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.

Nicholas Burns was Ambassador to NATO under Bush Jr. and director of Soviet and Russian Affairs under Bush Sr. He speaks to Planet America’s John Barron about his concerns for the future of NATO under President Donald Trump.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg’s appearance in Washington is highlighting a rare point of contention between President Trump and congressional Republicans, who continue to hold diverging views over the value of a military alliance that is celebrating its 70th anniversary this week.

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.