A Maritime Model for Cyberspace Governance

Cyberspace is a unique realm where traditional concepts of law, governance, and international relations are difficult to define and more difficult to put into practice.  Meanwhile, cyber threats and cyber crime are on the rise and governments are scrambling to find legal ways to detect, apprehend, and prosecute perpetrators.  How can governments agree on acceptable legal norms?  What is the incentive to cooperate in apprehending cyber criminals? How can states form multilateral legal institutions and practices that address this challenges of cyberspace?

Mark Frazzetto’s article, A Maritime Model for Cyberspace Legal Governance, offers one view on this issue.  He argues that cyberspace be defined as an international common area and that legal arguments for governing such a space could gain insight from traditional laws of the sea.

A Maritime Model for Cyberspace Legal Governance

By Mark Frazzetto

U.S. Strategy in South Asia

Illinois Senator Mark Kirk recently issued a statement about his strategy for U.S. aid in Pakistan.  He commented that “In such an environment, and with our deficits and debt, aid to Pakistan seems naive at best and counter-productive at worst. I am seriously reconsidering and rethinking how well aid to Pakistan served us.”  The day after, the Chicago-Sun Times ran an editorial suggesting that the U.S. should pull out of Afghanistan and allow India to become the natural leader of the region.

Whatever the merits, these policy positions have important implications that must be seriously considered by national security policymakers.  Richard E. Friedman has provided an analysis of these policy proposals in his new article titled “Toward a Complementary Strategy for the U.S. in South Asia.”  He warns that eliminating U.S. aid to Pakistan and allowing India to become the regional leader may destabilize the region and lead to outcomes counter to U.S. objectives in South Asia.  For a deeper look at the potential consequences of these proposals, and for an alternative U.S. strategy, click on the link below to read Mr. Friedman’s new commentary.

Toward a Complementary Strategy for the U.S. in South Asia

By Richard E. Friedman

Why Taiwan Matters

U.S.-PRC-ROC relations are heating up, with rumors of a proposed F-16 fighter jet sale to Taiwan being debated in Washington.  Taiwan, also called the Republic of China (ROC), punches above its weight class in many respects.  For example, it is the world’s 19th largest economy, and one of the largest trading partners of the U.S. and PRC, despite being roughly the size of Maryland and Delaware combined.  However, Cross-Strait relations between the PRC and ROC have wide ranging implication for global politics, and particularly U.S. national security strategy.

Professor Shelley Rigger’s new book, Why Taiwan Matters: Small Island, Global Powerhouse, is an insightful look at this disproportionate impact this tiny island has on world politics.

For a book review and summary on this topic, by Eric S. Morse, please click here.

Breeding Grounds for Terrorism and Transnational Crime

As the U.S. is withdrawing from Iraq and Afghanistan, and the Department of Defense and Pentagon are cutting excess programs, security analysts are faced with the challenge of doing more with less.  How can the U.S. best use its resources, military, and intelligence tools to focus in on the major threats to U.S. national security?

Fine tuning what too look for and where to look for it is key to this process.  A team of analysts at Syracuse University’s Global Black Spots—Mapping Global Insecurity Project (GBS-MGI) is developing a new research methodology that goes beyond the traditional state level analysis to find “Black Spots,” or areas of insecurity that are beyond government control.  The team probes the local-level characteristics of a region using open source information to determine where terrorism and transnational crime may develop in the future.  Their findings provide a map of global insecurity that is being applied by U.S. intelligence agencies.

The Summer 2011 issue of the National Strategy Forum Review shares this process with our readers.  The case studies below are a sample of the estimated 600+ Black Spots operating around the globe.  This unique research demonstrates that traditional security analysis must add a deeper, more local component to the search for future security threats.

The New Princes: An Update to Niccolò Machiavelli’s Classic

The New Princes

Niccolò Machiavelli was born in Florence, Italy in 1469 and held important posts until his death in 1527.  He was a keen observer of the errors and personal character of the rulers he served.  He synthesized his vast experience and observation of rulers, nobles, political systems and statecraft in his magnum opus, The Prince.

Machiavellian in modern times has acquired a pejorative meaning – a sinister connotation that was unknown to his peers.  However, a careful reading of this book leads to more reasonable and affirmative interpretation.

The theme of Machiavelli’s The Prince and this updated essay, The New Princes by Richard E. Friedman, is the relationship of the rulers and the ruled.  Machiavelli’s observations and conclusions regarding mankind’s motivations and weaknesses tend to be negative, rather than what we would prefer them to be.  The Prince provides great principles for the guidance of rulers and their relationship with the people, nobles, parliaments, and with the rulers of other states.

Politics is the instrument to achieve government; politics is not the instrument to achieve more politics.  The objective of The New Princes is to counter the drift of politics that is leading the state into the commode.  The following text is derived, in large part, from the marvelous insights to be found in Machiavelli’s original, with liberties taken to assist contemporary readers, and organization for rhetorical flow.  The purpose of this essay is to make the nation a bit better by a thought-provoking handbook for common cause and positive political action.

If you are motivated more by pragmatism than idealism; if you seek to correct a major wrong; if you seek to communicate with other like-minded pragmatists through use of social network technology, and explore social action among your peers that was impossible only a few years ago, there is a useful intellectual basis for your involvement.  Please consider reading the full text of my essay, The New Princes.

-By Richard E. Friedman

Pew Global Attitudes Survey: U.S. Image in Pakistan

A new Pew Global Attitudes Project poll was released on June 21, 2011 detailing the U.S. image in Pakistan.  The survey data is available at the link here.

