinformation and misinformation—whether intentional or not—are key tools used by foreign actors to sow division, erode trust, and manipulate public opinion. These campaigns often exploit emotional responses, particularly anger or fear, to drive engagement and amplify their reach.
Finding Common Ground: The Key to Reuniting a Divided America
The United States has always been a nation of diverse perspectives, but in recent years, ideological divisions have become so severe that it feels as though Americans are living in two separate realities. Every issue, no matter how critical, seems to be filtered through the lens of left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal, red vs. blue. But what if Americans could step back from the partisan noise and recognize that, beneath the surface, they share far more in common than they realize?
U.S. Political Turmoil: A Growing National Security Risk
The United States has always been a beacon of democracy and a global leader in security, but one of its greatest vulnerability has always been internal division. Today, America faces an unprecedented level of political turmoil. The sharp ideological divide, intensified by the recent change in presidential administrations, is having a direct and profound impact on national and global security.
Why Diversity and Inclusion Are Essential for National Security
National security is not just about military strength or intelligence capabilities—it’s about ensuring that the United States can anticipate, understand, and respond to threats from every possible angle. In an increasingly complex world, where adversaries employ unconventional tactics and technology evolves at an unprecedented pace, a national security apparatus that lacks diversity is a national security liability.
TikTok and China’s Unrestricted Warfare: A Threat the U.S. Cannot Ignore
The debate over banning TikTok in the United States has been poorly articulated by policymakers, leaving many Americans unconvinced that the popular app poses a serious threat. Arguments centered around “data privacy” have failed to resonate with a public desensitized to surveillance and breaches, especially in an age dominated by tech giants. What’s missing from the discourse is a broader understanding of TikTok’s role as a weapon in China’s strategy of Unrestricted Warfare.
Data is the New Oil: How the Fight for Information Could Ignite Global Conflict
The phrase “data is the new oil” has become a defining metaphor of the 21st century. It reflects the reality that in today’s interconnected world, data is not just a valuable resource—it is the foundation of power, influence, and economic prosperity. Just as oil fueled the geopolitical conflicts of the 20th century, data is increasingly positioned as the resource most likely to ignite conflict in the 21st century.
Why Cleared Professionals Should Consider Alternative Social Media Platforms
Social media has long been a double-edged sword for national security professionals. On one hand, platforms like X and LinkedIn allow cleared professionals to network, share thought leadership, and stay up-to-date on trends in technology and global events. On the other hand, these platforms have become increasingly vulnerable to malign influence campaigns, bot infiltration, and misinformation efforts—posing risks not only to individuals but also to national security.
The Distinct Roles of Counterintelligence and Security in National Defense
Cleared professionals often joke about secrecy when there’s a “CI guy” in the room, but what they’re actually referring to is the critical role of security. While both counterintelligence (CI) and security are essential to national defense, they serve distinct purposes and employ different strategies. Counterintelligence: An Effects-Focused Approach Counterintelligence is fundamentally about creating effects that deny, degrade, deter, disrupt, and deceive foreign intelligence operations.
From Stress to False Positives: Why Do We Still Use Polygraphs?
Despite overwhelming evidence that polygraphs are ineffective, they remain a staple in the security clearance process. Why does this outdated method persists and what are its implications for the cleared community? Polygraph Flaws Polygraphs, often referred to as “lie detectors,” are widely used in security screenings and criminal investigations. However, their effectiveness is highly questionable.
Why Counterintelligence Needs the Private Sector
Counterintelligence (CI) is crucial for identifying and mitigating threats from foreign adversaries – whether those threats come from insiders, cyber actors, or spies. Traditionally, government agencies have led these efforts, but the increasing complexity of threats means that collaboration with the private sector is more important than ever.
The Role of Mentorship in Shaping Future National Security Leaders
Investing in the next generation of national security professionals is crucial for maintaining a robust and adaptive security framework. This investment involves comprehensive training, effective mentoring, adaptable career paths, and leadership that focuses on developing well-rounded individuals. Such an approach not only enhances individual capabilities but also strengthens national security as a whole.
Realigning Counterintelligence in the Grey Zone: A New Era for U.S. Defense
Counterintelligence (CI) is a cornerstone of national defense, protecting against espionage, sabotage, and other intelligence threats from foreign adversaries. Traditionally, CI has operated under the Directorate of Intelligence (J2), focusing on defensive measures. However, evolving global security dynamics suggest a strategic realignment as a Joint Fires Element (JFE) could significantly boost CI’s effectiveness.
