• The Inflation Reduction Act Is the Start of Reclaiming Critical Mineral Chains

    One important component of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed by Congress and signed into law by U.S. President Joe Biden on Aug. 16, has been largely overlooked. “Built within the IRA is a commitment to increasing the domestic U.S. supply of critical minerals—lithium, nickel, manganese, and graphite, among others—to provide the materials necessary for a vast expansion in electric vehicles (EVs), batteries, and renewable power production infrastructure,” Morgan Bazilian writes. “The United States needs more wind turbines, solar panels, and electric cars. But to make that possible, it will need more mines.”

  • U.S. Plans to Boost US Biotechnology Manufacturing

    The administration announced Monday steps to bolster the “bioeconomy” in the United States, a classification that covers research and development across a broad swath of products, including medical supplies, sustainable new fuels and food, as well as technologies meant to help fight climate change. The order comes barely a month after President Biden signed a major piece of legislation, the CHIPS Act, meant to supercharge U.S. manufacturing of semiconductors, an area in which the U.S. has lost its once-dominant global position.

  • Three Iranian Nationals Charged with Cyber Plots Against U.S. Critical Infrastructure Providers

    An indictment was unsealed Wednesday charging three Iranian nationals with allegedly orchestrating a scheme to hack into the computer networks of multiple U.S. victims, including critical infrastructure providers. The defendants’ hacking campaign exploited known vulnerabilities in commonly used network devices and software applications to gain access and exfiltrate data and information from victims’ computer systems.

  • Increasing Impacts of Floods and Droughts Worldwide

    Risk management has reduced the vulnerability to floods and droughts around the world, but their impact is still increasing worldwide.

  • “Prediction Markets” Could Improve Climate Risk Policies and Investment Decisions

    A market-led approach could be key to guiding policy, research and business decisions about future climate risks, a new study outlines. The paper details how expert ‘prediction markets’ could improve the climate-risk forecasts that guide key business and regulatory decisions.

  • NYU to Create Comprehensive Cybersecurity and Resiliency Program

    The quantity, velocity and variety of cybersecurity attacks worldwide reflect the proliferation of connected devices, advances in extended reality systems, AI, telecommunications, and global supply chains powered by the Internet. At the same time, there is a shortfall of cybersecurity and resiliency experts with real-world training and immersion in cutting-edge research and technology to face these challenges.

  • California Dreaming? Nope.

    By Alvin Powell

    Expert welcomes aggressive move toward electric vehicles, but sees one ‘huge mistake’ policymakers need to avoid and a surefire way to anger drivers.

  • China Intensifying Its Global Push for Media Influence

    The Chinese government’s media influence efforts, turning to more covert and aggressive tactics, have increased since 2019 in most of the 30 countries under study by a new report, but democratic pushback has often curbed their impact.

  • U.S. Moves to Keep Advanced Semiconductor Technology Out of China

    By Rob Garver

    Companies that accept U.S. funding under the CHIPS Act — a plan to build up America’s computer chip-making capacity — will be barred from establishing advanced fabrication facilities in China for 10 years. The CHIPS Act is a response not just to the computer chip shortage that snarled global supply chains during the pandemic but also to the perceived national security threat that a lack of domestic semiconductor manufacturing presents.

  • Legal Work-Related Immigration Has Fallen by a Third Since 2020, Contributing to U.S. Labor Shortages

    By Jose Ivan Rodriguez-Sanchez

    The gap between the demand for labor and its supply was already forming in 2017. By July 2022, as the pandemic’s effects on the workplace were easing, the U.S. had 11.2 million job openings but only 5.7 million unemployed workers who might fill them. The trend that’s driving labor shortages: declining numbers of immigrants allowed to legally work in the U.S.

  • Does the U.S. Economy Benefit from U.S. Alliances and Forward Military Presence?

    To what extent does conflict in other regions affect the U.S. economy, even when the United States remains a nonbelligerent state? To what extent does U.S. military engagement abroad suppress conflict? To what extent does U.S. military engagement abroad impact U.S. peacetime trade and investment with other countries? To what extent does U.S. military engagement abroad increase U.S. economic welfare?

  • The Mysterious Deaths of Russian Oligarchs

    Last week, on 1 September, Ravil Maganov joined a long list of Russian oligarchs and businessmen who died under mysterious circumstances since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine on 24 February.

  • Reliance on Dual-Use Technology is a Trap

    The current approach to promoting the use of emerging technology by the Pentagon is for emerging technology companies to work with the Department of Defense is to build commercial applications first and only then move into defense. But the notion of developing “technologies for the commercial market first and only then slap some green paint on them so that they can begin exploring the U.S. defense market” is untenable, Jake Chapman writes. “A better solution would enable entrepreneurs to focus on solving defense challenges by making the Department of Defense a better customer.”

  • Cutting off Europe's Gas Supply Is Putin's Last Throw of the Dice

    By Lawrence Freedman

    Away from the fighting the most important moves are in the economic sphere, especially in the energy markets. These moves are geared to influencing the military situation although their more important consequences may end up over the long-term being away from the war, reflected in the stresses and strains imposed on the global economy. As for influencing the course of the battles in the short-term, which is what is intended, their effects may be limited.

  • Germany — No Exit from the Nuclear Energy Exit

    By Jens Thurau

    German Economy Minister Robert Habeck wants to keep two of the three German nuclear power plants on standby for an extra three months as an emergency reserve. That is the right decision.