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.
Speaker: Aaron Rapport, Research Fellow, International Security Program
The Bush Administration has been roundly criticized for failing to anticipate the likely long-term costs of their 2003 military intervention in Iraq. It would be incorrect to portray the poor strategic assessments made by top officials in the Iraq case as an historical anomaly. In this seminar, the speaker will lay out several explanations for why policymakers may underestimate the long-term costs and risks of military action, then test these explanations against the historical record of Operation Iraqi Freedom. By understanding under what circumstances different factors will have the most influence over policymakers' perceptions of risk, it is possible to craft decision-making procedures that mitigate against biases which can lead to the adoption of prohibitively costly courses of action.
Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.