Cyber

"A well-informed citizenry is the best defense against tyranny." Thomas Jefferson said that or something close to it. But what happens when tyrants misinform us or — worse — disinform us? To help us understand disinformation and its consequences, Foreign Podicy host Cliff May is joined by three FDD scholars: RADM (Ret) Mark Montgomery, Senior Director of FDD's Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation (CCTI); Emanuele Ottolenghi, FDD Senior Fellow; and Ivana Stradner, Advisor to FDD's Barish Center for Media Integrity.

As feared and anticipated, Vladimir Putin sent his troops over the border into Ukraine – an act of aggression and a blatant violation of international law. If Ukrainians, over the days ahead display courage, defiance, and determination, can they stop Putin from stripping them of their right to independence, sovereignty, and self-determination? Having shown little will to contain Putin after he dismembered Georgia in 2008, or after he seized Crimea from Ukraine and annexed it in 2014, what can – and should – American and European leaders do now? And if Putin emerges victorious from this war, will that sate his appetite — or whet it? Discussing these issues with Foreign Podicy host Cliff May are James Brooke, FDD visiting fellow who has lived in and covered Russia for The New York Times, Bloomberg, the Voice of America and other publications; Ivana Stradner, Jeane Kirkpatrick Visiting Research Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and John Hardie, research manager and research analyst at FDD.

In 1972, Nixon went to China, where he met with Communist leader Mao Zedong. Thanks to that bold diplomatic initiative, the United States and the People’s Republic learned to peacefully co-exist, living happily ever after. Well, not exactly. What Nixon called “the week that changed the world” helped China become wealthier and more powerful, but Beijing did not become America’s strategic partner — or a reliable stakeholder — in what we like to think of as the liberal, international, rules-based order. To discuss what China’s rulers have been doing, are doing, and intend to do, host Cliff May is joined by two scholars new to FDD. Nathan Picarsic, a senior fellow at FDD, studies Beijing’s military-civil fusion strategy, and its competitive approach to geopolitics. Emily de La Bruyère, also a senior fellow, has pioneered novel data collection and analysis tools tailored to Beijing’s strategic and institutional structures. She uses primary-source, Chinese-language materials to provide insight on geopolitical, technological, and economic change.

The threats facing the United States and its allies are not static. They grow. They transform. America’s defense strategies and defense budgets need to respond with creativity and muscularity. In November, the U.S. Congress employed a legislative tool known as a Continuing Resolution (CR) to provide temporary funding for the U.S. Military. Now, in December, there is another funding deadline looming. But this kind of uncertainty puts America’s national security and our military personnel at heightened and unnecessary risk. The day the CR expired, FDD’s Brad Bowman discussed these and related issues with Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana. Representative Banks, a member of the House Armed Services and Veterans Affairs Committees, is himself a veteran who deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 and 2015 — experience that gives him an especially informed voice. Brad serves as Senior Director of FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power. Brad previously worked as a senior director in the U.S. Senate, as well as an army officer, pilot, and assistant professor at West Point.

H.R. McMaster served as a U.S. Army officer for thirty-four years—including deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan—before retiring as a Lieutenant General in June 2018. He then served as White House national security advisor. Now a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, he also chairs the Board of Advisors at FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power. He joins host Cliff May for a discussion about national security during a challenging and dangerous time—a time when the U.S. is threatened by a motley crew of rivals, adversaries and sworn enemies.

Yaya Fanusie is the director of analysis at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF). He spent seven years as both an economic and counterterrorism analyst in the CIA, where he regularly briefed White House policy makers, U.S. military personnel, and federal law enforcement. In 2009, he spent three months in Afghanistan providing analytic support to senior military officials. He joins FDD president and Foreign Podicy host Clifford D. May for a discussion of the Long War, terrorism, ideology, religion and other issues. Episode resources:What it’s like to be a Muslim in the CIA — Yaya J. Fanusie; VoxHow to Neutralize the Violent Jihadist Pull — Yaya J. Fanusie; Muslim MattersAnwar Al-Awlaki’s American Journey — Clifford D. May; Scripps Howard News Service Clifford D. May is president of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), host of FDD's Foreign Podicy, and the foreign desk columnist for the Washington Times. Follow him on twitter @CliffordDMay. Yaya J. Fanusie is the director of analysis at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance (CSIF). Follow him on Twitter @signcurve and follow CSIF @FDD_CSIF. FDD is a Washington-based nonpartisan research institute focusing on national security and foreign policy. Follow the Foundation for Defense of Democracies on Twitter @FDD, and follow Foreign Podicy @Foreign_Podicy.

A peril that may not be on your radar screen: Cyber-Enabled Economic Warfare (CEEW). Computers and the Internet have made our lives easier but they’ve also left us vulnerable to an arsenal of cyber weapons that threaten us as much as terrorists, guns and bombs.Foreign Podicy host Clifford D. May is joined by Dr. Samantha Ravich, a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies as well as a principal investigator for FDD’s Cyber-Enabled Economic Warfare project, to discuss CEEW, and what must be done to combat it. Episode resources: http://www.defenddemocracy.org/content/uploads/documents/MEMO_CyberDefinitions_07.pdf http://www.defenddemocracy.org/media-hit/samantha-ravich-cyber-enabled-economic-warfare-assessing-us-strategy/ https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/1282920/dod-initiates-elevation-process-for-us-cyber-command-to-a-unified-combatant-com https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/senate-confirms-paul-nakasone-to-lead-the-nsa-us-cyber-command/2018/04/24/52c95ca4-47e8-11e8-9072-f6d4bc32f223_story.html?utm_term=.bc6091cfdaff Listeners can find and subscribe to Foreign Podicy via iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and SoundCloud. To request more information or to provide feedback for the Foreign Podicy team, email press@defenddemocracy.org.

Using social media, tech platforms and cyber weapons, the Russian government is running a sophisticated campaign to undermine faith in America’s democratic institutions, assist extremists on both the left and right, polarize Americans, and poison policy debates. Foreign Podicy host, Cliff May, is joined by Jamie Fly and Laura Rosenberger of the German Marshall Fund of the U.S., to discuss their research on Russia's campaign to strategically deceive public opinion, and their urgent recommendation that a bipartisan effort be mounted to combat Putin’s disinformation offensive. Show resources: https://democracyjournal.org/magazine/47/shredding-the-putin-playbook/  https://dashboard.securingdemocracy.org/