Indian Strategic Studies: 02/19/20

19 February 2020

US President Trump’s India Visit-Geopolitically Significant:

By Dr Subhash Kapila
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US President Trump’s first visit to India on February 25, 2020 is highly significant geopolitically when churning global politics presents unpredictable power templates and challenging strategic uncertainties to both the United States and India too, mainly generated by China not emerging as a responsible stakeholder in Indo Pacific security.

Initially it needs to be recorded that in terms of overall perspectives on President Trump’s visit to India the emphasis or significant take-ways would be more geopolitical, strategic and military –all aimed at further reinforcing the US-India Strategic Partnership. Trade issues will figure prominently but can expectedly not subsume the geopolitical and military determinants that presently define the relationship between the United States and India.

India stands geopolitically acknowledged as a Major Power by US President Trump in that his India visit is a ‘Stand Alone’ visit to India exclusively and not clubbed with Pakistan as in past US presidential visits. It reflects the value that the United States places on India’s geopolitical significance in the global power calculus and the significance of the US-India Strategic Partnership, with special reference to Indo Pacific security. It also needs to be read tangentially that the United States concedes that India is the Regional Power in South Asia dispensing with past US policy formulations of balancing India by strategic use of Pakistan.

Are US Forces Striking Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan Members in Afghanistan for Islamabad?

By Umair Jamal

Over the last week, several senior members of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) have been killed in Afghanistan. However, it’s not only the Pakistani Taliban that has suffered heavy losses. A senior member of the Baloch Republican Army (BRA), a militant organization known for targeting Pakistan’s interests, was also killed in Iran a few days ago.

The deaths of the Pakistani Taliban and BRA members comes at a time when the United States and the Afghan Taliban are on the cusp of signing a peace agreement in Afghanistan.

The deaths of several anti-Pakistan militant leaders in Afghanistan and Iran are reflective of several previous such developments where Pakistan’s push to assist Washington in Afghanistan was rewarded with an action against groups that Pakistan considers an enemy. If this is the case, then we may see a wider and targeted campaign against the TTP in Afghanistan in the coming weeks and months.

Preparing for pandemics such as coronavirus—will we ever break the vicious cycle of panic and neglect?

Gavin Yamey, Marco Schäferhoff, Kaci Kennedy McDade, and Wenhui Mao

On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) determined that the outbreak of the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) that originated in China was a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. Although researchers quickly identified and sequenced the virus, our weak global pandemic preparedness system has led to rising numbers of people infected with 2019-nCoV worldwide. The virus is highly transmissible, and is likely to become a pandemic. WHO has requested $675 million for a coronavirus preparedness and response plan.

When a pandemic occurs, global health donors rush to provide a burst of pandemic funding. Then, just as we saw in the wake of past outbreaks like the 2014-2016 Ebola outbreak or the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, once the pandemic is under control, funders move on to other concerns. As a result, we never actually get around to building a truly effective pandemic preparedness system. Peter Sands, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, calls this pattern “cycles of panic and neglect.” On Monday, February 3, WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged the agency’s 196 member countries to “invest in preparedness,” and to not “panic.”

Whether Trump wins or loses the election, the Asia-Pacific needs a democratic defence against China

Kelly Magsamen

Many of these questions revolve around China. How will the United States adjust to a world in which it is no longer the only dominant global power? Can the region change with it?

Over the past decade, US policies – from the “pivot to Asia” to the “free and open Indo-Pacific” – have recognised the region’s importance to the security of its citizens and allies. These policies aim to promote US interests and values, including the rule of law, freedom of navigation, economic opportunity and the universal rights of all peoples.

However, China’s military modernisation, combined with its assertive territorial strategy, is challenging US primacy. Meanwhile, its historic growth over the past two decades has made it the primary economic force in the region.

China is the largest trading partner of Asean and of key US allies including Australia. Washington – hobbled by its withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership and its lack of a substitute regional economic vision – has retreated at the precise moment China is surging.

Is Political Change Coming to China?

YUEN YUEN ANG

ANN ARBOR – In contemporary China, profound political transformation can – and has – taken place in the absence of regime change or Western-style democratization. The starkest example is the period of “reform and opening” that began in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping’s charge. Although Deng rejected multiparty elections, he fundamentally changed the direction of the Communist Party of China (CPC), as well as the distribution of power within it.

