ARGUMENT: China strategyThe U.S.’s China Strategy Needs New Tools Published 9 February 2021 Chinese state capitalism caught U.S. policymakers flat-footed. While far from perfect, the “China model” is dramatically reshaping global industry through the concentrated power of economic tools like subsidies, market protection, forced technology transfer and economic espionage. .” Jordan Schneider and David Talbot

DeepfakesDeepfake Detectors Can Be Defeated, Researchers Show for the First Time Published 9 February 2021 Systems designed to detect deepfakes —videos that manipulate real-life footage via artificial intelligence—can be deceived, computer scientists showed. Researchers showed detectors can be defeated by inserting inputs called adversarial examples into every video frame. The adversarial examples are slightly manipulated

IncitementGermany: Hate Speech, Threats against Politicians Rise By Ben Knight Published 9 February 2021 Three weeks after a neo-Nazi was convicted of murdering regional governor Walter Lübcke. In answer to a parliamentary information request from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, the Interior Ministry reported that 1,534 crimes against politicians, party members or party

CybersecurityThe SolarWinds Hack Was All but Inevitable – Why National Cyber Defense Is a “Wicked” Problem and What Can Be Done about It By Terry Thompson Published 9 February 2021 Software supply chains are vulnerable to hackers: Many U.S. companies outsource software development because of a talent shortage, and some of that outsourcing goes to

WildfiresNew Timeline of Deadliest California Wildfire Could Guide Lifesaving Research, Action Published 9 February 2021 The November 2018 was the costliest disaster worldwide in 2018 and, having caused 85 deaths and destroyed more than 18,000 buildings, it became both the deadliest and most destructive wildfire in California’s history, two records the fire still holds today.

ExtremismAustin Orders Military Stand Down to Address Challenge of Extremism in the Ranks Published 8 February 2021 Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin has ordered a DOD-wide stand down to discuss the problem of extremism in the ranks. The stand down will occur over the next sixty days, Kirby said. This is so “each service,

IncitementTrump Impeachment Trial: Decades of Research Show Language Can Incite Violence By Kurt Braddock Published 8 February 2021 The claim that Donald Trump’s words led to the riotous insurrection on 6 January is complicated. Rather than wage direct war against sitting U.S. representatives, Trump is accused of using language to motivate others to do so.

ARGUMENT: CybersecurityA Key Step in Preventing a Future SolarWinds Published 8 February 2021 In the weeks since news of the SolarWinds incident became public, commentators have offered no shortage of prescriptions for responding to the incident. Natalie Thompson writes that as information continues to emerge about the scope and scale of the incident and policymakers

ExtremismHow Telegram Disruption Impacts Jihadist Platform Migration Published 8 February 2021 In October 2018 and November 2019, Europol conducted two Action Days geared toward meaningfully disrupting jihadist networks on Telegram – a social media platform favored by groups like Islamic State (IS) and al-Qaeda. A new report aims to understand the impact of the 2018

DronesSwarming Drones Concept Flies Closer to Reality Published 8 February 2021 A swarm of twenty drones has recently completed the largest collaborative, military-focused evaluation of swarming uncrewed aerial vehicles (UAVs) in the U.K. The exercise was the culmination of the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory’s (DSTL) “Many Drones Make Light Work” competition A swarm of twenty