CSS News
"Security 2024" Study: Report on the Media Conference on March 26, 2024
Global pessimism meets desire for an operational army.
Critical Infrastructure Resilience in Ukraine: Energy, Transportation, and Communication
The Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and the subsequent targeted attacks on critical infrastructure (CI) have put the country and its population under immense pressure. However, Russian interference with Ukrainian CI did not begin in 2022 but goes back at least as far as 2014 and the events surrounding the annexation of Crimea.
Trend Analysis Civil Protection 2035 Uncertainties, Challenges and Opportunities
This report represents the third installment in a series focused on identifying and analyzing trends significant for civil protection in Switzerland. It provides insights into trends expected to significantly impact the nation's civil protection system within the next five to ten years. Initiated by the Federal Office of Civil Protection (FOCP), this report aims to enhance horizon scanning capabilities within civil protection, a field necessitating ongoing adaptation.
Knowledge Security at Stake
A free, open, and international research and education environment is essential to scientific progress. At the same time, geopolitical tensions pose new challenges to the science, technology, and innovation sector. In many Western countries, approaches to knowledge security are being developed to protect core scientific values and preserve national interests.
Strategic De-risking Beyond Chips
Through export controls and industrial policy packages, the global semiconductor industry has become an arena of technological competition in recent years. As states seek to “de-risk” critical supply chains further, they face difficult challenges in identifying national security risks from emerging dual-use technologies and making tradeoffs between economic and security considerations.
Watching Armed Conflicts from Space
Leveraging open-access satellite images with deep learning can help humanitarian and human rights organizations address violent conflicts more rapidly. To ensure the effectiveness of remote monitoring, organizations need to align their strategies with the technical constraints of deep learning-based monitoring systems.
The Challenges of Wartime Polling in Ukraine
At the core of every conflict lies a paradox: political elites claim to be acting on behalf of the people, but violence means that measuring public opinion is incredibly challenging. This is evident today in Ukraine. Given the challenges posed by Russia’s war in Ukraine, how reliable are wartime polls?
Unequal Access to UN Human Rights Bodies
The United Nations Special Procedures operate a human rights complaint mechanism for individuals. Despite being open for all individuals in principle, complaints are frequently filed by socioeconomic elites from high-income countries.
Geopolitical Echoes of the Karabakh Conflict
The capture of Nagorno-Karabakh by Azerbaijani forces in September 2023 signaled a regional power shift. The Armenian military stayed out of the conflict, and Russian troops stationed on the ground to maintain peace failed to prevent hostilities. As Russian influence declines, Armenia is reassessing its relationship with Moscow. Prospects for peace are uncertain and fears of renewed conflict persist.
The New Frontier of Space Militarization
The exploitation of space today is increasingly driven by the innovations of private actors. Confronted with Russia’s military aggression, Ukraine showed how nations with little or no space capabilities can leverage commercial space infrastructure for combat. The massive reliance on commercial actors to provide vital support for Ukraine’s military operations suggests a new round of the militarization of space, one that private actors increasingly dominate.