The coronavirus epidemic that began in Wuhan in December 2019 may augur a similar historic turning point. The outbreak of what is now called COVID-19 represents more than just a passing moment of stress for the CPC. The world should be prepared for what could come next.

Normally, a single epidemic, even if mishandled, would not break the Chinese regime. Over the past four decades, the CPC has weathered numerous crises, from the 1989 Tiananmen tragedy and the 2002-03 SARS epidemic to the 2008 global financial crisis. Some of the regime’s critics have long predicted its imminent demise, only to be proven wrong. Before President Xi Jinping, the Chinese style of governance was adaptive and decentralized, or what I call “directed improvisation.” In addition, civil society, including muckraking journalism, expanded rapidly.

What the Fight Against the New Coronavirus Tells Us About the Post-Reform PLA

By Ying Yu Lin

Since mid-January, the public and media around the world have focused their attention on the new coronavirus that originated in Wuhan. As the virus spread from China to elsewhere in the world, panicked people began buying personal protective equipment while major cities in China started to take measures to contain the spread of the virus. Some cities, largely in Hubei province, have even been locked down entirely under tight quarantine. International flights in and out of China were suspended and China’s economy was greatly affected as a result. All this shows the damage the coronavirus epidemic has caused.

There have been many reports analyzed the coronavirus outbreak from angles ranging from public health and medical management to more general crisis management. This article will look at the role of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) in the fight against the new coronavirus to evaluate the impact of recent military reforms. In doing so, we can see certain potential problems with the PLA.

Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, China’s Government Tightens Its Grip

By Maximilian Mayer and Nicholas Ross Smith

The ongoing coronavirus outbreak is a monumental challenge for the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in China. The deaths are mounting, draconian laws are affecting the daily lives of the entire population, and the economic costs are already staggering and growing day by day.

The political implications of the coronavirus outbreak have become particularly virulent in the wake of the death of the whistleblowing doctor, Li Wenliang. For many, the story of Dr. Li symbolizes the CCP’s culpability for the epidemic spinning out of control. His death led to significant public outrage online and, despite strict censorship, a noticeable backlash against the Party has begun, with various movements for freedom of speech and transparency emerging online.

Combine this with the numerous revelations of local cadres and the Chinese Red Cross mishandling the response to the epidemic and it is fair to say this is the most significant legitimacy crisis the CCP has faced since 1989.

Huawei: China’s Controversial Tech Giant

by Lindsay Maizland and Andrew Chatzky
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The Chinese telecommunications company faces accusations from President Donald J. Trump and other leaders that Beijing could use it for cyber espionage. The outcome of the struggle could shape the world’s tech and 5G landscape for years to come.

The Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei is central to the construction of new fifth-generation (5G) mobile networks around the world, yet its global influence has led the United States to raise concerns about whether the Chinese government could use the company to spy, or to sabotage critical infrastructure. Washington has led a crackdown on Huawei by enforcing nationwide bans on the company’s equipment and encouraging its allies to do the same.

Some experts warn that tensions between Washington and Beijing over technology could lead to a “digital iron curtain,” which would result in governments having to decide between doing business with the United States or China.

What is Huawei?

France's Muslim Predicament

by Steven Philip Kramer
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IT IS often said that there is a Muslim problem in France. But that does not mean that French Muslims themselves are necessarily its cause, any more than that Jews were responsible for the Jewish Question in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe.

The French Muslim world is large and heterogeneous and defies facile generalization. Unfortunately, facile generalizations abound. The French Muslim “problem” is frequently the subject of heated ideological debates and gross simplifications, which obscure (often intentionally) rather than enlighten. French Islam is often seen in terms of religious essentialism and determinism, ignoring the diversity of Muslim practice and historical experience. But religion is only one element of the story. Few Muslims have anything to do with terrorism, yet, understandably, hideous acts of terrorism committed in the name of Islam cannot fail to frighten fellow citizens and make it more difficult for Muslims to be accepted as Frenchmen “like everyone else.” In this context, Islamism and self-segregation on the part of some Muslims also play into the hands of racists.

