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International Students at US Universities

This graphic outlines the rising number of international students enrolled at US universities since 1999. To find out what this trend could mean for the transfer of specialized knowledge from Western countries to emerging nations – particularly regarding the West’s military-technological superiority – see Michael Haas’ chapter in Strategic Trends 2019 here.

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A Politically Neutral Hub for AI Research

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This article was originally published by the ETH Zukunftsblog on 24 May 2019. 

The growing politicisation of AI harbours risks. Sophie-Charlotte Fischer and Andreas Wenger propose a hub for AI research in Switzerland committed to the responsible development of the new technologies.

The surge of progress in Artificial Intelligence (AI) over the last few years has been driven primarily by economic market forces and the manifold commercial applications. Large global technology companies, particularly in the US and China, lead the field in AI. Yet this concentration of AI resources in a few private corporations is increasingly undercutting the competitiveness of public research institutions and smaller companies. Such oligopolistic market dynamics threaten to exacerbate existing economic and social inequalities.

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CSS Blog

International Students at US Universities

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This graphic outlines the rising number of international students enrolled at US universities since 1999. To find out what this trend could mean for the transfer of specialized knowledge from Western countries to emerging nations – particularly regarding the West’s military-technological superiority – see Michael Haas’ chapter in Strategic Trends 2019 here. For more CSS charts and graphics, click here.

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CSS Blog

Gross Domestic Expenditure on Research and Development: USA and China

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This week’s featured graphic charts the convergence of Chinese and US GDP expenditure on research and development. Does it suggest that the West is about to lose its edge in military technology? Michael Haas thinks so. Read his Strategic Trends 2019 chapter in on the eclipse of Western military technology superiority here to find out why.  For more CSS charts, maps and graphics on economics, click here.

Studying Conflict and Practicing Peacebuilding

Image Courtesy of Fated Snowfox/Flickr. (CC BY-NC 2.0)

This article was originally published by E-International Relations on 20 July 2017.

What can one say about the academic study of violent conflict and its implications for the practice of peacebuilding? There is no reason to assume a necessary relationship between these two spheres of activity; the study of armed conflict may or may not have any practical significance for peacebuilding. Of course many scholars in this field are motivated in part by the hope and expectation that their findings will make a contribution, however slight, to the building and maintenance of peace. The editors of Journal of Peace Research articulated this same expectation when, in the inaugural issue of the journal some 50 years ago, they expressed the view that ‘[p]eace research should … concern itself with [the] reduction of violence and [the] promotion of integration.…and should, preferably, have relevance for peace policy’ (Editorial 1964, 2,4).