The use of proxies in warfare is typically understood as a state sponsor’s reliance on military surrogates that are outside the purview of the state’s conventional armed or security forces, and that offer services to their benefactors in exchange for tangible material support. A long-standing feature in the history of armed conflict , the reliance on surrogates has become particularly endemic in the post–World War II era, with important implications for international security. Following the attacks of September 11, 2001, and the ensuing “global war on terror,” the use of…
Read MoreMonth: February 2025
THE KEY ROLE OF STAKEHOLDERS AND EXPERTS IN SPACE AND GOVERNANCE
Institutional design includes constitutional-level rules that specify the participants, how authority is distributed, and how rules can be made, or what Hart would call “secondary rules.” Central to polycentric governance is users’ self-organization or self-governance, i.e., that users organize themselves to address shared problems and interests. In self-governance, the users of the Common pool Resources (CPRs) (e.g., fishermen fishing from the same lake, farmers using the same water basin) themselves establish, modify, and possibly enforce the rules regulating the use and protection of a common resource. As Elinor Ostrom noted,…
Read MoreDIGITAL CYBER REVOLUTION: AUTHORITARIANISM, CYBER SOVEREIGNTY AND REASSERTION OF STATE CONTROL
International law has generally recognized that, “ sovereignty is perhaps the most fundamental [principle]. From [which] emerges, inter alia, notions of non-intervention; prescriptive, enforcement, and adjudicative jurisdiction; sovereign immunity; due diligence; and territorial integrity.” A sovereign state thus maintains the right “to conduct its affairs without outside interference. Between independent states , respect for territorial sovereignty is an essential foundation of international relations.” Extending this principal of independent sovereign control to the ephemeral territory of cyber space, Russia and China have actively advocated for cyber sovereignty—“the idea that states should…
Read MoreLEVERS TO IMPROVE INDOOR AIR QUALITY: BEST PUBLIC POLICIES/ PRACTICES AND INNOVATIVE INITIATIVES
A crucial lever is improving access to clean energy for Three billion people. Getting renewable energy on small local distribution grids will help people phase out fossil and polluting fuels. The Climate and Clean Air Coalition(CCAC) has worked with development banks and micro-finance institutions to develop programs to support impoverished communities and enable them to get access to renewable energy. One example is XacBank, in Mongolia. In this country, the smoke from coal and wood burning is a major contributor to black carbon and Particulate Matter (PM) 2.5 air pollution,…
Read MoreDRIVERS AND MAGNITUDE OF EPIDEMIC AND PANDEMIC RISK
Long before the emergence of COVID-19, policy analysts described pandemics as a “neglected dimension” of global security, because fundamental aspects of prevention and preparedness were (and continue to be) persistently under financed. Several high-level panels convened in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic have called for large increases in global spending on health system strengthening, surveillance, and preparedness. These recommendations are vital, but contend with an entrenched pattern of panic and neglect—a strong tendency for sporadic health emergencies to spark short-term attention and investment, which tails off all too rapidly…
Read More