Continuation of Policy by Other Means: Russian Private Military Contractors in the Libyan Civil War

By: Sergey Sukhankin

Introduction

Since the outbreak of the Libyan civil war in 2011, Moscow has been trying to demonstrate a balanced and pragmatic approach — considered in Russian conservative circles to be “excessively conformist” and even “defeatist” (YouTube.com, January 30, 2013). Director General of the Russian International Affairs Council, Andrey Kortunov, argued in July 2019 that Russia’s key objective in Libya is to “maintain constructive ties with all actors”(Russiancouncil.ru, July 31, 2019). For a considerable period of time, Russia was the only major player capable of preserving dialogue not only with Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and Government of National Accord (GNA) Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, but with Muammar Gaddafi’s son Saif al-Islam (Gazeta.ru, December 24, 2018) ). Sometime between late 2018 and early 2019, Russia seemed to have chosen Haftar as its main bet in the conflict. On the one hand, the field marshal was a much more understandable personality for the Russian military leadership; on the other hand, Haftar had reportedly promised Moscow “huge concessions” in the oil, transportation/construction, and defense sectors in exchange for military support (Vz.ru, July 6, 2017). This pattern (“concessions for security” formula) was previously tested in Syria. In November 2018, Yevgeny Prigozhin, an alleged sponsor of the private military contractor (PMC) Wagner Group, was spotted at the meeting between Haftar and Russia`s Defense Minister Sergey Shoygu, when, as argued by Russian sources, a decision to send a massive group of Russian mercenaries to Libya might have been made (Graniru.org, November 9, 2018. As reported by Russian-language, Arabic, and Western sources, Russian mercenaries have taken an active part in the Operation Flood of Dignity (Haftar`s offensive against Tripoli) that started in April 2019 (Svoboda.org, September 27, 2019; Inosmi.ru, November 26, 2019; Timesofmalta.com, November 7, 2019). Based on the Russian experience in other conflicts in Africa, it is hardly a surprise that Moscow opted to use PMCs in pursuit of its geo-economic and geopolitical objectives in Libya (War by Other Means, January 10, 2020).

Russian Mercenaries in Libya: Continuity and Tradition

Blow To Bitcoin As ‘Significant’ U.S. Crypto Crackdown Suddenly Revealed

Billy Bambrough

The U.S. bitcoin and cryptocurrency community has had a rough week—and its future is looking bleak.

This week, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin warned "significant" new bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulations are on their way, Minneapolis Federal Reserve president Neel Kashkari branded cryptocurrencies "a giant garbage dumpster," and the Department of Justice called bitcoin mixing "a crime."

Mnuchin, who last year echoed U.S. president Donald Trump's criticism of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, told the Senate Finance Committee the U.S. Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is preparing "significant new requirements" around cryptocurrencies and we'll "be seeing a lot of work coming out very quickly."

"We want to make sure that technology moves forward but, on the other hand, we want to make sure that cryptocurrencies aren't used for the equivalent of old Swiss secret number bank accounts," Mnuchin said, adding FinCEN and the Treasury Department more broadly are "spending a lot of time on this."

Meanwhile, adding to the assault on bitcoin and cryptocurrencies coming out of the U.S. this week, Minneapolis Fed president Neel Kashkari said cryptocurrencies lack the basic characteristics of any stable currency.

Blow To Bitcoin As ‘Significant’ U.S. Crypto Crackdown Suddenly Revealed

by Billy Bambrough

This week, Treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin warned “significant” new bitcoin and cryptocurrency regulations are on their way, Minneapolis Federal Reserve president Neel Kashkari branded cryptocurrencies “a giant garbage dumpster,” and the Department of Justice called bitcoin mixing “a crime.”

However, the news has failed to much move the bitcoin price, which remains up almost 50% since the beginning of the year.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told the Senate [+] [-]Finance Committee that the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is preparing to unveil new regulations around bitcoin and cryptocurrencies.

Mnuchin, who last year echoed U.S. president Donald Trump’s criticism of bitcoin and cryptocurrencies, told the Senate Finance Committee the U.S. Treasury Department’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is preparing “significant new requirements” around cryptocurrencies and we’ll “be seeing a lot of work coming out very quickly.”

