| | | | Fareed: Immigration Is a Competitive Advantage for America | | President Trump's bluster over the US/Mexico border has drawn headlines this week, but "on the broader issue of legal immigration, Trump seems to be shifting his position," Fareed writes in his latest Washington Post column.
In his State of the Union address, Trump called for large numbers of legal immigrants coming to the US. That's smart policy, Fareed writes, as legal immigration is an asset for America—one of the few large economies with a working-age population on the rise.
"Over the past half-century, the United States has handled immigration better than most countries. It takes in people from everywhere, assimilates them better, integrates them into the fabric of society and is able to maintain an environment in which the new immigrants feel as invested as the old. This will be its core competitive advantage in this century," Fareed writes. | | What Russia Wants from Ukraine | | Russian President Vladimir Putin's incursions into Ukraine were seen, by some, as a way to boost domestic support—but what do Russians think?
Polling in Russia is notoriously unreliable, but a survey by the Levada Center, in conjunction with the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, paints a mixed picture: Most (62%) support the annexation of Crimea, but a plurality (46%) think the eastern Ukrainian territories of Donetsk and Luhansk should be independent states, not part of Russia. Majorities say Russia's foreign policy in recent years has worsened standards of living in Russia (64%) and the state of the Russian economy (58%). That said, 62% see Russia's international influence as having improved.
So Putin's land grabs appear to have been popular on their foreign-policy merits, but Russians also see economic costs. | | As Cities Get 'Smarter,' They Also Get More Hackable | | | The "smart city" is a relatively recent concept for urban planners, but as technology advances, one can imagine cities in which data and automation drive services like water, power, and transportation. One noticeable example: Bus stops with digital screens displaying the next bus's arrival time. Chinese cities have lined up to pursue this kind of development.
But as cities get smarter, they also get more hackable, a New America Foundation report reminds us, as malicious actors can exploit poorly managed systems. It's a risk for those cities, and a cyber-insurance market will have to develop, to allow cities to absorb the liability of new-age interconnectedness, the report suggests. | | Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned this week after 20 years in power, and some have wondered if the Arab Spring has new life, after its collapse into the Arab Winter, citing protests in Sudan and elsewhere.
Writing in the World Politics Review, Ellen Laipson cautions against getting too optimistic. Networks of crony capitalism make power difficult to unseat in the Arab world, but the long view could be more positive: A "young, educated and increasingly informed citizenry" still wants openness and governmental accountability. The political base demanding change, in other words, remains intact. | | "The United States is not the leader in anti-satellite technology," Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn., warns in the foreword to a new Center for Strategic and International Studies report on space as a theater of war. Russia and China, in particular, have made advancements with missiles, lasers, and satellites themselves that can knock out American satellites, threatening "to deprive us of the many economic and military advantages we derive from space," Cooper writes.
One trend to watch: The deployment of these capabilities in regional conflicts. Lesser space powers Iran and North Korea are investing in satellite jamming technology, and they might deploy them in conflicts on their peripheries. President Trump has proposed a new "space force," which the authors take as a welcome development, as the US hasn't had much of a plan for space competition. | | | | | | |
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