The internet has greatly expedited the rate of communication and how fast information has spread. This has produced many great things, has allowed people to gain opportunites they may have not had previously and has made daily life more convenient for internet consumers in general. However, with this network of communication it has become extremely easy for misinformation and propaganda to spread. There is growing concern of the ways social media is being used for radicalization. For example, the spread of the conspiracy theory group QAnon that incentivizes its listeners to mistrust the government, science and minority groups such as Jewish people. Given recent events regarding QAnon listeners, there has been a renewed concern about how misinformation spreads. Some social media sites such as Instagram and Twitter have banned several thousand accounts associated with the QAnon group. As @Griffen Ballenger has stated above, certain countries like Russia have used social media to spread disinformation and propaganda that suits their narrative. For example, in the Balkans there has been significant attempts from Russia during the elections in Montenegro and Moldavia to convince the population to side with the Pro-Russian candidates (In Moldavia, the Pro-European candidate won whereas in Montenegro, a Pro-Serbian, Pro-Russia coalition won).

Counterterrorism is obviously an important issue for the United Nations, given the rise of rogue states/actors and the development of terrorism on a global scale rather than just being isolated to regions of conflict. One thing that I think is important to keep in mind is that terrorism is a broad term that can fit many different types of actions and actors. As such, it is hard to create a universal approach to counter-terrorism. For example, counter-terrorism in the United States- where terrorists' goals are to strike fear in the US government- might look very different from counter-terrorism in Turkey or the Phillipines- where the terrorists are mainly focused on separatism. That is not to say that there is no overlap between counter-terrorism in the many countries of the United Nations. One thing I found interesting about the document is the statement under Plan of Action, that the UN countries resolve "[t]o consistently, unequivocally and strongly condemn terrorism in all its forms and manifestations, committed by whomever, wherever and for whatever purposes, as it constitutes one of the most serious threats to international peace and security" as well as "[t]o consider becoming parties without delay to the existing international conventions and protocols against terrorism, and implementing them, and to make every effort to reach an agreement on and conclude a comprehensive convention on international terrorism." While these are certainly noble goals, I think that given that vastly different ideological, religious and nationalistic identities within the United Nations, that this is not feasible. For example, nationalistic groups operating in the Balkans may be hailed as heroes in some Balkan countries while being scorned in others. Even regarding, politicians in the Balkans, some would view the Kosovar former President Hashim Thaci as a terrorist while others would consider him a patriot.

The economic well-being has been a key issue in recent elections. After the 2008 financial crisis, many have felt unhappy with their economic situation. Politicians on both sides play to these fears and promise that the average citizen's economic situation will improve by electing them. The flattening and eventual decline of wages as one grows older is a disheartening trend for people that have to work at older ages, which is true for many Americans. Another concerning trend is the decline of wages for people with lower education statuses. One trend that is optimistic is the increasing wages for women in all education brackets. While women still on average make less than their male counterparts, the growth in wages for women could bring the gap closer to equality.

One problem that is often overlooked when promoting and establishing democracies is tribal and ethnic differences. A major example of this is when Saddam Hussein was overthrown in Iraq, the interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi took over. The complication there was that Iyad Allawi was a Shia Muslim in a primarily Sunni Muslim nation. Furthermore the Shia Muslims of Iraq were under Saddam Hussein persecuted and after his capture, were optimistic that they would have more power. In the months following, Sectarian violence between the Sunnis and Shi'ites in Iraq increased. Situations similar to this have happened in African countries, with or without US promotion of democracy. Since Abiy Ahmed won power in Ethiopia in 2018, ethnic tensions have been on the rise. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed is an Oromo, which despite being the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia are underrepresented. Recently, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has had to deal with an ethnic separatist group called the Tigray People's Liberation Front due to ethnic tensions escalating.

China has a paradoxical nature with climate change. While it is the leading polluter and contributor to carbon emissions, it also leads in creating emission-reducing technologies and green energy projects. China has been a leading influence on international agreements regarding climate change although at times it does not meet the requirements of the climate accords it works with. Like the US, it is hard for China to meet these requirements, when it has one of largest economies, is one of the largest producers and exporters and has over 1 billion people. One thing the international community can agree on with China is that climate change should be a top priority for the world, especially for countries that are large contributors to carbon emissions. The US, which has had at times a strained relationship with its major economic partner, China, looks forward to working with China to create a better environment. https://www.economist.com/special-report/2018/03/15/china-is-rapidly-developing-its-clean-energy-technology

As this document emphasizes, fragile and unstable states are influenced by their poverty. In an effort to reduce fragile states and conflicts, the World Bank aspires to fight poverty and promote prosperity. As a state lacks the economic opportunities to give its people a chance at success, the people of the state often resort to violence, either against the state or against each other, to achieve the means of survival. Often times, these conflicts both hinder the economic opportunities of the state and also drag in nearby countries, causing a vicious cycle of poverty and violence. By reducing poverty, the World Bank seeks to end the vicious cycle and hopefully reduce global conflicts altogether.