Many of these findings echo NSF research completed in March-April of 2011.  The Spring 2011 NSFR report titled “The U.S.-Pakistan Relationship: Towards a Complementary Strategy” analyzed many of these trends and suggested a complementary strategy for achieving U.S. objectives in Pakistan.

To improve the relationship, the report suggested a number of initiative (details found on page 14):

• Restructuring American aid to Pakistan by emphasizing targeted project investments that are highly visible to the Pakistani public. Several common sense ideas include power plants and natural gas facilities.
• Establishing anti-corruption controls to facilitate future American aid and support.
• Emphasizing U.S. communications and branding. America must rebrand its image, sense of purpose, and policy actions in the eyes of Pakistan’s public.
• Encouraging cultural diplomacy that leverages civilian cross-cultural exchanges and study abroad opportunities.
• Increasing medical collaboration in projects that provide visible assistance to the Pakistani people.
• Setting a new diplomatic tone to make it more likely that the two countries listen to one another.

The new Pew Global Attitudes survey on Pakistan reinforces a number of the trends identified in the NSF report.  There are ten notable results from the Pew Global Attitudes survey data:

The Pentagon’s Energy Plan

Energy security has long been the U.S.’s Achilles heel.  The Pentagon released today a new strategy aimed at developing fuel-efficient weapons, embracing non-oil energy sources, and requiring troops to behave in a more energy-responsible manner.  These plans are fleshed out in two news articles below.

Pentagon Presents Its First Energy Plan (Wall Street Journal)

Pentagon to Prioritize Energy Use in Acquisition (Defense News)

In addition, the National Strategy Forum Review has focused on energy security and energy strategy in recent issues.  The articles below amplify the Pentagon’s new approach.  The U.S. economy is already undergoing changes to its energy infrastructure and consumer behavior.  Given that the U.S. military is the single largest consumer of energy in the U.S., if not the world, the Pentagon’s new plan is a welcome step in the right direction.

Energy Performance in the Department of Defense by Oliver Fritz

Energy Security: Protecting Our Environment, Our Economy, and Our Independence by Endy Zemenides

President Ma’s Cross-Strait Strategy: The Tiger’s New Posture

On May 12, 2011, President Ma of Taiwan gave a speech via videoconference to a National Strategy Forum audience in Chicago and a Center for Strategic & International Studies audience in Washington, DC.  The substance of the speech was Ma’s strategy for managing the Cross-Strait negotiations, with wide-ranging implication for the China-Taiwan and U.S.-Taiwan relationships.

For a summary and analysis of the speech, read the article:

President Ma’s Cross-Strait Strategy: The Tiger’s New Posture

The U.S.-Pakistan Relationship: Toward a Complementary Strategy

The U.S.-Pakistan relationship is vital to U.S. interests in the Middle East.  The relationship has been especially strained recently, putting into question the future of U.S. aid and commitments to Pakistan.

This issue of the NSFR, titled “The U.S.-Pakistan Relationship: Toward a Complementary Strategy”, is a report of a series of interviews with Pakistan VIPs conducted by the NSFR Editorial Board.  Our findings have been distilled and we have provided a number of policy options with the objective of reformulating U.S. relations with Pakistan.  Our suggestions are based on complementary strategy: the idea that the U.S. and Pakistan must understand each other’s objectives before hard negotiations can be effective.  Also in this issue are two articles by high level Pakistani political figures: General (Retired) Parvez Musharraf, former president of Pakistan, and Imran Khan, a prominent philanthropist and activist leader of a leading Pakistan political party.  Their thoughts add a unique Pakistani perspective to the analysis of this relationship.

Following the publication of the NSFR report, President Obama announced a new direction for America’s Middle East strategy.  Here are the key points of his speech:

• Elevating trade and investment over financial aid handouts
• Broadening and deepening regional trade initiatives between the U.S. and the region
• Promoting the development of civil society
• Demanding anti-corruption initiatives
• Encouraging new forms of U.S. communication and outreach to the Middle East

These policy initiatives are consistent with our findings.  So far, President Obama has limited implementation to Tunisia and Egypt.  The NSFR report advocates that these principles be applied to Pakistan urgently.  A rupture of the U.S.-Pakistan relationship would be a serious set back to U.S. objectives in the region.

Click here to read the Spring 2011 issue of the National Strategy Forum Review:

“The U.S.-Pakistan Relationship: Toward a Complementary Strategy”

Pakistan: The People Have Their Chance

Frank Schell, a member of the National Strategy Forum Review Editorial Board, wrote an op-ed that appeared recently in The American Spectator titled “Pakistan: The People Have Their Chance.”  The article assesses Pakistan’s domestic political and security challenges, and discusses some of the diplomatic obstacles facing U.S. foreign policymakers.

Pakistan is now a major focus of U.S. foreign policy.  The National Strategy Forum Review (NSFR) has published a number of articles about the U.S.-Pakistan and Pakistan-India relationships.  The most recent articles, listed below, provide both background information and policy suggestions.

American Foreign Policy Towards Pakistan, by Richard E. Friedman, Frank Schell, and Lauren Bean, is found in the Fall 2009 issue of the NSFR: Strategic Challenges Near and Far (available in PDF).

Conditions Needed for an India-Pakistan Rapprochement, by B. D. Jayal, is found in the Spring 2010 issue of the NSFR.

U.S. Complementary Strategy: The Pakistan Opportunity, by Richard E. Friedman, is found in the Winter 2011 issue of the NSFR.

The Importance of Being India, by Frank Schell, is found in the Winter 2011 issue of the NSFR.

Finally, the National Strategy Forum Review has a forthcoming special report on the U.S.-Pakistan relationship.  Stay tuned.