Wig Zamore STEP Photo

June 13, 2013

"Dangerous Cargo: Action Needed on Hazardous Materials"

Power & Policy Blog

By Lewis M. Branscomb, Director Emeritus of the Science, Technology and Public Policy Program; Professor Emeritus of Public Policy and Corporate Management and Ryan Ellis, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program/Project on Technology, Security, and Conflict in the Cyber Age

"The threat of terrorism complicates matters even further. In April, two men in Canada were arrested for plotting an attack on rail lines near Toronto. In the US, homeland security officials have warned that shipments of hazardous materials are an attractive terrorist target."

CC Flickr

June 11, 2013

"Economic Factors Driving Africa's Climate Innovation"

DW

By Sonia Phalnikar and Calestous Juma, Professor of the Practice of International Development; Director, Science, Technology, and Globalization Project; Principal Investigator, Agricultural Innovation in Africa

"In an email interview with Global Ideas, [Calestous] Juma touches on the challenges and opportunities raised by climate change in Africa, the economic drivers behind a rash of innovations, the role of African universities and why dogma is holding back the continent's full research potential."

May 8, 2013

Nuclear 101: Technology and Policy of Nuclear Security

By Matthew Bunn, Associate Professor of Public Policy; Co-Principal Investigator, Project on Managing the Atom

What are the most important technologies and approaches used to protect weapons-usable nuclear materials from theft? What are the major international agreements and initiatives focused on improving nuclear security? What are the strengths and weaknesses of current approaches? This seminar provided a brief introduction to each of these topics.

May 15, 2013

"Privacy Consciousness in the Big Data Era"

Hive

By Vivek Mohan, Research Fellow, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program/Project on Technology, Security, and Conflict in the Cyber Age

"...[S]ocietal inertia cannot be held up ipso facto to argue for stronger privacy protections when we ourselves are responsible for sharing the data that is now traversing the endless servers of cyberspace. The benefits of the big data revolution are myriad, cut across sectors, and the best is surely yet to come."

May 14, 2013

"Change the Conversation, Change the Venue and Change Our Future"

By Melissa Hathaway, Senior Advisor, Project on Technology, Security, and Conflict in the Cyber Age

"The G20 has an opportunity to articulate a vision for shaping the Internet economy for the next five to 10 years. The power of the leadership of this body, combined with its ability to assemble and speak to a simple, positive narrative for cybersecurity anchored in our collective economic well-being (and GDP growth), could be a watershed event. The GDP erosion that all nations are suffering places cybersecurity within the legitimate processes and 'architecture' of international economic governance. By changing the conversation to being about the economy and growth, this approach would enable the G20 to de-escalate the militarization and balkanization of the Internet."

April 2013

"DOE Budget Authority for Energy Research, Development, & Demonstration Database"

By Kelly Sims Gallagher, Senior Associate, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group and Laura Diaz Anadon, Associate Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Director, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy

In our annual review of the budget request for fiscal year 2014 for the Department of Energy's energy research, development, demonstration (RD&D) programs, we observe that it is significantly higher than the FY12 budget, a 33 percent increase overall, from $3.25 billion to $4.30 billion (current dollars), not including basic energy sciences. The increase in basic energy sciences is also large compared with FY12, a 17 percent increase for a total of $1.74 billion.  We observe a huge decline in spending on deployment programs since the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act.  Our database, including charts, is available for download.

Forthcoming 2013

"Bridging Decision Networks for Integrated Water and Energy Planning"

Energy Strategy Reviews

By Afreen Siddiqi, Visting Scholar, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program, Arani Kajenthira, Associate, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program and Laura Diaz Anadon, Associate Director, Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program; Director, Energy Technology Innovation Policy research group; Adjunct Lecturer in Public Policy

Integrated policy and planning is needed to effectively meet the challenges of growing water and energy inter-dependencies in many regions. Joint consideration of both water and energy domains can identify new options for increasing overall resource use efficiencies. In order to identify and realize such opportunities, however, detailed knowledge of current and emerging water–energy couplings is needed along with a nuanced understanding of key actors and agencies engaged in decision-making. In this paper we develop a systematic, analytical approach based on quantitative analysis of water and energy couplings, identification and characterization of key actors and groups using concepts from stakeholders theory, and employing notions from organization theory of boundary-spanning agents that can serve to bridge inter-organizational networks for water and energy planning. We apply this approach to conduct an in-depth investigation of water and energy resources in Jordan.