It is interesting to read about the fiscal revisions and reshaping going on within the government, particularly, in this document, the Department of Defense. As it mentions in the document, the threats that the DoD intelligence agencies have to deal with have grown in numbers and complexity, which obviously requires more resources to combat and therefore has led to the agencies growing in size as well. As the document mentions, however, these growing agencies have been held to the same scrutiny they have before, resulting in a gap between the size of the agency and the effiency of the reviewing platform.

I found it interesting that the document includes a part regarding the rise of authoritarianism in the world. While this does not directly impact our national security, the rise of unstable regimes and civil unrest may lead to more unstabel regions that could breed terrorist cells or disrupt global economies. Especially given the rise of authoritarianism in East Europe, where the leaders are more likely to support and be supported by Russia and therefore react negatively to EU endeavours. As I have discussed recently, elections in Moldova and Montenegro threaten the stability of the Balkans as a part of the EU and NATO. While Montenegro is part of NATO right now, its far-right pro-Russian regime may change that.

Space becoming a recent frontier for military strategy and defense is an interesting development. Much of our information technology and communication relies on satelitte technology in space. If a foreign actor wanted to sabotage the US or its allies' communications, satelittes in space would be a suitable target. This is why Space Force is a necessary development for the US defense strategy. Countries such as China and Russia which have space capabilites equal to ours play an important role in our defense strategy regarding space, while countries like Iran who are eager to develop technologies to interfere with US defense also must be considered. Given that the United Arab Emirates is developing an advanced space program, in part to counter Iran's capabilities, I wonder if space technology and space military capabilites will be the next proliferation issue. While the "space race" of the 1960s and 1970s accelerated space technology, it was limited to only Russia and the US and, as far as I am aware, did not prioritize military capabilites in space.

The United Arab Emirates, particularly Dubai and the capital Abu Dhabi, are very science-oriented and business-oriented regions. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have become international cities with large skyscrapers, five-star hotels and restaurants, the famous Gold Market and ambitious architectural experiments, such as the three artifical Palm Islands. The country's wealth like many Arab countries came from its large supply of oil and natural resources. However, the United Arab Emirates have prioritzed tourism and attracting other lucrative businesses to the region. Dubai even plans to run almost entirely on clean energy by 2050 and phase out its reliance on oil and natural gas. Dubai aspires to be a center of clean energy and a carbon negative city, which given its high-tech infrastructure and expensive hotels and restaurants would be an impressive feat in its own right. The United Arab Emirates are an extremely science-oriented nation, which is why there space initiative is no surprise. Given that Iran continually harasses the UAE with cyberthreats and cyber-attacks on their oil fields, developing more secure information communications and technology is a top priority for the nation.

It was interesting to read China's Space Policy document. This document emphasizes that China wants to pursue peaceful policies in regards to space and not create an arms race for space defense. If this is true, then that will be a huge step in international cooperation regarding space. China also emphasizes its multilateral approach to space, working in programs with Russia, Brazil, France, Italy, the UK and the US as well as other countries with smaller or non-existent space programs like Kazakhstan and Algeria. Hopefully, this multilateral approach allows space to not be hindered by national borders and politics. Given that space has no clear boundaries and Exclusive Economic Zones would be hard to create, let alone enforce, in space, perhaps space will provide an opportunity for an international economic zone, free of national boundaries.

From this document it seems that the priorities of the EU's space defense is to preserve and maintain existing infrastructure and to safeguard space defense from risks such as cyberthreats. It is interesting that this space defense is more concerned with protecting infrastructure and technological innovations and their environmental impact. As far as I can remember, the US Space Force initiative does not mention environmental impacts and risks of their mission. While protecting space infrastructure and defense is an important mission, the nations and commercial enterprises seeking to make advances in space must do so without causing additional harm to the environment.

The Space Force is a fascinating concept to me as it seems like something out of a science fiction movie. Going in to this webinar, I did not know much about Space Force other than the information I learned from the International document of the day. I think that it will be interesting to see how this branch develops and see what new technologies and advantages come with it. The Space Force's primary mission will be to protect the US's military advantage in space and preserve our satelittes, but with commercial companies like Blue Horizon and SpaceX pioneering commercial enterprises in space, I wonder how Space Force's mission will grow.

