Globalization, always a contentious issue, has become even more so with media reports of U.S. service-sector jobs being outsourced to emerging-market economies, such as call center operations to Ireland or programming jobs to India. Traditionally, these jobs have been considered “nontradable” and therefore safe from the competitive forces of international trade and investment. But increasingly, technological advances are making it easier to buy services from other companies, even those in developing countries, where savings in the cost of labor or the opportunity to use the 24- hour clock to speed product develop- ment can be irresistible.
Topic:
Economics, Globalization, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
As modern "miracle drugs" play a growing role in medical practice, drug prices in America soar far beyond prices in the rest of the world. Yet our law prohibits Americans from buying American-made drugs abroad at those prices and "reimporting" them to the United States. That has led many Americans, and even some state and local officials, to ignore the law and go to Canada and Mexico for their drugs; to the passage in the House last year of a bill lifting the ban on reimportation; and to similar bills now in the Senate—legislation that Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson recently called "inevitable."
Topic:
Human Welfare, International Trade and Finance, and Science and Technology
Kurdish people living in Turkey can now receive satellite television broadcasts emanating from London. Iranians can view Farsi-language television programs that originate in Los Angeles. Even though they are dispersed throughout the world, emigrants from mainland China remain a vital diasporic community, thanks to websites and e-mail discussion lists. Insurgent movements from the Zapatistas to the East Timorese to Indonesian students have used the Internet to organize themselves and communicate a political vision to the world.
Topic:
International Relations, Politics, and Science and Technology
Political Geography:
United States, Turkey, London, Kurdistan, and Los Angeles
What is the preferred framework for a domestic policy to reduce greenhouse gas
emissions? The approach most likely to achieve environmental results? To be admin-
istratively feasible and cost effective? To gain political acceptance?
Topic:
Environment, Government, and Science and Technology
The Raoul Dandurand Chair of Strategic and Diplomatic Studies, Université du Québec à Montréal
Abstract:
In the wake of September 11, the U.S. Superpower once again became a target. This time, the attack was carried out by means of the Internet. How effective is American cyberstrategy? Examining the hacking scene in the last couple of years, it is clear that it is not an adequate response to present – and future – cyberthreats. Therefore, it is fair to say that the United States has a national security problem rather than a cybersecurity problem and to conclude that as things stand at present the American government is steering the United States toward a cyber-9/11.
Topic:
International Relations, Science and Technology, and Terrorism
In 2001, the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics (USD(AT)) directed the Defense Science Board (DSB) to study the precision targeting of air-delivered munitions. The results of the 2001 Task Force were well-received within Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD), and in June 2003, USD(AT) directed the DSB to study the closely related topic of “integrated fire support in the battlespace.” In this new study the 2003 Task Force applied an approach and methodology similar to the 2001 effort but focused instead on ground-based fires, sea-based fires, and close-air support.
In February 2003, the Office of the Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy, ODUSD(IP), produced Transforming the Defense Industrial Base: A Roadmap. This report identified the need for systematic evaluation of the ability of the defense industrial base to develop and provide functional, operational effects-based warfighting capabilities. The Defense Industrial Base Capabilities Study (DIBCS) series is a systematic assessment of critical technologies needed in the 21st century defense industrial base to meet warfighter capabilities, as framed by the Joint Staff's functional concepts. In addition, the DIBCS series provides the basis for strengthening the industrial base required for 21st century warfighting needs. This report addresses the third of those functional concepts, Force Application.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology
Weapons system readiness and safety are among the highest priority challenges for the Department of Defense (DoD). As it continues to receive a large number of mission taskings, it is imperative that DoD equipment be maintained at an acceptable level of material condition so that it may be employed safely and effectively when required, often in harsh and physically demanding environments. However, both the material condition and safety of DoD equipment are routinely being undermined by the effects of corrosion. The dollar cost of corrosion to DoD has been estimated by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to be $10-20 billion per year. Aggressive action is needed at every stage in the life cycle of this equipment — during design, materials selection, construction, operation, and maintenance — to reduce the negative effects of corrosion.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Arms Control and Proliferation, and Science and Technology
During the Cold War, the United States developed and refined intelligence capabilities upon a number of key factors: Known adversaries, the Soviet Union and the Communist Bloc, including China and North Korea; Known geographic boundaries: that of the communist nation states (We knew where to look); Known conflict of ideology: communism vs. capitalism; Observable (with some degree of confidence over time) military capabilities of adversaries; and Indications (and in some cases, warning - developed over the years) of activity potentially hazardous to the United States and NATO.
Topic:
Defense Policy, National Security, and Science and Technology
The vertical lift industrial base still is being shaped by government and industry responses to the Nunn-McCurdy cost breaches of 2001 and the unintended consequences of Department-endorsed teaming arrangements that resulted in an interlocked industrial base that restricted Department and industry flexibility. The Department's budget-driven remanufacture strategy in the 1990s produced a series of sole-sourced relationships, leaving few real competitive opportunities among the helicopter prime contractors to force technology refresh cycles. With limited competition, few new platform contracts, and declining government technology investments, industry was left little incentive to invest in independent research.
Topic:
Defense Policy, Industrial Policy, and Science and Technology