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The EU Retools For New Assaults On American Companies (From RealClearMarkets)
By Paul Steidler - September 11, 2024 - The European Union (EU) has gone after American business with a vengeance for the past decade, imposing billions of dollars of fines against highly reputable companies, requiring product and service changes for Europe that primarily help European companies, and threatening many additional actions. And while the leader of those harmful and consequential efforts, Margrethe Vestager, is stepping down at the end of October, other would-be ruthless regulators are waiting in the wings.
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China Beats America in STEM Education
By Paolo von Schirach - September 5, 2024 – Here is the hard truth. China is massively ahead of the U.S. in the number of schools, research centers, scientists and university graduates involved in the STEM disciplines. STEM include Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics. This did not happen overnight. This significant China advantage is the tangible outcome of an investment policy ordered years ago by President Xi Jinping. As a result of this deliberate prioritization, a majority of Chinese students these days choose STEM university degrees, often supported by state of the arts laboratories and research facilities. In contrast, in America only a small percentage of students prefer STEM disciplines. By the same token, the U.S. public education system lags behind its peers in other developed countries when it comes to quality science secondary education.
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U.S. Venture Capital is Now in the High Tech Weapons Business
By Paolo von Schirach - August 29, 2024 - The Wall Street Journal recently featured Anduril, a defense start-up company and its founder Palmer Luckey, as an illustrative example of Silicon Valley’s venture capitalists’ new focus on new defense companies working on futuristic weapons systems. The idea is that the established defense companies like Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Boeing somehow are trapped in a traditional way to think about war and weapons, while Silicon Valley entrepreneurs are free to think “crazy things” that may indeed lead to technological breakthroughs. Anduril thus far managed to raise $ 3.7 billion to work on autonomous weapons, like new drones and uncrewed submarines.
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With Focus On Red Sea, U.S. Navy Has An Aircraft Carrier Gap In The Pacific (From Defense Opinion)
By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D. - August 27, 2024 - Sending the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier at high speed to the Middle East has created an aircraft carrier gap in the Pacific. Read my piece for Defense Opinion here, and below. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln has arrived near the Red Sea, after rushing to the region on an accelerated transit from Guam. Carrier Air Wing Nine brings fresh squadrons of airpower with Marine Corps F-35Cs and the most advanced F/A-18 Super Hornets to help U.S. Central Command deter Iran. USS Theodore Roosevelt will also stay to keep two aircraft carriers in place after the recent Hezbollah strikes, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.
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South Africa’s Solar Boom
By Paolo von Schirach - August 14, 2024 - The African National Congress, South Africa’s governing party since 1994, is a sad illustration of African corruption and incompetence. Mostly for these reasons it lost its absolute majority in parliament in the recent May 29, 2024 elections. The most glaring example of this deadly combination of graft and inefficiency is Eskom, the state owned electricity provider. For decades, there has been no coherent investment strategy in new capacity, poor maintenance of existing power plants and transmission lines, and colossal thievery. All this resulted in what became a multi-year protracted electricity crisis that until recently appeared to be unsolvable.
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Kursk Pocket Shows Ukraine Still in the Fight (From Real Clear Defense)
By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D. - August 19, 2024 - Ukraine’s war against Russia is a stalemate no more. Putin did not see this coming. And NATO is content to let Ukraine take the war to Russia. Ukraine’s combat experience and training by NATO members is paying off. Ukraine “is quite well-organized,” Michael Clarke of Britain’s Royal United Services Institute told Sky News. “They know what they are doing, and they’ve got a plan,” Clarke said, to include rotating troops in and out of the battle zone. That’s highly professional and will be a morale boost for Ukraine’s forces in the east and south.
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Iran Beware: US Moves These 6 Top Of The Line Strike Options Into Position In The Middle East
By Rebecca L. Grant, Ph.D. - August 12, 2024 – Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is making sure U.S. Central Command is prepared to attack Iran, and/or its proxies, if Tehran strikes in the next few days. Read my 8.12.2024 piece for FOX News here. Air Force F-22 fighter jet pilots have already unpacked their bags at a Middle East base, where they arrived Aug 8. On Sunday night, Austin accelerated the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and moved the submarine USS Georgia under U.S. Central Command’s control. More systems, including F-35Cs, F/A-18EFs, DDG-51 destroyers and Air Force F-15Es are under Central Command’s operational control. Austin’s choice to deploy America’s top of the line strike options serves two purposes. The first, obviously, is to deter Iran and constrain Iran’s tactical options as the mullahs mull their retaliation plans. But the specific choice of these forces is to provide Central Command with capability for sustained, precision strikes against military targets in Iran or amongst Iran’s militia groups.
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WEBINAR // Case Study: The Tragedy of Afghan Refugees
On August 13, 2024 at 12:00 PM (EST) the Global Policy Institute (GPI) and Bay Atlantic University (BAU) will hold an event titled " The Tragedy of Afghan Refugees " via Zoom and in-person at BAU, 8th floor conference room. The recent history of Afghanistan is a sad tale of foreign invasions, armed resistance, civil war, and then brutal Taliban rule. This was followed by the American 2001 invasion in retaliation for the 9/11 2001 terror attacks plotted by al Qaeda, a terror network at the time based in Afghanistan. The U.S. and its NATO Allies costly efforts to support modernization and democracy in Afghanistan, in full cooperation with indigenous political forces, in the end failed –miserably. The hasty and disorganized American withdrawal in August 2001 caused massive misery for the people of Afghanistan, especially for the tens of thousands who had worked for the U.S. and its NATO Allies who would be targeted by the victorious Taliban. They desperately tried to leave the country, trying all sorts of avenues. With the critical help of the U.S. Government, many foreign countries, UN agencies, and NGOs, many succeeded. But many more did not. Please join us for a timely discussion on this still unfinished tragedy featuring Mr. Ahmad Sayer Daudzai. He is a former Acting Ambassador of Afghanistan to the UAE who personally supervised and supported an enormous effort aimed at relocating thousands of Afghans who had fled Afghanistan in the aftermath of the collapse of the pro-Western government in Kabul.
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US Nuclear Power Future: Small Reactors
By Paolo von Schirach - August 2, 2024 - Soon enough the lettuce or kale that you buy at your favorite supermarket will be grown next door to it, in a high rise building. It will be reasonably priced and it will have great taste, just like the produce you are used to that is now grown far away, in large farms and then transported in refrigerated trucks to your market. Is this even possible? Yes, it is. In the US and abroad there are already large, commercially viable, vertical farming corporations: Futurae Farms, (US), Cubic Farms, (Canada), Aero Farms, (United Arab Emirates), among many others. They are all running profitable businesses growing produce in urban environments. This is still a nascent industry. But we are way beyond the pilot project phase.
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A Tale of Two AI Announcements: Governments Glum, Google Gritty
By Paul Steidler - July 24, 2024 - Yesterday there were two notable announcements about the future of Artificial Intelligence that were diametrically at odds in tone and outlook. Governments worldwide are talking down AI and trying to figure out what it is, where it is going, and what they should do about it. U.S. private tech companies are carefully researching and applying the technology, taking big market risks, and helping the public capture the profound benefits. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), U.S. Department of Justice, the European Commission and a UK regulator issued the first announcement which was a downer and said little. For starters, it implied AI was like any run-of-the-mill government program, saying, “At their best, these technologies could materially benefit our citizens, boost innovation and drive economic growth.”
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