State-Sponsored Cyber Operations
At CSINT, we are committed to exploring the dynamics of state behavior in cyberspace, with a particular focus on how and why nation-states employ cyber instruments. We investigate the deployment of hackers as proxies by states to project power and examine the complex interactions and motivations behind these actions. Our current work centers on the dynamics of interstate cyber conflict and how states leverage cyber capabilities in the pursuit of national security goals. Through this research, we aim to uncover the strategies, tactics and implications of state-sponsored cyber operations, providing critical insights into the evolving landscape of global cybersecurity and digital diplomacy.鈥犅
State Behavior in Cyberspace: We explore how and why nation-states use cyber instruments.鈥
Cyber Proxies and Power Projection: We examine the use of hackers as state-sponsored proxies and how these hackers are deployed to project power and influence in the international arena.鈥
Interstate Cyber Conflict: We analyze the dynamics of cyber conflict between states, including the motivations, strategies and outcomes of adversarial state-sponsored cyber operations.
Technology, Security, and the Geopolitics of the Firm
States have a strategic interest in adopting emerging technologies. This is especially true of digital technologies as battlefields become more ambiguously defined across civilian infrastructure and awash in data. This adoption relies on an often-contested relationship with technology firms, including some of the largest corporations assembled since the French Revolution. The nature of this contest, and the choice of strategies by states, and firms, to compete more effectively, has significant implications for the design and adoption of digital technologies, the political power of non-state groups, and the security of the United States and its allies.
This collection of applied research projects works to understand the mechanics of contestation between firms and the state, the strategies states use to influence the security of digital technologies, how the adoption of different kinds of technologies by states influences public-private political dynamics, and the diffusion of offensive digital technologies developed or employed by non-state groups. This work takes an explicitly interdisciplinary approach and works to translate findings into practical recommendations for different policymaking communities.鈥
The Industrial Politics of Computing: How 鈥榦penness鈥 in digital computing intersects with user鈥檚 security, the market for cloud services, and anti-trust policies.鈥
Spyware Proliferation: How the development, sale, and support of software used for digital espionage affects human rights and international security.鈥
Transnational Regulation and Secure by Design: Multiple governments are working to induce technology companies to develop more secure digital technologies but these efforts pose challenging questions of vertical regulation within borders and horizonal regulation across them. Is there an international future for 鈥渟ecure by design鈥?鈥
Non-State, Market Driven Security Governance: What role can entities like insurance firms play in governing the security outcomes of organizations? Where are there opportunities to reinforce or even replace public sector authority with private sector institutions, without reverting to 鈥榲oluntary鈥 mechanisms?鈥
Democracy Innovation Lab
The Democracy Innovation Lab at the Center for Security, Innovation and New Technology is dedicated to exploring the complex relationship between technology, disinformation, and the health of democratic institutions. As digital platforms and new technologies become increasingly embedded in our daily lives, they also present new vulnerabilities and challenges for maintaining free, fair, and secure democratic processes. Through interdisciplinary research and collaboration, the Democracy Innovation Lab investigates how digital and emerging technologies can both be exploited to undermine democratic norms and institutions, as well as be leveraged to strengthen democratic resilience around the globe.鈥
Foreign Interference: Analyzing how state and non-state actors use digital and emerging technologies to interference in the domestic affairs and electoral processes of other countries.鈥
Democratic Backsliding: Exploring how the rapid evolution of new technologies intersects with the erosion of democratic checks and balances, civil liberties, and the rule of law in established, emerging, and fragile democracies.
Digital Civic Empowerment: Identifying ways in which new and digital technologies can be leveraged to enhance political participation, government transparency and the ability for citizens to meaningfully engage in democratic processes.鈥
Frontier Technologies
The rapid advancement of fields like quantum computing, artificial intelligence, biotechnology, and other cutting-edge innovations is radically transforming the technological landscape. While these developments hold immense promise for addressing global challenges and driving human progress, they also introduce complex geopolitical, economic, and social implications that require careful examination. The Frontier Technologies research stream at the Center for Security, Innovation and New Technology explores the political dimensions of these transformative technological shifts. Through interdisciplinary collaboration aimed at building bridges between academic theory and public policy, this program investigates how the development and deployment of novel technologies are shaping the global balance of power, national security concerns, economic competitiveness, and the very fabric of society.鈥
Quantum computing: Assessing the politics of quantum technologies and how the development and deployment of quantum computing and quantum technologies could impact cybersecurity, information control, and great power rivalries between nations.鈥
Artificial Intelligence: Examining the geopolitical tensions arising from the global race for AI dominance, as well as the ethical and societal impacts of increasingly autonomous and intelligent systems.
Biotechnology: Exploring the security, policy, and governance frameworks needed to harness the power of emerging biotechnologies, from gene editing to synthetic biology.
Frontier Ethics: Analyzing the ethical, legal and social consequences of rapidly evolving technologies, and advancing rights-based frameworks around the development and adoption of frontier technologies.鈥