International Norms

UAE, Bahrain deals with Israel offer the Mideast a historic chance for positive change—if the region will build upon it

By Frederick Kempe

These deals present the region its best opportunity perhaps ever to bury its bloody, self-defeating past and embrace moderation and modernity. Yet that will only be true if the parties can work with international partners to protect the so-called Abraham Accords Peace Agreement from extremist assault and from Israeli hardliners bent on territorial expansion.

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.

State of the Order: Assessing August 2020

The State of the Order breaks down the month's most important events impacting the democratic world order.

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.

Crisis innovation through data trusts: Dr. David Bray

By Atlantic Council

Major global crises like COVID-19 have proven how understanding data quickly and effectively will be essential to our survival; and, to meet that necessity, artificial intelligence will be key. However, without intentional choices to put people at the center of how we collect and manage data, artificial intelligence could spell the end of open societies, replaced instead with surveillance states or surveillance capitalism. “If companies or countries want to succeed in the next decade, we’ve got to figure out a way to do data with people, not to people,” Dr. Bray explained.

Building a collaborative ecosystem for AI in healthcare in Low and Middle Income Economies

By Abhinav Verma, Krisstina Rao, Vivek Eluri, and Yukti Sharma (GeoTech Guest Authors)

For AI-enabled technologies to truly transform healthcare and improve national and global health outcomes, it is imperative that cross-cutting challenges like data availability, business model sustainability, and lack of enabling infrastructure and other building blocks are addressed.

Burrows and Manning in The National Interest: What happens when America is no longer the undisputed super power?

By Atlantic Council

Preparing for the post-pandemic tech environment: Dr. David Bray

By Atlantic Council

Dr. David Bray, the GeoTech Center's director, envisions a future where proper preparedness and a people-centered perspective will allow humanity to harness the incredible innovations anticipated in the coming years for good. On an episode of the "Futurized" podcast with Trond Undheim, PhD, David discussed this vision, and how we at the GeoTech Center are working to make it a reality.