Diplomacy and International Politics

A long-awaited US probe on Russian election meddling has divided Washington but on one point virtually all US policymakers are clear -- there will be no reconciliation with Moscow.

With little public fanfare, U.S. Cyber Command, the military’s new center for combating electronic attacks against the United States, has launched operations to deter and disrupt Russians who have been interfering with the U.S. political system.

In August 2018, the nonpartisan Aspen Strategy Group (ASG) convened its thirtyfourth annual meeting in Aspen, Colorado. Over the course of three days, ASG members and invited experts from government, universities, think tanks, and the private sector debated the impact of dramatic technological change over the next decade on American national security. Our conversations covered a wide breadth of emerging technologies—artificial intelligence, machine learning, quantum computing, and biotechnology—and the challenges they pose to America’s military, the intelligence community, U.S. economic power, and democratic institutions. Our group grappled with the central dilemma of how the U.S. government can harness these technologies—developed primarily in the private sector and research labs—to compete with China and other adversaries in the years ahead.

Nicholas Burns, the former US Ambassador to NATO, says President Trump is in denial and he is not protecting Americans from the vast Russian conspiracy to undermine Americans elections and democracy.

Three questions for four participants of the Richard C. Holbrooke Forum’s “Digital Diplomacy Project: Power, Innovation and Order in a Networked World,” which was held in Tallinn, Estonia, from November 5-7, 2017.

Nicholas Burns talks with MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell about claims by a Russian oligarch jailed by President Putin that Putin is paranoid and the future of Russia's leader. 

Nick Burns talks with Andrea Mitchell about additional revelations about Russia's use of social media (Twitter, Facebook) to influence outcome of 2016 U.S. Presidential election. 

Intelligence officers sometimes talk about “blowback,” when covert actions go bad and end up damaging the country that initiated them. A year later, that is surely the case with Russia’s secret attempt to meddle in the U.S. presidential election, which has brought a string of adverse unintended consequences for Moscow.

After their bilateral summit at the G-20 meeting in Germany earlier this month, President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had another encounter — one that was previously undisclosed and reportedly went on for an hour. The two leaders were joined only by Putin's own interpreter, which Ian Bremmer, president of political risk consultancy Eurasia Group, called a "breach of national security protocol."

Here & Now's Lisa Mullins talks with Professor Nicholas Burns (@rnicholasburns) about the meeting.