5G and Huawei: The UK and EU Decide

By John Lee

The U.K.’s decision in late January to allow “high-risk vendors” to equip parts of its 5G telecommunications networks permits the continuing involvement of Huawei, a company described by U.S. legislators and officials as an arm of the Chinese state. The decision has been widely portrayed as a sacrifice of the U.K.’s security and that of partner nations to short-sighted material greed. It has been blasted in the U.K. Parliament and by critics abroad, who have blamed it on post-Brexit fear of retaliation from China and the clout of “Beijing-backed business interests.”

In fact, the controversy reflects deeper disagreements over engineering and security design for 5G networks, and about whether the basic problem involved is one of risk management, or of fundamental incompatibility with the Chinese political system in which Huawei operates. These diverging views can be expected to surface in other contexts as Chinese firms expand their presence across the global economy.

The slow death of ambition: German foreign policy after Kramp-Karrenbauer's resignation Note from Berlin

Jana Puglierin

The grand coalition will continue to be a kind of caretaker government in its lack of a big foreign policy vision.

When Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK) announced her resignation as leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on 10 February, the Berlin rumour mill began to buzz with one big question: would this mean the end of the party’s unpopular “grand coalition”?

It soon became clear, however, that the German proverb Totgesagte leben länger (the dead live longer) is grounded in reality. The forced marriage between the CDU, its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has survived no less than a very close vote on the coalition agreement among SPD members; an existential clash between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Horst Seehofer, minister of the interior and leader of the CSU; and the election as leaders of the SPD of two little-known left-wingers who called for an immediate exit from the coalition during their campaign. As a member of the Bundestag recently remarked, this version of the coalition has been in a state of emergency since day one.

Nonetheless, the grand coalition has been pronounced dead so many times that one can be almost certain all three parliamentary groups will stick with it until the very end. Both the CDU and the SPD now have a leadership problem: they do not know who they could put forward in an early race for the chancellorship. Moreover, support for the conservatives and the social democrats is at a record low, while the Greens are surfing a wave of success. Given that there is also widespread fear of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) becoming more popular and more radical, it is easy to understand why both parties tend to see a snap election as political suicide.

The Price of Primacy

By Stephen Wertheim

The collapse of the Soviet Union revealed the bankruptcy of international communism. In time, the absence of a Cold War foe also exposed the bankruptcy of Washington’s global ambitions. Freed from major challengers, the United States had an unprecedented chance to shape international politics according to its wishes. It could have chosen to live in harmony with the world, pulling back its armed forces and deploying them only for vital purposes. It could have helped build a world of peace, strengthening the laws and institutions that constrain war and that most other states welcome. From this foundation of security and goodwill, the United States could have exercised leadership on the already visible challenges ahead, including climate change and the concentration of ungoverned wealth.

Instead, Washington did the opposite. It adopted a grand strategy that gave pride of place to military threats and methods, and it constructed a form of global integration that served the immediate interests of a few but imperiled the long-term interests of the many. At best, these were mistaken priorities. At worst, they turned the United States into a destructive actor in the world. Rather than practice and cultivate peace, Washington pursued armed domination and launched futile wars in Afghanistan in 2001, in Iraq in 2003, and in Libya in 2011. These actions created more enemies than they defeated. They killed hundreds of thousands of civilians and overextended a generation of U.S. service members. They damaged laws and institutions that stabilize the world and the United States. They made the American people less safe.

‘Global Britain’ is missing in action

By STEPHEN BROWN

MUNICH — Two weeks into post-Brexit reality and "Global Britain" risks cutting a sad figure on the international stage.

The domestic obsessions of Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his top adviser Dominic Cummings, such as pharaonic infrastructure projects and settling scores with a Cabinet reshuffle, mean Britain has taken its eye off the ball when it comes to diplomacy.

When dozens of presidents, prime ministers, foreign and defense ministers and military chiefs gathered in Bavaria this weekend for the annual Munich Security Conference, the U.K. was notable for only one thing — its absence.