Is USCYBERCOM Our Largest and Most Impactful Counterintelligence Organization?
Should USCYBERCOM be considered a counterintelligence (CI) organization? This question is increasingly relevant as cyber threats continue to evolve and expand. By examining USCYBERCOM’s roles, responsibilities, and contributions to countering foreign intelligence threats, particularly in cyberspace, one can build a compelling argument that it indeed functions as a critical CI entity.
Gray Zone Warfare: How Counterintelligence Must Adapt to Modern Threats
As the global security landscape evolves, so too must our approach to counterintelligence (CI). For over two decades, CI professionals have been deeply entrenched in the Global War on Terror (GWOT), focusing on non-state actors and asymmetric threats. This focus has shaped their skills, methodologies, and operational frameworks. However, the rise of strategic competition with major nation-state actors like China (PRC) and Russia necessitates a paradigm shift.
Kill Chain: A Comprehensive Review on the Implications of Technological Theft
In Kill Chain, Christian Brose presents a stark and compelling narrative about the future of American defense in the face of high-tech warfare. As a former staff director of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Brose brings a wealth of experience and insight to the discussion of the United States’ preparedness—or lack thereof—for the next generation of conflict.
China's Surveillance State and the Western Tech Connection
China’s use of technology to monitor and control its population, predominantly the Muslim Uyghur minority in Xinjiang, has drawn widespread condemnation from human rights groups and Western governments.
War Without Rules: A Critical Examination of Unrestricted Warfare and Its Implications
In War Without Rules, retired Air Force Brigadier General Robert Spalding unveils the multifaceted strategy of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to undermine and eventually dominate global affairs. The book serves as a call to the United States and its Five Eyes (FVEY) allies, highlighting the urgent need to immediately adapt to a new era of conflict where traditional battle lines are blurred and every sector of society is a potential front.
Digital Borders in a Connected World: Navigating Cyber Sovereignty and Global Cybersecurity
In the digital era, the notion of cyber sovereignty is emerging as a pivotal force reshaping the global cybersecurity landscape. As nations grapple with the challenge of governing the digital space within their borders, the tension between national security and international cooperation becomes increasingly pronounced.
The Invisible Assault: Deepfakes and the 2024 Presidential Election
As Americans prepare for the next election, our adversaries are preparing as well with their most dangerous weapon — one that can sway public opinion, tarnish reputations, and potentially disrupt the very core of our democracy. This weapon is the deepfake, a sophisticated form of artificial intelligence-generated media that can convincingly replicate a person’s likeness and voice.
How Defense Contractors Protect DNS Security within the Defense Industrial Base
In an increasingly digitized world, the security of critical internet infrastructure like the Domain Name System (DNS) has never been more important. DNS serves a relatively simple function – keeping the World Wide Web running smoothly by mapping domain names to IP addresses – but it is fundamentally crucial. Without well-secured DNS, criminal cyber actors and adversary nations are free to use this service against us. Defense contractors play a vital role by securing DNS in the end.
The Private Sector's Pivotal Role in National Defense
The private sector plays a crucial yet often understated role in bolstering national defense. This symbiotic relationship extends beyond mere contractual obligations, as businesses of all sizes contribute innovative solutions and technologies that enhance the United States’ defense capabilities. From cutting-edge research and development to the production of essential equipment, the private sector’s involvement is a cornerstone of our national security strategy.
Democracy and Dollars: The Intersection of Capitalism and Democratic Ideals
With its vast population, China’s market beckons American businesses with the promise of vast financial rewards. Sadly, this allure often comes at the expense of the values that underpin American society. The principles of liberty, equality, and democracy can become secondary to the pursuit of profit. Instances such as Apple’s compliance with Chinese censorship and the NBA’s restrained response to comments supporting Hong Kong demonstrate the compromises made.
Commercial vs. Adversarial: Understanding the Threats of Data Exploitation
In the digital age, concerns about data privacy and security extend beyond the familiar terrain of domestic tech giants like Google, Amazon, and Facebook. While these companies have faced scrutiny over their data practices, a potentially more sinister threat looms from abroad—particularly from countries like China and Russia. The exploitation of American data by these nations is not just a breach of privacy; it’s a matter of national security.
Show More
loading
Actions
Is this you?
As a journalist, you can create a free Muck Rack account to customize your profile, list your contact preferences, and upload a portfolio of your best work.Get in touch with Shane
Contact Shane, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack