Suchergebnisse

Introduction : science, technology, and survival -- Stratospheric ozone : a success with complications -- Climate disruption, not just global warming -- How do we address climate disruption? -- Nuclear issues : civilization in the balance -- Global health : security and inequality -- Globalization and the burden of disease -- The internet and social media : euphoria and repression -- Cyberwarfare and cybersecurity -- Frugal innovations for the "bottom of the pyramid" -- Jobs, productivity, and inequality : up the down escalators in manufacturing -- New technologies, new issues : gene drivers and geoengineering -- Playing with fire.

The impact of science and technology on world affairs is shaped by politics, economics, business, ethics, law, psychology, and culture. This nexus is a neglected aspect of international affairs. It cuts across and unites diverse issues critical to human survival: climate change, global health, nuclear weapons, Internet governance, cybersecurity, jobs, competitiveness, poverty, hunger, and the management of new technologies like autonomous weapons, hypersonic missiles, geoengineering, and gene drivers. Advances in science and technology promise both great benefits and critical threats. Appropriate policies can stimulate and guide scientific and technological advances to create new ways to achieve a healthy environment, sustainable energy systems, equitable growth, full employment, and reduced poverty. This work examines this important topic.

An integrated innovation policy model for energy technology -- Promoting development and adoption of new energy technology -- Toward a roadmap for launching technological innovation in energy -- Energy R & D and implementation : what is the level of funding and where will the money come from? -- Institutional gaps in the mechanisms of support for different stages of innovation -- All pumping together? prospects for international collaboration -- Political prospects and conclusions

Currently, Europeans traveling abroad confront frustrations when trying to access their subscriptions to Internet streaming services such as Netflix or Amazon Prime. Often, their attempts to access a movie or show are met with a message stating something along the lines of: "We are sorry. This content is not available in your country or territory." In the vernacular of the audiovisual industry, their content is "geo-blocked" in that nation. This is due to the fact that, under the European Union's current regulatory framework, producers of audiovisual content finance and distribute their shows in a system based on territorial exclusivity. Territorial exclusivity entails selling exclusive broadcast rights for audiovisual content to specific broadcasters and online platforms on a territory-by-territory or country-by-country basis. However, this may all be changing soon for the European Union. In May 2015, the European Commission announced its plan for a Digital Single Market, a multifaceted proposal aiming to tear down regulatory and geo-blocking walls between the European Union's Member States and to create a single, pan-European online market. This Note explores the potential financial and cultural implications of this DSM strategy for the film and television industries in the European Union and the United States. The benefits of a pan-European territory for audiovisual content distribution rights will be immediately clear to consumers.Cross-border portability and availability of subscriptions, movies, and shows will likely be applauded. However, this Note suggests the potential costs of such a unification effort, although less immediately evident, may be substantial. In particular, cultural diversity within the European Union and the ability of smaller nations' audiovisual industry players to compete may suffer if the costs of production and distribution increase to a pan-European scale. Throughout the growth and development of the European Union, there has been a struggle between concerns for harmonization and unification among the Member States and concerns for the preservation of unique cultural identities and diversity. The debate over the DSM is a microcosm of this balancing act, the latest chapter of an ongoing tension to define to what lengths the EU should go in unifying its Members. The European Commission's ultimate determination of how to enact the DSM will signal how they currently prioritize these competing considerations.

Despite the ubiquity and critical importance of science and technology in international affairs, their role receives insufficient attention in traditional international relations curricula. There is little literature on how the relations between science, technology, economics, politics, law and culture should be taught in an international context. Since it is impossible even for scientists to master all the branches of natural science and engineering that affect public policy, the learning goals of students whose primary training is in the social sciences should be to get some grounding in the natural sciences or engineering, to master basic policy skills, to understand the basic concepts that link science and technology to their broader context, and to gain a respect for the scientific and technological dimensions of the broader issues they are addressing. They also need to cultivate a fearless determination to master what they need to know in order to address policy issues, an open-minded but skeptical attitude towards the views of dueling experts, regardless of whether they agree with their politics, and (for American students) a world-view that goes beyond a strictly U.S. perspective on international events. The Georgetown University program in Science, Technology and International Affairs (STIA) is a unique, multi-disciplinary undergraduate liberal arts program that embodies this approach and could be an example that other institutions of higher learning might adapt to their own requirements.