Johnson declined an offer of the most coveted spot on the podium, ceding the spotlight to French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, among others. U.K. Foreign Minister Dominic Raab didn't turn up, nor did Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, even though neither of them was affected by the much-heralded reshuffle.

Europe’s Moment of Truth

Many argue that Europe is too weak and divided to become a global power capable of filling the strategic void created by America’s inward turn, addressing China’s growing strength, and confronting Russian revisionism. Will the European Union’s new leaders prove the skeptics wrong?

In this Big Picture, Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, says that Europe must relearn the language of power and find the political will to realize its geopolitical potential. Likewise, Ana Palacio, a former Spanish foreign minister, suggests that Europe has massive diplomatic potential that can be realized only if it regains its collective self-confidence. More concretely, former German foreign minister Sigmar Gabriel and Michael Hüther of the German Economic Institute highlight five areas where Europe must take responsibility for its strategic interests.

But George Soros says European leaders do not fully recognize the threat that China under President Xi Jinping poses to the EU’s founding values, and urges them to challenge Xi over his failure to uphold human rights. Former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt, meanwhile, says the EU should pursue a policy of wary strategic engagement with China, not least to help preserve the global trade system and tackle climate change.

The U.S. Economy Is Rigged

by Milton Ezrati
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IT IS no secret that Americans have rebelled. On both the left and the right, people have made clear their disgust with business-as-usual. For the Republicans, the Tea Party rebellion began to alter the established party, and the election of Donald Trump rendered the change nearly complete. A comparable rebellion against established practice has pulled the Democratic Party far to the left. Polls show a common complaint: that the system is “rigged” in favor of a self-serving business and government elite. While the public cannot identify exactly how the system is rigged, it is nonetheless correct: elites in business and government collude regularly to run the American economy to their own advantages and have increasingly done so for decades. Public disgust and resistance to this pattern is entirely understandable. Indeed, for all the disruption and frustration brought by this resistance, it is welcome.

Though collusion might usually spring from a conspiracy, the economy’s movement in this direction seems actually to have developed with little malice and in many respects even unconsciously. When politicians, corporate executives, pundits, journalists, academics, and activists alike propose ways to make society more just or efficient or globally competitive, they invariably call for some kind of government-corporate cooperation. But the cooperation, once initiated, seems always to lead to collusion. The pattern has built over time so that a corporatist approach to economics has come to dominate this economy—to the detriment of all, except, of course, the colluders. Little wonder, then, that the public, whether leaning left or leaning right, has had enough. Given what is at stake, the struggle against this government-corporate elite promises to go on for a long time.

Space Security: The Next Decade

Michael Haas contends that private-sector initiatives have created considerable momentum in the space industry. As a result, the importance of space systems as critical infrastructures will continue to increase. At the same time, it is increasingly likely that weapons will be deployed in space. For Switzerland, Haas suggests these trends create economic opportunities as well as increased security risks.

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Author Michael Haas, (Editor: Fabien Merz)

Series CSS Analyses in Security Policy

Issue 256

Publisher Center for Security Studies (CSS)

Copyright © 2020 Center for Security Studies (CSS), ETH Zurich

Indra Revolutionizes Air Traffic Control With Artificial Intelligence Remote Tower

Indra, a leading global technology and consulting companies, said Monday it has developed a revolutionary remote tower solution for air control, which offers unprecedented safety and efficiency levels during landing and take-off thanks to its use of artificial intelligence.

The new system enables savings that can be as high as 50%, since it eliminates expenses related to construction of a physical tower and it increases efficiency and operational use, mainly through work load balancing in “multi-airport” systems.

According to Indra, this is the first solution in the world to incorporate artificial intelligence functions to execute critical air control processes without any need for human intervention.

More specifically, the system employs advanced Deep Learning architectures that have been trained to carry out multiple operative tasks through autonomous machine vision.

It is capable of detecting any operational anomalies in the aircraft’s configuration to report them to the operator. If, for example, the plane’s landing gear is not deployed or if its flaps are not properly open before take-off, the controller is alerted immediately.

Department Of Defense Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems – Analysis

By John R. Hoehn and Kelley M. Sayler*

Unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), commonly called drones, have proliferated rapidly and are available to nation states and to nonstate actors and individuals. These systems could provide U.S. adversaries with a low-cost means of conducting intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions against—or attacking—U.S. forces.

