To compete and thrive in the 21st century, democracies, and the United States in particular, must develop new national security and economic strategies that address the geopolitics of information. In the 20th century, market capitalist democracies geared infrastructure, energy, trade, and even social policy to protect and advance that era’s key source of power—manufacturing. In this century, democracies must better account for information geopolitics across all dimensions of domestic policy and national strategy.
Elizabeth Arnold is Chair and Professor of Journalism at the University of Alaska Anchorage. She is a former U.S. National Public Radio (NPR) political correspondent and the Producer of arcticprofiles.com. Arnold’s public radio career spans more than 20 years. She was a familiar voice on Morning Edition and All Things Considered, and a regular presence on PBS Washington Week, covering Congress, the White House and the American West. Over the last decade, she has reported on the ecological and human impacts of global warming from some of the most remote areas of the Arctic. In 2018, she completed a fellowship at HKS’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy, where she researched the role of the press in effectively communicating climate change, specifically in the Arctic. Arnold has received numerous awards, including a DuPont Columbia Silver Baton and the Dirksen Award for Distinguished Reporting of Congress. Follow her on Twitter @EArnoldNPR.