Science, Technology, and Public Policy

An excerpt from an interview with Fran Ulmer, Senior Fellow with the Belfer Center’s Arctic Initiative, explains what we might expect from the transition to Norwegian leadership, as well as possible paths forward for the Arctic Council and Arctic governance more broadly. The interview was conducted by Belfer Center Communications and Outreach Specialist Elizabeth Hanlon. 

Open-source large language models are dramatically altering AI research and innovation, wresting power from large tech companies and limiting the ability of governments to regulate this new technology.

Bruce Schneier, Kennedy School Adjunct Lecturer and an affiliate of the Belfer Center's Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, appeared on GBH News to discuss the legal questions surrounding Montana's TikTok ban.

In a keynote speech delivered during the RSA Conference in San Francisco on April 25, 2023, Bruce Schneier argues that we need to recreate our system of governance for an era in which transformative technologies pose catastrophic risks as well as great promise.

Arctic Initiative affiliate Dr. Lorenzo Albala discusses the challenges - and rewards - of practicing emergency medicine in the city of Kotzebue, Alaska. 

In March 2022, seven of the eight Arctic states announced an unprecedented pause in the operations of the Arctic Council in protest of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Elizabeth Hanlon sat down with Arctic Initiative Senior Fellow Fran Ulmer to understand what we might expect when Norway assumes the Chairship of the Council from Russia on May 11, 2023.

We will all soon get into the habit of using AI tools for help with everyday problems and tasks. We should get in the habit of questioning the motives, incentives, and capabilities behind them, too, argue Nathan Sanders and Bruce Schneier.

The applications of AI to political advertising have not escaped campaigners, who are already “pressure testing” possible uses for the technology for the 2024 U.S. presidential election, say Nathan E. Sanders and Bruce Schneier.

Mariana Budjeryn's Inheriting the Bomb tells the story of how Ukraine came into possession of the world's third-largest nuclear arsenal—larger than the combined stockpiles of China, France, and the United Kingdom at the time—and decided to disarm peacefully a few years later. Ukraine's denuclearization was far from a straightforward process. After initially renouncing nuclear weapons, Ukrainian officials sought recognition that their newly independent country was a rightful heir to part of the Soviet cache, deserving of equal treatment, financial compensation, and pledges that disarmament would not endanger Ukraine's security. 

In 2013, the Arctic Council underwent its most significant change since its foundation in 1996, with its formalization through the creation of a secretariat, the confirmation of eight observers, and acceptance of other five states, including China, with the same status. This study explores geopolitical and economic interests of actors of regional environmental governance that impact both applications and their acceptance as observer states.