As we can see in this document, China's theft of US intellectual property is an economic concern for the US. By taking innovations in technology and research from corporations and academia and bringing these said innovations back to Chinese companies, the Chinese economy is benefitting from US losses. It is a primary concern for the US economy to prevent theft of intellectual property. As mentioned before, the Chinese government has signed an agreement agreeing to respect the intellectual property of other nations, but it is not guaranteed that they will follow through. At the same time, China is one of the US's largest trading partner so the US is unable to completely remov China from its economy.

I like that you mentioned how this document emphasizes that most immigrants and international students contribute to US research and academia. I think its a key disclaimer to put in a document about foreign threats to intellectual property that the majority of international students are not threats to research. Given that there is a rise in xenphobic attitudes in a majority of countries, it is nice to see that this document does not want to continue to encourage these attitudes while also discussing valid threats to intellectual property.

It is interesting to read this document given that a lot of technological innovation and research goes on in academia. Foreign entities having access to these research developments and looking to steal technology is a concerning threat to US intellectual property. As we have seen in previous documents about intellectual property, China plays a large role in threats against US intellectual property, although they have signed an agreement to respect international rules on intellectual property. It is interesting to see that in China's Thirteenth Five Year Plan it states that it seeks to eliminate use of foreign-produced technology in certain fields. I wonder how this will affect its agreement on respecting intellectual property.

Reading about the National Reconnaissance Office is interesting, given that until 1992, the public was not aware of its existence. Even though two decades have passed since it became declassified, I think majority of the public is still unaware of its existence. Due to its secretive nature, people who are aware of its existence do not know much about it or its mission unlike other governmental agencies. Reading this document allows one to know more about the once classified agency and its modern prerogatives. With information technology rapidly changing with the existence of the smartphones, increasingly digitalized technology and access to the internet becoming more abundant, satelittes and digital communication have exponentially transformed since 1992, let alone since the creation of the NRO in the 1960s. As such the NRO has had to continue to transform alongside the growth of the internet to stay up to date with modern information technology.

As Americans, we obviously know about Russian infiltration into American politics and our election in 2016. Spies like Maria Butina who infiltrated the NRA in 2016 as well as anonymous Russian bots who spread misinformation on social media site like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, are concerning threats to the security and sovereignty of the United States of America. However, the US is not the only country where Russian influence on elections has been observed. The recent election in Montenegro, which replaced the Pro-NATO, Pro-European coalition with a nationalistic, Pro-Serbian coalition, was largely influenced by Russia, with the Russian Orthodox Church mobilizing to support the Pro-Serbian coalition. Serbia is often alleged to be a Russian satelitte state in the Balkans as it continues to support Russian endevours in the Balkans and follows Russian policy (something to note is that the Serbian Orthodox Church is heavily influenced by the Russian Orthodox Church, which not only has religious influence but also political influence in Eastern Europe). The Belarusian election on August 9, while so far has not shown Russian influence, has been largely supported by the Russian government as a legitimate election, despite strong evidence otherwise. The problem with Russian infiltration and influence is that it does not infiltrate government bodies themselves but infiltrates the minds of the public with Pro-Russian propaganda and misinformation. Facebook, Twitter and Instagram allow misinformation to spread fast. Conspiracy theories are rampant and many "bot" accounts will repost each other making it seem like it is coming from a legitimate source. Many "bot" accounts take on personas and identities that make them appeal to certain audiences and seem more trustworthy. Only recently have social media sites started taking this threat seriously with crackdowns removing hundreds of accounts made to promote misinformation or certain Pro-Russian agendas.

With the world becoming more digitalized and relying more and more on cyberspace, cyberterrorism has become a real threat to security. A recent example of how large of an impact cyberthreats could play is the 2017 Equifax Data Breach, which affected more than 147 million people. Many government officials believe that this cyberattack was initiated by the Chinese government or People's Liberation Army but the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) denies these claims. This cyberattack exposed how vulnerable the American population is to an cyberattack and how dangerous it could be. If a cyberthreat hits major companies that the US population and government rely on, it could have catastrophic results on the economy, safety and privacy of US citizens.

Since the start of the Cold War the battle for who controls space has been one between the US and Russia. While more states have expanded their space capabilities, space is still largely dominated by US, Russia and China. The Space Force is an interesting expansion of the US's capabilities in space, one that I think most American citizens are curious about. The Space Force's goal to create a military advantage in space will allow the US to continue to have control over space and will hopefully allow the US to set standards for conduct in space. While commercial space travel is still years away from being plausible, creating early standards for regulations is a smart idea. With companies like Jeff Bezos' Blue Horizon and Elon Musk's SpaceX developing rapidly, the US needs to be ahead of the time and set policy.