Programs

The Atlantic Council’s Cyber Statecraft Initiative, part of the Atlantic Council Technology Programs, works at the nexus of geopolitics and cybersecurity to craft strategies to help shape the conduct of statecraft and to better inform and secure users of technology.

Content

Report

Sep 28, 2020

Dude, where’s my cloud? A guide for wonks and users

By Simon Handler, Lily Liu, and Trey Herr

Cloud computing is transforming society, from interactions between people to the ways by which companies do business, and even how militaries operate. If you have ever been curious about what exactly “the cloud” meant; if you are a policy wonk not a technologist, a user not an admin, then this report is for you.

Cybersecurity Internet

Elections 2020

Sep 24, 2020

Five big questions as America votes: Cybersecurity

By Cyber Statecraft Initiative

With the next US presidential election looming, the next administration will face no shortage of substantive cyber policy issues. US adversaries such as China and Russia continue to undermine and fracture the free and open internet, while the technology ecosystem has been altered by the rapid adoption of cloud computing, placing immense power and responsibility in the hands of few technology giants, such as Amazon and Microsoft.

Cybersecurity Elections

UkraineAlert

Sep 23, 2020

Ukraine’s booming IT sector can drive positive change

By Yuliya Rimsky and Filip Sasic

As the international community seeks ways to strengthen Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic integration, private sector investment in the country’s attractive IT industry could have a significant and positive role to play.

Cybersecurity Entrepreneurship

In the News

Sep 21, 2020

Herr, Shahwan Edwards, Handler, and Loomis featured on an episode of the “Lessons from the School of Cyber Hard Knocks” podcast

By Atlantic Council

Joe Saunders hosts Trey Herr, Safa Shahwan Edwards, William Loomis, and Simon Handler to discuss the four pillars of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative, their recent research on the software supply chain, and programming plans going forward.

Cybersecurity Technology & Innovation

Future of DHS

Sep 21, 2020

Warrick calls for DHS reform in letter to Houston Chronicle

By Atlantic Council

In response to an article in the Houston Chronicle advocating for the dismantlement of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Forward Defense Non-Resident Senior Fellow Thomas Warrick writes that DHS can be reformed, including through the recommendations of the Atlantic Council’s Future of DHS Project. More about our experts:

China Coronavirus

In the News

Sep 18, 2020

Securing a future for farmers through technology

By Atlantic Council

COVID-19 has shaken up markets across the globe as much as it has societies, but perhaps no supply chain has been as impacted as that of food and agriculture. Fortunately, technology promises a brighter future, one where data shared over the internet can connect farmers directly with the people consuming their products. As Dr. David Bray, Director of the GeoTech Center, explained at the recent Agricultural Science Association of Ireland 2020 Conference, the world will need to consider an international approach, with far-reaching political implications, in order to rethink our current supply chains and meet the needs of our growing population, even with natural and human made shocks disrupting along the way.

Civil Society Coronavirus

In the News

Sep 18, 2020

Durkovich participates in panel on homeland security and transnational crime

By Atlantic Council

On October 12, Caitlin Durkovich, Forward Defense non-resident senior fellow and Future of DHS co-director, spoke on a panel hosted by the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center (CINA), a DHS Center of Excellence led by George Mason University.

Cybersecurity National Security

Event Recap

Sep 16, 2020

Event recap | Western society at the crossroads, part II: Smart partnerships in a changing world

By GeoTech Center

On Wednesday, September 16, 2020, the Atlantic Council's GeoTech Center hosted an expert roundtable about AI and its rapid ascendance to the next playing field for great power competition between the United States and China.

Cybersecurity Digital Policy
gtc photo of sun peaking through a large rock formation

GeoTech Cues

Sep 15, 2020

Open societies must create a grand strategy framework for data, sensemaking, and trust

By James Schmeling (Guest Author) and David Bray, PhD

Open societies are at a series of crossroads requiring intentional choices for the decade ahead. These choices are forced by new technologies, improvements in data capabilities, and changes in geopolitics globally. While human nature has not changed, the number of people on Earth has changed–up from 1.6 billion people on the planet in 1900, to 2.5 billion in the 1950s, to 7.8 billion in 2020.

Cybersecurity Digital Policy

GeoTech Cues

Sep 15, 2020

Why data governance matters: Use, trade, intellectual property, and diplomacy

By Pari Esfandiari, PhD, Gregory F. Treverton, PhD

Global data and internet governance represents a scattered, multi-stakeholder, bottom-up, and driven by loose coordination among various players. Data governance can be thought of as incorporating a triangle of individuals and their privacy, nation-states and their interests, and the private sector and its profits. Its current status and prospects might be thought of along several lines of activity, which are interrelated but, for the sake of clarity and with some danger of oversimplification, are discussed in the following different sections: privacy and data use; regulating to police content; using antitrust to dilute data monopolies; self-regulation and digital trade; intellectual property rights; and digital diplomacy.

Cybersecurity Digital Policy

Experts