Ryan Whitmore

Global efforts to address plastics have delivered limited progress, while numerous challenges persist. Production keeps climbing, waste management remains underfunded, policies lean too much on voluntary measures from industry, and many touted technical solutions fail to confront the underlying drivers. Consequently, plastic pollution continues to intensify, fossil-fuel dependencies deepen, and social and environmental damages grow—most acutely in low- and middle-income countries.Failure 1 — Production continues to rise while policy stays focused on end-of-life stagesThe conversation remains tilted toward waste management and recycling while production of new plastics marches upward. Global production is on the order of hundreds of millions of…

Tech export controls refer to government-imposed rules that limit how specific technologies may be sold, transferred, or shared across borders, covering everything from hardware components and complete devices to software, source code, and specialized technical expertise. These measures are implemented for reasons tied to national security, economic sanctions, and the protection of human rights, and their impact reaches corporate decision-making, global supply networks, innovation environments, and the everyday choices made by consumers.How export controls operateExport controls work through several common mechanisms:Product and technology classification: governments assign codes or categories (for example, dual-use versus military) that determine which items require a…

Social media platforms shape the circulation of information, influence political dynamics, drive commercial activity, and affect private life across borders. Regulating them extends far beyond drafting rules; it requires balancing divergent legal frameworks, navigating technical constraints, weighing economic motivations, accounting for political forces, bridging cultural gaps, and confronting operational challenges on an unparalleled global scale. Below, the core obstacles are outlined, illustrated with examples and data, and accompanied by practical paths for moving forward.1. Scale and technical limitsSheer volume: Platforms accommodate billions of users and handle an immense stream of posts, messages, photos, and videos each day. While automated tools…

Food security is the condition in which all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food. Despite progress in agricultural productivity and declining child mortality in some regions over recent decades, global food security remains fragile. Multiple interacting drivers — environmental, economic, political, social, and technological — continuously undermine availability, access, utilization, and stability of food supplies. The following analysis explains the main causes, illustrates them with cases and data trends, and highlights practical pathways to reduce fragility.Fundamental factors behind fragilityConflict and instability: Armed conflict is the single largest driver of acute food…

Influence operations are coordinated efforts to shape opinions, emotions, decisions, or behaviors of a target audience. They combine messaging, social engineering, and often technical means to change how people think, talk, vote, buy, or act. Influence operations can be conducted by states, political organizations, corporations, ideological groups, or criminal networks. The intent ranges from persuasion and distraction to deception, disruption, or erosion of trust in institutions.Actors and motivationsInfluence operators include:State actors: intelligence agencies or political entities operating to secure strategic leverage, meet foreign policy objectives, or maintain internal control.Political campaigns and consultants: organizations working to secure electoral victories or influence…

The term "chip race" evokes a worldwide push to secure dominance in semiconductor design, manufacturing, equipment and supply-chain control, with chips serving as the core technology behind smartphones, data centers, electric vehicles, telecom systems, medical tools and modern defense hardware, so when access to cutting-edge processors tightens, entire industries and national plans feel the strain, prompting companies, governments and research institutions to invest heavily in funding, policy and influence to shape the future of chip development.What is at stakeEconomic growth: Advanced semiconductor manufacturing and design generate high-wage jobs, exports and technology spillovers across industries.National security: Chips are dual-use—critical for both…