India’s Militarization: Lessons from a Survey Experiment in Kashmir
Speaker: Dr. Yelena Biberman (Skidmore College) Date: 15 May 2025 Speaker Session Summary SMA hosted a speaker session with Dr. Yelena Biberman (Skidmore College) as part of its SMA India Speaker Series. Kashmir has long been a region of contention between Pakistan and India, while many Kashmiris view themselves as belonging to neither nation. It […]
Continue ReadingGlobally Critical Infrastructure: The Unique Risks and Challenges
Speaker: Zak Kallenborn (PhD candidate, War Studies at King’s College London) Date: 1 April 2025 Speaker Session Summary Certain infrastructures are not only important to individual nations but also entire regions and the global system. Globally critical infrastructure (GCI) can be located within, across, and outside state borders. Specific examples of GCI include the Panama […]
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Defending the United States Against Critical Infrastructure Attacks: A Critical Infrastructure Survey and Hypothetical Campaign of Cascading Impacts
Speakers: Tom Wingfield & Bridget Kane (RAND) Date: 4 February 2025 Speaker Session Summary SMA hosted a speaker session with Tom Wingfield (RAND) and Bridget Kane (RAND) as part of its SMA General Speaker Series. Stable and secure critical infrastructure—systems or assets essential to society—serve as a key component of national security and daily life […]
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West Africa Exploitable Conditions Model
Author: Dr. Samuel Henkin (NSI, Inc.) This publication was released as part of the SMA project “Anticipating the Future Operational Environment (AFOE) Phase III.“ For more information regarding this project, please click here. Publication Preview The West Africa Exploitable Conditions Model (WAECM) is an empirical, concept-based, system-of systems model tailored to the region of West Africa, […]
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Countering Growing Violent Extremism in West Africa
Speaker: Dr. Daniel Eizenga (Africa Center for Strategic Studies) Date: 19 December 2024 Speaker Session Summary SMA hosted a speaker session with Dr. Daniel Eizenga (Africa Center for Strategic Studies) as part of its SMA AFRICOM Speaker Series. Violence perpetrated by extremist groups in the Sahel has increased during the last several years alongside a rise […]
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Statelet of Survivors: The Making of a Semi-Autonomous Region in Northeast Syria: US Options in the New Phase of the Syrian Conflict
Speaker: Dr. Amy Austin Holmes (George Washington University) Date: 28 August 2024 Speaker Session Summary The political overtures made by Turkish President Erdogan to normalize relations with the Assad regime are reshaping the dynamics of the Syrian civil war. These overtures have more closely aligned Turkish, Russian, and Iranian interests in the region. As evidence, […]
Continue ReadingClimate Change as an Indirect Contributor to Terrorism
Speaker: Madeline Romm (National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START), University of Maryland) Date: 21 August 2024 Speaker Session Summary SMA hosted a speaker session with Madeline Romm (UMD START) as part of its SMA AFOE Phase III Climate Effects Speaker Series. Climate change is now widely recognized as a […]
Continue ReadingIrregular Warfare in Strategic Competition and Gray Zones: Prosecuting Authoritarian Subversion and Exploitative Use of Corruption and Criminality to Weaken Democracy
Speakers: David Luna (Luna Global Networks & Convergence Strategies, LLC) Date: 22 August 2024 (Time TBD) Speaker Session Summary US adversaries, including China, Russia, and Iran, aim to diminish Western influence while expanding their own in many countries. They employ various strategies, such as leveraging proxies, transnational organized crime and kleptocrats, which can undermine democracies […]
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Conceptualizing the Deterrence of Terrorism in the Era of Strategic Competition
Author: Dr. Steven S. Sin (START, University of Maryland) This publication was released as part of the SMA project “21st Century Strategic Deterrence Frameworks.” (SDF) For more information regarding this project, please click here. Publication Preview Deterring terrorism literature began as a reaction following the events of September 11, 2001. Since that time, there has […]
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Why, What, and How Free Societies Must Develop Effective Deterrence of Actors Intending Bad Ends Given Our GenAI Era
Speaker: Dr. David Bray (Stimson Center; LeadDoAdapt Ventures) Date: 13 March 2024 Speaker Session Summary The advent of widespread internet access and the emergence of new forms of generative AI (GenAI) have broken down the physical boundaries that once separated international and intranational communities. Dr. Bray delineates three overarching trends that delineate the interplay between […]
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