Suchergebnisse

Recent events in North Africa and the Gulf States have highlighted both the fragility of states worldwide and the ability of coordinated dissidents to challenge or topple regimes. The common processes of 'loads' generated by dissident activities and the core features of state resilience and its 'capacity' to withstand these 'loads' have been explored in the traditional "real world" view. More recently, however, there has been increased attention to the "cyber world"—the role of cyber technologies in coordinating and amplifying dissident messages, as well as in aiding regimes in suppressing anti-regime dissidents. As of yet, these two views (real and cyber) have not been integrated into a common framework that seeks to explain overall changes in regime stability over time. Further, emerging uses of social media technologies, such as Twitter have not fully been examined within an overall framework of state stability that represents the nature and dynamics of 'loads' generated by dissident activities in the real (i.e. protests) and cyber (i.e. planning and coordination via cyber venues) domains. ; This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-09-1-0597. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations therein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.

Identifying high-leverage intervention points to increase cyber resiliency—the ability to provide and maintain acceptable service levels in the face of challenges— requires identifying, integrating, and framing a diverse set of strategies that cut across boundaries of governments, corporation, non-profits, and individuals. Drawing on a preliminary framework developed by Jonathan Zittrain, we identify several sources of corporate interventions and suggest possible trajectories for intervention effectiveness over time by utilizing simulation modeling. The overall goal of this research is to develop innovative management and operational approaches using experts, emerging data sets, policy analysis, and relevant theory, along with simulation-modeling, to enable real-world implementation of high-leverage opportunities to promote corporate resiliency to cyber threats. ; This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-09-1-0597. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations therein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.

The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is an oil-rich country located in the eastern part of the Arabian Peninsula. Abu Dhabi is the largest emirate in the country, and Abu Dhabi is the capital of the UAE. The country has the one of the highest per capita rates of CO2 CO 2 emission and water consumption in the world. Most of the water consumed is produced in desalination plants, which are energy intensive. The leadership of the country has made the bold decision to establish a renewable energy (RE) sector to diversify its energy sources and the economy as a whole. The Masdar Initiative was established to promote this objective. The government has established its first RE policy; the goal is to have 7% of power come from RE sources and technologies by 2020. This paper highlights the different RE projects of the Masdar Initiative, with particular emphasis on the power sector, and examines the new concentrated solar power (CSP) plants developed as part of the initiative.

Modeling technology policy is becoming an increasingly important capability to steer states and societies toward sustainability. This paper presents a simulation-modeling approach to evaluate renewable energy readiness, that is, the ability to develop renewable energy, taking into account critical ecological, economic, governance, and institutional factors that generally shape energy policy. While the dynamics underlying shifts towards renewable energy are generic, we focus on the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as a counter-intuitive case. The UAE is a major oil rich and oil exporting country, with large untapped reserves. Yet it has made a policy decision to develop sources of renewable energy. The absence of basic institutional, managerial, and infrastructure requirements creates major barriers that must be surmounted if this policy is to be effectively pursued. For these and other reasons, the UAE serves as a "hard test" for the potentials of renewable energy and can eventually be used as a model for other oil exporting countries. The UAE has already made strides along a trajectory in trial and error ways. As such, it helps demonstrate in theory and practice the readiness for renewable energy-that can help articulate effective policy trajectories.

Cyberspace is built on physical foundations that support the "virtual" manifestations we know of and use in everyday computing. Physical infrastructure can include wired, fiber optic, satellite and microwave links, as well as routing equipment. An often overlooked but critical part of the Internet infrastructure is undersea communication cable links. Undersea cables are the technology of choice to move large amounts of data around the world quickly. In the U.S., approximately 95% of all international Internet and phone traffic travel via undersea cables. Nearly all government traffic, including sensitive diplomatic and military orders, travels these cables to reach officials in the field. The problem, however, is that the undersea cable infrastructure is susceptible to several types of vulnerability, including: rising capacity constraints, increased exposure to disruption from both natural and mad-made sources, and emerging security risks from cable concentration in dense geographical networks (such as New York and New Jersey, and places like Egypt/Suez Canal.) Moreover, even under normal working conditions, there is a concern whether governance-as-usual can keep up with the future growth of Internet traffic. In this paper, we explore the impact of these problems on the dynamics of managing undersea cable infrastructure. ; This material is based on work supported by the U.S. Office of Naval Research, Grant No. N00014-09-1-0597. Any opinions, findings, conclusions or recommendations therein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Office of Naval Research.