OUR PICKSMathematics Can Predict, Prevent the Next Pandemic | Should the Government Save Intel? | Transnational Repression Increasingly Reaches into the U.S., and more
· Regulate or Ban TikTok? How Americans View the Potential Security Risk
It is not clear what can be done about the dangers of Chinese social media applications
· Intel Is Reeling: Why Should the Government Save It?
A better alternative would be to Americanize foreign companies by enticing them to invest in the U.S.
· Explainability Matters to Counter Threat of Public Distrust in Government
Agencies must rethink how they construct the Message, the Channels they use to make it available, and the Timing for its dissemination
· How Mathematics Can Predict—and Help Prevent—the Next Pandemic
Mathematician Abba Gumel uses calculations and models to prepare for future disease outbreaks
· Transnational Repression Increasingly Reaches into the United States
A growing trend of authoritarian regimes reaching across national borders to silence dissent
· Does Russia Exercise Overall Control over the Wagner Group?
Russia’s use of the Wagner Group to promote its aims in Ukraine and Africa
· The Government’s TikTok Ban Overshadows Mobile Security Concerns
This TikTok decision highlights a larger mobile security problem within the federal government
· This Part of the U.S. Will Suffer Most from Climate Change
Industrialized communities in the Deep South are the most vulnerable in the U.S. to climate change
Regulate or Ban TikTok? How Americans View the Potential Security Risk (Timothy S. Rich, Ian Milden, and Josie Coyle, National Interest)
We find clear support for regulating these social media apps; however, that support declines when considering an outright ban of such applications.
Intel Is Reeling: Why Should the Government Save It? (Kevin Klyman, National Interest)
President Biden once remarked that “outside of Columbus, Ohio, Intel is building semiconductor factories on a thousand acres—a literal field of dreams.” But a closer look reveals that its field of dreams is fallow.
Explainability Matters to Counter Threat of Public Distrust in Government (Patricia F. S. Cogswell and Kristyn Kelly Shapiro, HSToday)
Each year HSToday asks current and former homeland leaders for their views on the top risks and threats to the homeland. Our answer this year? We believe that one of the greatest threats facing government institutions is declining trust from the public they serve, which can manifest in a variety of ways that are detrimental to our shared security goals. Given that “Sunshine Week,” promoting open government, was March 12-18, 2023, we saw an opportunity to reflect on how to improve that trust through rethinking the approach agencies use to communicate with the public they serve in order to better align with how people want to get information.
How Mathematics Can Predict—and Help Prevent—the Next Pandemic (Rachel Crowell, Scientific American)
Predicting and understanding disease outbreaks doesn’t just involve epidemiology. It takes math, too. For centuries, mathematicians have tackled questions related to epidemics and pandemics, along with potential responses to them. For instance, 18th-century Swiss mathematician Daniel Bernoulli is credited with developing the first mathematical epidemiology model, which focused on analyzing the effects of smallpox inoculation on life expectancy. Mathematicians have continued this work to the present day, including during the COVID pandemic.
One such researcher is Abba Gumel, a mathematician and mathematical biologist at the University of Maryland, College Park. He was recently elected to the current class of fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Mathematicians such as him are indispensable to the mission of identifying and averting the next pandemic. Succeeding in this quest, however, requires that they unite with experts from other fields and work together to solve these multifaceted disease transmission problems.