Furthermore, many smaller UASs cannot be detected by traditional air defense systems due to their size, construction material, and flight altitude. As a result, in FY2020, the Department of Defense (DOD) plans to spend at least $373 million on counter-UAS (C-UAS) research and development and at least $200 million on C-UAS procurement. As DOD continues to develop, procure, and deploy these systems, congressional oversight of their use may increase, and Congress may have to make decisions about future authorizations, appropriations, and other legislative actions.

C-UAS Technology

C-UAS can employ a number of methods to detect the presence of hostile or unauthorized UAS. The first is using electro-optical, infrared, or acoustic sensors to detect a target by its visual, heat, or sound signatures, respectively. A second method is to use radar systems. However, these methods are not always capable of detecting small UAS due to the limited signatures and size of such UAS. A third method is identifying the wireless signals used to control the UAS, commonly using radio frequency sensors. These methods can be—and often are—combined to provide a more effective, layered detection capability.

Has ‘Crypto Leaks’ Exposed Swiss Neutrality As A Sham?

By Kathrin Ammann
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The spying affair surrounding the Swiss company Crypto has also touched the heart of Swiss identity: neutrality. Swiss politicians, historians and the media are debating the possible consequences of the manipulated cipher devices for the country’s credibility.

It is still unclear who knew what and when about the activities of the CIA and West German intelligence services with the Zug-based encryption company.

This is the key question, because Switzerland is not responsible under international law for the actions of private companies on its territory, as historian Georg Kreis explains in an interview with the Tages-Anzeiger. But the situation would be different, he added, if the government or the secret service had been informed.

“Even the [Swiss] intelligence service must subordinate itself to the official doctrine of neutrality,” Kreis said. Otherwise, federal employees would have violated Switzerland’s neutrality – which appears to be the case.

For it is clear from the documents available to Swiss public television, SRF, among others, that the Federal Intelligence Service (FIS) knew about the operation. Previous investigations had come to a different conclusion.

BAE to Protect Digital Files from Cyber Threats

By Connie Lee

BAE was recently awarded a contract by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to develop technology for identifying malicious data in electronic documents such as PDF files.

The contract falls under a program dubbed Safe Documents, or SafeDocs, which is intended to prevent vulnerabilities within files and safeguard them from threats such as cyber warfare. The program is run out of DARPA’s Information Innovation Office.

Steve Huntsman, principal investigator for the effort at BAE, said the company’s work will help prevent documents from experiencing malfunctions, such as crashing. Many of these incidents occur when inputs are not processed correctly, he noted.

“The rationale behind the program is that — arguably — most of the vulnerabilities in software are due to inputs that are processed improperly,” Huntsman said. “There are documents that are malformed in some way, and those could result in crashes.”

Mapping the Known Unknowns of Cybersecurity Education

Many universities are starting to include cybersecurity as a course of study. While there is a high degree of variation between the selected readings of the syllabi of cybersecurity courses across different universities, there is some thematic overlap. By reviewing the syllabi of university cybersecurity courses, the authors seek to systematically evaluate this nascent field and advance its maturity.

Dr. Max Smeets is a senior researcher at ETH Center for Security Studies and affiliate at Stanford University CISAC.

Cybersecurity is of increasing importance to societies around the world. This is reflected in national debates, where news stories about breaches, attacks, and policy challenges find their way into the headlines nearly every day. It is also reflected in the curricula of colleges and universities; many are starting to include cybersecurity as an explicit course of study.

As cybersecurity is still a maturing topic for the education community, it is prudent and timely to evaluate the state of cybersecurity instruction in political science and discuss how to improve it. To undertake this task, our forthcoming article in the Journal of Political Science Education examines patterns and variations in the content of syllabi on cybersecurity courses within political science, looking across campuses to understand the relative balance of policy topics, technical concepts, and theoretical debates in how courses are structured and presented.

Current Dynamics of Urban Military Operations

In this article, Niklas Masuhr writes that intense and protracted combat in towns and cities seems to confirm predictions that urban areas will increasingly become the primary battlefields of wars and conflicts.

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