Technology & Innovation

Xi’s big bet helps explain the Australian submarine deal

By Frederick Kempe

It is only in the context of Xi’s increased repressions at home and expanded ambitions abroad that one can fully understand Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s decision

Beyond the peninsula: Prospects for US-ROK regional cooperation in the Indo-Pacific

By Miyeon Oh

This report assesses the prospects of US-ROK regional cooperation in the Indo-Pacific under South Korea's New Southern Policy (NSP) and US Indo-Pacific strategy, providing recommendations for policymakers in Washington and Seoul on enhancing US-ROK economic engagement outside of the Korean peninsula.

How Russia made Apple and Google complicit in its internet crackdown

By Dylan Myles-Primakoff, Justin Sherman

Just as voting opened in Russia, Apple and Google deleted an app from their stores published by Alexei Navalny's team designed to deliver candidate recommendations. Here's why that signals an international problem.

Upgrading US public diplomacy: A new approach for the age of memes and disinformation

By Marta Churella, Wren Elhai, Amirah Ismail, Naima Green-Riley, Graham Lampa, Molly Moran, Jeff Ridenour, Dan Spokojny, and Megan Tetrick

A group of current and former State Department officials offer a set of principles and actions the Biden administration can adopt to strengthen US outreach efforts to overseas publics.

The Federal Innovator Podcast 4: “Accelerating Innovation”

During the pandemic, the State Department’s OBO Technology Accelerator Program made their world just a little bit smaller by piloting mixed reality headsets that allowed their experts to provide remote assistance to on-site workers via live point-of-view video calls. But what did it take to get this innovative technology up and running? And what is its future at the State Department? In this episode, co-hosts Tim Irvine and Stephanie Wander are joined by Danilo Stapula, chief information officer for the Overseas Buildings Operations for the State Department and Erica Jaume, technology accelerator program manager at the State Department.

Cyber defense across the ocean floor: The geopolitics of submarine cable security

By Justin Sherman

The vast majority of intercontinental global Internet traffic—upwards of 95 percent—travels over undersea cables that run across the ocean floor. The construction of new submarine cables is a key part of the constantly changing physical topology of the Internet worldwide. However, this dependence is not matched by increased security, leaving our undersea cables—the core of the global internet—at risk.

Could Vladimir Putin repeat his Crimean conquest in southwestern Ukraine?

By Michael Druckman

The Bessarabia region in southwestern Ukraine shares many of the same characteristics that helped facilitate the 2014 Kremlin takeover of Crimea and should be a national security priority for the Ukrainian authorities.

Ukraine’s digital revolution is gaining momentum

By Mykhailo Fedorov

September marks the second anniversary of Ukraine's Ministry of Digital Transformation. The Ministry can report significant progress in turning President Zelenskyy's dreams of a digital revolution into reality.