Pathways to Russian Escalation Against NATO
The potential for Russia to decide to escalate the ongoing war in Ukraine by attacking a U.S. or allied target is a significant concern. This Perspective summarizes the most-plausible pathways that could lead to a Russian decision to target NATO member states during the current conflict, describes the conditions under which Moscow might undertake such actions, and lays out how U.S. and NATO actions — including ongoing military assistance to Ukraine — could affect each pathway's likelihood.
The authors conclude with a set of key considerations for U.S. policymakers to help them manage escalation risks while continuing to pursue U.S. objectives in the context of the war in Ukraine. Although escalation risks stemming from this war are real and significant, this Perspective helps to bound those concerns; a Russia-NATO war is far from an inevitable outcome of the current conflict. U.S. and allied policymakers should be concerned with specific pathways and potential triggers, but they need not operate under the assumption that every action will entail acute escalation risks.
~ READ MORE HERE (Rand) ~
Science, Technology, Espionage, and Math
Are STEM students from the People’s Republic of China jeopardizing our economic and national security?
FBI Director Christopher Wray has stated that "No country poses a broader, more severe intelligence collection threat than China. China has pioneered a societal approach to stealing innovation any way it can, including through graduate students and researchers. Nation-state actors are targeting academia — including professors, research scientists, and graduate students seeking our cutting-edge research, our advanced technology, and our world-class equipment and expertise.
~ READ MORE HERE (Center for Immigration Studies) ~
Biotechnology and U.S. Industrial Policy
A revolution in biotechnology is dawning at the precise moment the world needs it most. Amid an ongoing climate crisis, fast-paced technological maturation, and a global pandemic, humans must find new ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, improve food security, develop new vaccines and therapeutics, recycle waste, synthesize new materials, and adapt to a changing world. But incentive structures in the U.S. private sector are generally biased against risk, and therefore constrain development in ways that do not have the same effect on firms in China and other U.S. competitors. This puts the United States at a relative disadvantage and risks ceding American leadership over one of the most powerful and transformative fields of technology in recent memory.
This report attempts to measure the health and outlook of the U.S. synthetic biology industry and broader bioeconomy by examining U.S. access to each of these four resources. It concludes that the United States still possesses an advantage in each of these fields—but that, absent a proactive strategy to ensure resource access, and without a significant infusion of capital, the U.S. bioeconomy risks languishing behind competitors such as China in the decades ahead.
~ READ MORE HERE (CNAS) ~ |
