06

The Military Academy at ETH Zurich and the Center for Security Studies at ETH Zurich have published the annual survey "Sicherheit 2020". Since 1999, the study has evaluated long-term trends and tendencies in public opinion on foreign, security and defense policy issues in Switzerland.

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to an explosion of digital tools for fighting communicable diseases. To cut through this complexity, this CSS Corona Blog by Kevin Kohler provides an overview of such tools for information exchange, contact tracing and monitoring compliance with physical distancing and quarantine measures.

This edited volume by Andreas Wenger, Ursula Jasper and Myriam Dunn Cavelty inquires into the use of prediction at the intersection of politics and academia, and reflects upon the implications of future-oriented policy-making across different fields.

In this CSS Corona Blog, Henrik Larsen writes that although the coronavirus pandemic did not trigger a transatlantic response, NATO found relevance in support of the civilian response: airlifting medical equipment and countering disinformation. The pandemic gives Allies renewed impetus to strengthen resilience and NATO to complement the national efforts in doing so.

Peacebuilders and policy-makers often accuse political elites of exploiting religion in conflicts for the purpose of achieving political objectives. In this CSS Policy Perspective, Jean-Nicolas Bitter and Owen Frazer argue that diagnoses of the presence of religion in conflict contexts as ‘instrumentalization’ may create a barriers to conflict transformation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) promises to change cybersecurity in the coming years. It will likely enhance both cyber offense and defense, and contribute to shaping the cyber threat landscape. Governing these changes is challenging, particularly for state-related actors. It requires them to adopt adequate policy and normative frameworks, as argued by Matteo Bonfanti and Kevin Kohler in this CSS Analysis.

In the context of the global efforts to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, digital technologies are taking on a role that is both visible and controversial. At the same time, the reciprocal relationship between technology and society is often ignored, argue Sophie-​Charlotte Fischer, Kevin Kohler and Andreas Wenger in this CSS Analysis.  In interaction with other crisis management measures, countries worldwide apply digital technologies in very different ways.

Categorized as a systemically relevant infrastructure, 5G plays a crucial role for a wide range of technological innovations. According to this CSS Policy Perspective by Julian Kamasa, the technological and geopolitical challenges that converge in this context require comprehensive solutions.