Yesterday, the Special Competitive Studies Project(SCSP) convened its first quarterly Board of Advisors meeting of 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. The meeting, chaired by Dr. Eric Schmidt, was attended by Bob Work, Dr. Nadia Schadlow, Michèle Flournoy, Mac Thornberry, and SCSP’s panel experts and advisors.
The topics of the day’s discussions included a table-top exercise conducted with help from the RAND Corporation on the confluence of crises and conflicts in Europe, the Middle East, and Indo-Pacific and how technology can expand the solution set; the upcoming Presidential transition in Taiwan; the implementation of the CHIPS Act; the future of U.S.-China relations in 2025-2030 timeframe; and the newly issued Executive Order on Protecting Americans’ Sensitive Personal Data.
“It is clear that the United States faces the most challenging strategic competitor it has ever encountered. Now is the time for the United States to get its house in order and focus on winning this competition. We must double down on developing innovative strategies to ensure we can do so.” said SCSP Board of Advisor Member Bob Work.
Presenters at the meeting included high-level government officials, national security specialists, emerging technology experts, and academics including Ambassador Alexander Tah-Ray Yui, Representative, Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States; Ben Schwartz, Director for National Security, CHIPS for America, U.S. Department of Commerce; Dr. Ben Buchanan, the White House Special Advisor for Artificial Intelligence, Christina Segal-Knowles, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for International Economics, Devin DeBacker, Chief of the Foreign Investment Review Section the Department of Justice, the Honorable Colin Kahl, former Under Secretary of Defense for Policy; and the Honorable Nazak Nikakhtar, the former acting Under Secretary of Commerce for Industry and Security.
“In addition to insightful conversations on how technological innovation influences national security, competitiveness, and international relations, today we highlighted the significance of our upcoming AI Expo for National Competitiveness. We aspire for this to be a place for engaging discussion on AI and emerging technologies, live tech demos, and also a place to build foundational public-private relationships,” said SCSP CEO Ylli Bajrakari.
For more information about SCSP, please contact Senior Director for Communications and Public Affairs Tara Rigler at tmr@scsp.ai. To subscribe to the SCSP newsletter, please click here: 2-2-2.