July 19, 2017
The Rocky Relationship Between Washington & Silicon Valley
Clearing the Path to Improved Collaboration
The Trump administration inherited a decent foundation on which to build collaborative ties between Washington and hubs of American innovation like Silicon Valley. Both President Barack Obama and former Secretary of Defense Ash Carter invested heavily in improving government outreach to the tech industry, bringing Washington and Silicon Valley closer than they have been in decades on both policy substance and technology solutions in the national security space. But the relationship was far from perfect, and it is as yet unclear whether lessons, good and bad, from Obama’s efforts have been taken seriously by their successors.
Serious work remains to be done in substantive collaborations on countering violent extremism, the future of encryption, cybersecurity threats, and surveillance. Furthermore, several minefields lay ahead – such as addressing the technical and foreign policy challenges of “fake news,” the ongoing immigration debate, and the impact of automation on both domestic and international security matters. At this stage, it is unclear whether there will be similar levels of engagement with the tech industry to collaborate on solutions to these challenges or if the relationship will be sustained.
To read more, please visit Copia.is.
More from CNAS
-
Summary of Findings and Recommendations
Reports
KEY FINDINGS Soldier survivability is a function of protection and other relevant operational factors, such as situational awareness, mobility, and lethality. Throughout histo...
By Paul Scharre, Lauren Fish, Katherine Kidder & Amy Schafer
-
Human Performance Enhancement
Reports
Executive Summary No attributes are more foundational to success in combat than the physical and cognitive performance of warfighters. Technological advantage has always playe...
By Paul Scharre & Lauren Fish
-
Human Performance Enhancement TEST
Reports
No attributes are more foundational to success in combat than the physical and cognitive performance of warfighters. Technological advantage has always played a central role i...
By Paul Scharre & Lauren Fish
-
Ep. 27: CENTCOM's Gen. Votel; Exosuits and super soldiers; Weaponizing social media and more
Podcast
This week on the program: • During a flight over Turkmenistan this week, America’s top commander in the Middle East spoke by phone with Defense One Executive Editor Kevin Baro...
By Paul Scharre & Lauren Fish
