2017

Cybersecurity
commentary
Equifax and the Data-Breach Era
Lillian Ablon, Sina Beaghley
Oct 18, 2017
The Hill
The personal and financial data of almost 146 million U.S. consumers has been compromised by the Equifax breach, the latest in a long line of high-profile hacks. Do consumers worry enough about such breaches? And what options are available to Congress?
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Military Transformation
commentary
What Does the 19th Party Congress Mean for the PLA?
Timothy R. Heath
Oct 18, 2017
China Policy Institute Blog
The People's Liberation Army has a lot at stake in China's Communist Party Congress. In addition to changes in military leadership, reports issued at a Party Congress invariably contain directives to the military that can add impetus to ongoing initiatives.
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Warfare and Military Operations
commentary
A Glass Half Empty? Taking Stock of Hezbollah's Losses in Syria
Colin P. Clarke
Oct 17, 2017
The Jerusalem Post
Hezbollah has gained valuable combat experience in Syria, but the cost of that experience may not outweigh the losses in troops, the damage to its image and the need to cede some of its autonomy to Iran and the Assad regime. The longer the war drags on, the more apparent these losses will become.
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Data Science
essay
Big Data, Big Questions
Oct 16, 2017
RAND-Lex is a computer program that can scan millions of lines of text and identify what people are talking about, how they fit into communities, and how they see the world. The program has shed light on how terrorists communicate, how the American public thinks about health, and more.
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Infrastructure Finance
commentary
China's Field of Dreams in Pakistan
Rafiq Dossani, Niels Erich
Oct 16, 2017
U.S. News & World Report
China is four years into joint planning and construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, a vast economic development package. Beneath the surface, Beijing is testing a new "build it and they will come" model for delivering economic development and foreign aid.
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International Diplomacy
commentary
Punting on the Iran Nuclear Deal
James Dobbins @Jim_Dobbins
Oct 16, 2017
U.S. News & World Report
President Trump has signaled that he is likely to decline to certify that Iran is adhering to its nuclear deal commitments. The alternatives to the agreement are clear: Iran will develop nuclear weapons, the U.S. will go to war to prevent this, or both.
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Science, Technology, and Innovation Policy
commentary
Can Open Science Help to Make Research More Accessible?
Anna Knack, Elta Smith, Catherine A. Lichten, Sarah Parks, Salil Gunashekar
Oct 13, 2017
Observatory for a Connected Society app
The leading principle of open science is that anyone, whether they are part of the research community or the public, should be able to access scientific knowledge. Free circulation of knowledge, the sharing of research results, and transparency of methodology are core tenets of the scientific method.
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Gaza Strip
commentary
How Salafism's Rise Threatens Gaza
Colin P. Clarke
Oct 11, 2017
Foreign Affairs
The rise of hardline Salafism is a worrisome trend in Gaza, where Salafists could surpass Hamas as the most dangerous threat to other Palestinians and the state of Israel. Such a result could signal the sabotage of yet another chance for progress in one of the world's longest-running conflicts.
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Health Care Access
commentary
Why ACA Enrollees Need Support After They Sign Up
Laurie T. Martin
Oct 11, 2017
The Hill
Providing support for Affordable Care Act enrollees to connect with care they are happy with can help minimize the risk that they will stop seeking routine health care.
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Wargaming
commentary
Adding Shots on Target: Wargaming Beyond the Game
Elizabeth M. Bartels
Oct 9, 2017
War on the Rocks
Figuring out what the future may look like—and what concepts and technology we should invest in now to prepare—is hard. How can the wargaming community build a cycle of research to help understand what these paths might be?
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Nuclear Deterrence
commentary
The Rorschach Test of New Nuclear Powers: Analogies for North Korean Command and Control
Austin Long
Oct 6, 2017
War on the Rocks
Is Pyongyang more like modern Islamabad or Soviet Moscow? The answer must draw on the expertise of scholars of civil-military relations as well as nuclear strategy. Even then analogy is only a starting point—North Korea may be more or less like previous cases, but will certainly be unique.
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Primary Care
commentary
Doing More with Less: Lessons from Cuba's Health Care System
Claire E. O'Hanlon, Melody Harvey
Oct 6, 2017
Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
High U.S. health care costs do not yield corresponding health outcomes for its citizens. But Cuba, for less than a tenth of U.S. costs, has attained comparable outcomes on many indicators, such as life expectancy and infant mortality. Cuba prioritizes primary care and prevention and addresses social determinants of health.
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Arctic Region
q&a
Policy Challenges in the Arctic: Q&A with Abbie Tingstad
Oct 6, 2017
Abbie Tingstad discusses how the opening of the Arctic by climate change could strain relationships among Arctic nations, how these changes will affect indigenous communities, and what to make of Russia's military buildup in the region.
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Threat Assessment
commentary
On North Korea, Past Foreign Policy Fiascoes Show U.S. What Not to Do
Michael J. Mazarr @MMazarr
Oct 5, 2017
CNN
Foreign policy disasters are often the sum of two basic errors: embracing exaggerated claims about the need to act, and inventing a conceptual magic wand to wish away potential consequences. Both are apparent in U.S. policy toward North Korea's nuclear aspirations.
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Health Economics
commentary
New Options for Funding the NHS and Social Care in the UK: What Can We Learn from International Experiences?
Jennie Corbett, Jon Sussex
Oct 5, 2017
The Health Foundation
International experiences show the complexity of policy choices around funding health and social care. What models are most feasible and appropriate to fund the UK's health and social care systems, both among policymakers and the public?
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