publications

As unprecedented winter weather swept across Texas, starting Saturday February 13th and continued into the following week, the Texas grid and market monitor — the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) — was forced into extreme circumstances including planned, rolling blackouts for consumers. These blackouts are both a physical grid issue and market design issue. The existing crisis in Texas highlights the complexities of maintaining a reliable energy system under ever increasing extreme weather stress.

The West and China have two different, competing views of the internet based on the values the two government systems promote. The West, led by America, largely values democratic rule, freedom of speech, freedom of association, religious liberty, and the ability to communicate with others free from unreasonable, unwarranted government surveillance. Because of its communist government, China eschews those freedoms, placing the ethereal terms “state security” and “social stability” as some of its principle values.

The preliminary results of the 2020 U.S. general elections unfortunately demonstrated that election administration officials at the state and local level across the United States faced a tremendous onslaught of challenges and attacks against a basic function of democracy: the ease for voters to cast a ballot

Secure election operations are challenging for republics and democracies. Citizens are willing to make some tradeoffs to have a voice in their governments. These tradeoffs include allowing inherent vulnerabilities in systems despite the constant need for mitigation.

Following Presidential election season in America, Washington’s defense establishment starts another ritual: development of a new U.S. national security strategy. Typically released within an administration’s inaugural year, it dictates how the government interprets both “national” and “security.” It sets priorities for federal departments directing more than 4.3 million public servants under contract or oath. The last national security strategy, published late 2017, focused on preparing for great power competition. The next should be about winning it by including diversity.