Science, Technology, and Public Policy

Belfer Center experts on security, intelligence, and cybersecurity issues were interviewed on the recent leak of classified military intelligence documents allegedly by Airman Jack Teixeira.

Joseph Nye argues hat the major threat to U.S. power comes from its internal divisions. These are serious liabilities but they were not created by the invasion of Ukraine.

Joseph Nye argues that prudence results from the fear of creating unintended consequences in unpredictable systems and can develop into a norm of nonuse or limited use of certain weapons or a norm of limiting targets. Something like this happened with nuclear weapons when the superpowers came close to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, during the Cuban missile crisis. The Limited Test Ban Treaty followed a year later.

This report argues that the success of the new UK National Cyber Force (NCF) will be determined by the quality of the leadership, strategy, structures and processes that shape its growth and operational use.

Bruce Schneier and Tarah Wheeler describe the future of war as cyberwar. They advise that if weapons and systems aren't secure, don't even bother bringing them onto the battlefield.

Despite a technically successful election with a record-breaking voter turnout,  U.S. institutions and procedures have not created the kinds of shared public consensus over the results of the 2020 election that they were supposed to. The authors write that the United States needs a dynamic stability, one that incorporates new forces into American democracy rather than trying to deny or quash them. This report is their attempt to explain what this might mean in practice

Henry Farrell and Bruce Schneier argue that organizations that deliberately fabricate citizen voices shouldn't just be subject to civil fines, but to criminal penalties. Businesses that hire these organizations should be held liable for failures of oversight as well.

Tarah Wheeler critiques a new book, This Is How They Tell Me The World Ends by Nicola Perlroth, and concludes that it gets the policy recommendations right while making technical errors that could undermine trust in its conclusions.

Amy Ertan and Tarah Wheeler describe how the World Health Organization is uniquely positioned to help secure all facets of vaccine information.

The cryptocurrency depends on the integrity of the blockchain. But China's censors, the FBI, or powerful corporations could fragment it into oblivion, warn Barath Raghavan and Bruce Schneier.