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81. Following the Money: A Primer on Terrorist Financing

Author:
Ellie Maruyama and Kelsey Hallahan
Publication Date:
06-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Center for a New American Security (CNAS)
Abstract:
Terrorist financing entails the raising and moving of funds intended for terrorist causes.1 The number and type of terrorist groups and the threats associated with them have changed over time, but the fundamental need for terrorists to raise, move, and use funds has remained constant.2 Terrorists have displayed adaptability and opportunism in meeting their financing needs, which vary but can be substantial.3 For example, al Qaeda relied on many sources of funding and its pre-9/11 annual budget was an estimated $30 million.4 The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), one of the best-funded terrorist organizations in modern history, approved a $2 billion budget for 2015
Topic:
Terrorism and International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

82. Homeland Security Recommendations

Author:
Aspen Institute
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Commentary and Analysis
Institution:
Aspen Institute
Abstract:
The Aspen Institute Homeland Security Group (AIHSG) is a bipartisan group of homeland security and counterterrorism experts who convene periodically to discuss these issues and to make recommendations to policy makers. To ensure the Department of Homeland Security makes further progress toward securing the homeland against ever evolving threats the AIHSG urges the President, Secretary, and Congress enact their recommendations.
Topic:
International Relations and International Security
Political Geography:
America and Global Focus

83. Mapping the Global Legal Landscape of Blockchain and Other Distributed Ledger Technologies

Author:
Julie Maupin
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
Centre for International Governance Innovation (CIGI)
Abstract:
Blockchain, tangle and other distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) are pushing a broad array of previously centralized global economic activities toward decentralized market structures. Governments should tackle the new regulatory conundrums of an increasingly disintermediated global economy by focusing on DLTs’ individual use cases rather than its underlying enabling technologies. Grouping the known use cases by common characteristics reveals three broad categories of blockchain-law interfaces. For ease of reference, this paper labels these the recycle box, the dark box and the sandbox. Each raises distinct legal, regulatory and policy challenges deserving of separate analysis.
Topic:
Science and Technology and International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

84. Digital Entrepreneurship: Expanding the Economic Frontier in the Mediterranean

Author:
Santana Moisés
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
IEMed/EuroMeSCo
Abstract:
The goal of this paper is to introduce the promotion of technology-based entrepreneurship as an engine for Mediterranean economic growth, with an emphasis on the role of entrepreneurs. Without avoiding or undermining current problems or challenges, this document takes a look at the Mediterranean Basin free of stereotypes and from a constructive viewpoint. Hence it applies to the Mediterranean the words spoken by Shimon Peres when he received the Nobel Peace Prize together with Yasser Arafat and Yitzhak Rabin in 1994: “A Middle East that is not a killing field but a field of creativity and growth.”
Topic:
International Political Economy and International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

85. Militarization of social media: strategies and challenges

Author:
Susan Jackson, Nicholas Robinson, and Andrea Schneiker
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Video
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Abstract:
Social media has become one of the world’s most influential tools for promotion and branding regardless of industry and audiences. This event aims to assess the militarization of social media by focusing discussion on the online mechanisms, strategies and tools employed by the arms and military services and military videogames industries. What factors and mechanisms are involved in the promotion of militarism via social media platforms? How is social media contributing to the reification of the military as a normal part of international relations?
Topic:
International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

86. Xi Transforms the PLA: How the Military Is Being Adapted to China’s Changing Global Position

Author:
Marcin Przychodniak
Publication Date:
10-2017
Content Type:
Policy Brief
Institution:
The Polish Institute of International Affairs
Abstract:
Reform of the Chinese armed forces gained new momentum under Xi Jinping in 2015. The main argument behind the strategy, structure, and equipment modernisation of the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) is the active defence of China’s global interests to strengthen its competitiveness with the United States. A short-term goal is to make the PLA operationally capable of projecting China’s power abroad constantly, using joint exercises, peacekeeping missions, and the development of military infrastructure. One recent example was opening of China’s first foreign military base in Djibouti. The PLA should also be capable of defending China’s territory and overseas interests by performing combat operations abroad. This means a possible change to the non-intervention clause that has until now been a crucial element of China’s foreign policy.
Topic:
International Security and Military Affairs
Political Geography:
Global Focus

87. Meeting U.S. Deterrence Requirements

Author:
Robert Einhorn and Steven Pifer
Publication Date:
09-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Brookings Institution
Abstract:
In conducting its Nuclear Posture Review, the Trump administration needs to consider how best to meet U.S. deterrence requirements in a changing security environment. Today’s most pressing challenges to U.S. deterrence goals come not from the threat of a massive nuclear attack against the U.S. homeland but from the possibility that nuclear-armed adversaries will use the threat of escalation to the nuclear level to act more aggressively in their regions and prevent the United States from coming to the defense of its allies and partners.
Topic:
International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

88. A World in Flux

Author:
Johan Verbeke
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
EGMONT - The Royal Institute for International Relations
Abstract:
Scholars and pundits alike have been qualifying our times as of “transition and turbulence”, “disorder” and “strategic unease”. Other concepts that recur in discussions on the present state of the world are ‘uncertainty’ and ‘unpredictability’. They all seem to point to a world in flux. Let’s see what that means.
Topic:
International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

89. SIPRI compendium on Article 36 reviews

Author:
Dr Vincent Boulanin and Maaike Verbruggen
Publication Date:
12-2017
Content Type:
Working Paper
Institution:
Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI)
Abstract:
Article 36 of the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the 1949 Geneva Conventions imposes a practical obligation on states to review the legality of all new weapons, means or methods of warfare before they are used in an armed conflict. To encourage more widespread compliance with the obligation of Article 36 and support confidence building in the area of legal reviews, SIPRI has developed a compendium of existing national Article 36 review procedures. The compendium describes how the review process is conducted in the following countries: Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States.
Topic:
International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus

90. 2017-18 Key Strategic Issues List

Author:
Todd E Col Key
Publication Date:
07-2017
Content Type:
Special Report
Institution:
The Strategic Studies Institute of the U.S. Army War College
Abstract:
Today's global security environment remains volatile, uncertain, ano complex. Resurgent, revanchist, and unstable states, and radical terrorist organizations continue to challenge the international order, undermine peace and stability, and threaten U.S. interests. In the face of this, the United States Army remains America's combat force of decision. If the political leaders of the United States decide to deploy its Army, the Nation's opponents know they will be defeated. This certainty is the foundation of America's deterrent capability
Topic:
International Security
Political Geography:
Global Focus