International Norms

Statelessness in Ukraine: New law offers fresh hope

By Eric Fritz and Kseniia Karahiaur

Almost thirty years since the collapse of the USSR, statelessness remains a significant issue in independent Ukraine, but new legislation aims to make it easier for residents to gain legal status.

Dr. David Bray: Can people, data, and technology help build a shock-resistant planet?

By Atlantic Council

The WebIT Virtual Thought Summit recently brought together a number of GeoTech experts, including GeoTech Commissioner Dr. Vint Cerf, and GeoTech fellows Daniella Taveau and Dr. Divya Chander, for a panel discussion co-moderated by Dr. David Bray, Director of the GeoTech Center. These leading experts provided their own perspectives on how the world, in responding to COVID-19, might consider certain technologically enabled solutions to predict and protect against future crises. Importantly, the panel pointed out how these technologies must be intentionally designed with people’s needs at the center, lest open societies see well-intentioned innovation evolve into tools for a surveillance state.

State of the Order: Assessing June 2020

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

Trade and financial fragmentation: New challenges to global stability

By Robert A. Manning

There is greater uncertainty today about the future of global trade than at any time since the post-World War II trading system was created seven decades ago. This was true before the COVID-19 pandemic froze much of the world economy; the health crisis has added a new layer of uncertainty. We are at a historic inflection point: the global trade regime urgently needs renovation and updating to meet new challenges, yet it is fraying and fragmenting.

Emerging technologies: new challenges to global stability

By Robert A. Manning

The world may be fast approaching the perfect storm, with the intersection of two major global trends. At a moment of historic transition, when the post-WWII and post-Cold War international order is eroding amid competing visions of world order and renewed geopolitical rivalries, the world is also in the early stages of an unprecedented technological transformation

State of the Order: Assessing May 2020

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

Artificial intelligence principles: Avoiding catastrophe

By Robert A. Manning

An urgent challenge for the coming decade is to forge a global consensus to operationalize widely-shared ethical principles, standards, and norms to govern the development and use of artificial intelligence.

Trump’s G7 invite for Putin will encourage more war

By Yuliia Popyk

US President Donald Trump wants to invite Vladimir Putin to the next G7 summit, despite the Russian leader's refusal to end the aggression against Ukraine that led to his initial suspension from G8 in 2014.

Expert survey series: Supply chains and the effects of COVID-19, geopolitics, and technological innovation

By Andrea Little Limbago, Stewart Scott

For the fourth installment of the GeoTech Center’s expert survey series, we asked a range of business leaders and tech experts how COVID-19 has impacted their industry’s or enterprise’s supply chains. Significant shortages of personal protective equipment and tests have plagued hospitals, and many countries’ dependence on China quickly became evident in the initial rush to obtain supplies. Food supply chains have also been significantly disrupted--for instance, infection rates at meat packing plants are five-times greater than those in similar geographies.