April 5, 2021

Book Review: China’s Crisis of Success

In the latest from the Air University Press Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs, Mr. Paul David-Albert reviews William Overholt’s book, "China’s Crisis of Success" (2018). According to David-Albert, Overholt’s research proves useful as a road map of China’s rapid economic development from 1979–2010, the transitions China’s economy must undergo to continue growing, and the political challenges Pres. Xi Jinping faces going forward.

March 18, 2021

Quantum Sensing's Potential Impacts on Strategic Deterrence and Modern Warfare

Sarah Jacobs Gamberini and Lawrence Rubin recently wrote an article in the Foreign Policy Research Institute's Orbis journal of world affairs researching how quantum sensing could impact WMD, deterrence, and modern warfare.

March 11, 2021

Want to Grow the Economy? Try Fermenting It Instead

U.S. industry’s distribution system and supply chains were vulnerable before COVID, but pandemic-related disruptions to supply chains fully exposed this already alarming problem. U.S. manufacturers have relied too heavily on foreign materials for production, and the steady off-shoring of critical industries over a course of decades has reduced direct control of vital defense-related manufacturing should it be needed.

March 10, 2021

Three’s Company? Prioritizing Trilateral Deterrence Against North Korea

Dr. Shane Smith and Brad Glosserman, Tama University, recently wrote a piece for War on the Rocks arguing that the United States should prioritize and operationalize a trilateral U.S.-Japan-South Korea approach to deterring North Korea. Their article offers concrete steps toward building a trilateral deterrence partnership.

Feb. 25, 2021

Deterring, Countering, and Defeating Conventional-Nuclear Integration

Dr. Justin Anderson and Lt Col James R. McCue, USAF, propose a three-part framework using the Department of Defense’s Deterrence Operations – Joint Operating Concept (deny benefits, impose costs, and encourage restraint) to bolster US and allied deterrence postures in Europe and the Asia-Pacific.

Feb. 12, 2021

Biodefense and the return to great-power competition

Dr. Gerald Epstein's latest article in The Nonproliferation Review explores the increased likelihood of the development and potential use of biological weapons by Russia and China. This paper is part of a special issue on chemical and biological warfare that is being published in memory of Raymond A. Zilinskas.

Feb. 1, 2021

The Future of Weapons of Mass Destruction: An Update

In an update to their 2014 paper on the future of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), John P. Caves, Jr., and W. Seth Carus assess and offer policy considerations on the significant geopolitical and technological developments shaping the future of WMD since 2014.

Jan. 27, 2021

China’s Hypersonic Weapons

Bernstein and Hancock identify potential strategic and operational issues that will need to be addressed as China's hypersonic capabilities mature.

Dec. 9, 2020

The biosecurity benefits of genetic engineering attribution

In a recent volume of Nature Communications, Dr. Gerald Epstein and colleagues examine the biosecurity benefits of genetic engineering attribution. This paper is a policy companion piece to a technical paper, published in the same issue, announcing new results in using machine learning to recognize the source of a genetically engineered DNA.

Dec. 1, 2020

The rise of the futurists: The perils of predicting with futurethink

In this paper, Dr. Alexander H. Montgomery and Dr. Amy J. Nelson explore probabilistic and possibilistic approaches to uncertainty related to AI, outline their potential advantages and disadvantages, and identify common biases that hinder good prediction.