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Technological tools are today a vital component of modern statecraft.  Nations hack into each other’s computer networks to collect intelligence, prepare the battlefield, and carry out sabotage.  They also invest heavily in technologies that promise to fundamentally change the way we communicate and that will automate major functions currently conducted by humans.  Drawing upon existing regional programming, our Serious Games Initiative, a diverse network of Fellows and strong alliances with the private sector, this effort evaluates the risk of miscalculation in the digital age, identify possible solutions and investigate policy options for addressing future challenges.

Today, the United States and China, often with Russia at its side, are competing to shape security architectures, as well as norms and practices worldwide, including trade and investment regimes and the development and regulation of new technological infrastructures. These frictions will play out over decades, not only in Beijing, Washington, and Moscow, but in Africa and Europe, the Arctic, outer space, and cyberspace.

The Arctic is no longer an isolated or remote region; it is a critical component of the global political, economic, social, physical, and national security landscape. The region is experiencing rapid change in: commerce, climate, commodities, cooperation, competition, communities, and connectivity. Therefore, navigating the Arctic’s 7 C’s requires regional expertise as well as purposeful interdisciplinary approaches.  The Wilson Center is addressing the future of the new “global Arctic.”

In its programming, the Wilson Center assesses a wide array of current rule-of-law challenges—in particular governance, public accountability, human rights, judicial independence, and anti-corruption efforts.  Programmatic activities convene multiple stakeholders—government officials, lawyers, NGO experts, social scientists, the business community—to explore and discuss common obstacles to legal reform and to identify innovative strategies that have been employed around the world to address rule-of-law issues.