Jeff Smith

on June 13, 2018

Jeff M. Smith is a research fellow at the Heritage Foundation’s Asian Studies Center, focusing on South Asia. He formerly served as director of Asian Security Programs at the American Foreign Policy Council. Smith is the author of Cold Peace: Sino-Indian Rivalry in the 21st Century, (Lexington Books, 2014), and author and editor of the forthcoming Asia’s Quest for Balance: China’s Rise and Balancing in the Indo-Pacific, (Rowman and Littlefield, 2018). Smith has contributed to multiple books on Asian security issues, testified as an expert witness before multiple congressional committees, served in an advisory role for several presidential campaigns, and regularly briefs officials in the executive and legislative branches on matters of Asian security. His writing on Asian security issues has appeared in Foreign Affairs, The Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, USA Today, Harvard International Review, Jane’s Intelligence Review, The National Interest, and The Diplomat, among others.

China’s Master Plan: How the West Can Fight Back

By Hal Brands on June 13, 2018

In the first three installments of this series, I've explored the changing nature of China's challenge to U.S. interests and the existing international order, with a particular focus on three issues: China’s progressively more global military ambitions, its promotion of authoritarianism and subversion of democratic practices abroad, and its efforts to build new international institutions more responsive to its own interests.

Economy, Military, Politics
Democracy, South China Sea, Department of Defense

For Survivors of a 9-Hour Chinese Exam, a Door Opens to America

By Tiffany May on June 13, 2018

Every June, millions of high school seniors in China sit down for a grueling university entrance exam, knowing they may not get into a top school or any school at all. If their results are disappointing, finding another route to university can take a year or more.

Education, Society
Gaokao, Students, University Entrance Exam

Censored

By Margaret E. Roberts on June 13, 2018

Princeton University Press: As authoritarian governments around the world develop sophisticated technologies for controlling information, many observers have predicted that these controls would be ineffective because they are easily thwarted and evaded by savvy Internet users. In Censored, Margaret Roberts demonstrates that even censorship that is easy to circumvent can still be enormously effective. Taking advantage of digital data harvested from the Chinese Internet and leaks from China’s Propaganda Department, this book sheds light on how and when censorship influences the Chinese public.

Roberts finds that much of censorship in China works not by making information impossible to access but by requiring those seeking information to spend extra time and money for access. By inconveniencing users, censorship diverts the attention of citizens and powerfully shapes the spread of information. When Internet users notice blatant censorship, they are willing to compensate for better access. But subtler censorship, such as burying search results or introducing distracting information on the web, is more effective because users are less aware of it. Roberts challenges the conventional wisdom that online censorship is undermined when it is incomplete and shows instead how censorship’s porous nature is used strategically to divide the public.

Drawing parallels between censorship in China and the way information is manipulated in the United States and other democracies, Roberts reveals how Internet users are susceptible to control even in the most open societies. Demonstrating how censorship travels across countries and technologies, Censored gives an unprecedented view of how governments encroach on the media consumption of citizens.

Book Review: 

“Behind the Great Firewall: Two New Books,” Kyle Hutzler, Asian Review of Books (May 4, 2018)

Related Reading:

“How Sudden Censorship Can Increase Access to Information,” American Political Science Review, William R. Hobbs and Margaret E. Roberts (April 2, 2018)

“Censored: Distraction and Diversion Inside China’s Great Firewall,” a lecture by Margaret Roberts, Northeastern University (March 20, 2018)

“Apple, China and a Look Behind the ‘Great Firewall’,” Margaret Roberts, The Wrap (August 3, 2017)

Author’s Recommendations:

Consent of the Networked: The Worldwide Struggle For Internet Freedom, Rebecca MacKinnon (Basic Books, 2013)

Nothing Is True and Everything Is Possible: The Surreal Heart of the New Russia, Peter Pomerantsev (PublicAffairs, 2015)

Code: And Other Laws of Cyberspace, Lawrence Lessig (Basic Books, 2006)

Sameer Lalwani

on June 12, 2018

Sameer Lalwani is a Senior Fellow and Co-Director of the South Asia Program at the Stimson Center, where he researches nuclear deterrence, interstate rivalry, crisis behavior, and counter/insurgency. He is also an Adjunct Professor at the George Washington University and was previously a Stanton Nuclear Security Postdoctoral Fellow at the RAND Corporation. Lalwani is the author of Investigating Crises: South Asia’s Lessons, Evolving Dynamics, and Trajectories (Stimson, 2018). Lalwani completed his Ph.D. from MIT’s Department of Political Science, where he was an affiliate of its Security Studies Program.

Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan

on June 12, 2018

Rajeswari Pillai Rajagopalan is a Senior Fellow and Head of the Nuclear and Space Policy Initiative at Observer Research Foundation (ORF). She is also a senior Asia defence writer for The Diplomat. Rajagopalan joined ORF after a five-year stint at the Indian National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) (2003-2007), where she was an Assistant Director. Prior to joining the NSCS, she was a Research Officer at the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses in New Delhi. She was also a Visiting Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Politics, National Chung Hsing University, in Taichung, Taiwan in 2012.

She is the author of four books: Nuclear Security in India (2015), Clashing Titans: Military Strategy and Insecurity among Asian Great Powers (2012), The Dragon’s Fire: Chinese Military Strategy and Its Implications for Asia (2009), and Uncertain Eagle: US Military Strategy in Asia (2009). She has also co-authored and edited five other books, including Space Policy 2.0: Commerce, Policy, Security and Governance Perspectives (2017), Nuclear Security in India (Second Edition) (2016), Iran Nuclear Deal: Implications of the Framework Agreement (2015), and Awaiting Launch: Perspectives on the Draft ICoC for Outer Space Activities (2014). Her research articles have appeared in edited volumes, and in peer reviewed journals such as India Review, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Air and Space Power Journal, International Journal of Nuclear Law, Strategic Analysis, and CLAWS Journal. Other writings have appeared in the Journal of Strategic Studies, Journal of Peace Research, and Contemporary South Asia and she has also contributed essays to newspapers such as The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Times of India, Hindustan Times, Economic Times, and The Pioneer.

Rajagopalan has lectured at Indian military and policy institutions such as the Defence Service and Staff College in Wellington, National Defence College in New Delhi, Army War College in Mhow, and the Foreign Service Institute in New Delhi. She has also been invited to speak at international fora including the UN COPUOS (Vienna), Conference on Disarmament (Geneva), UNIDIR (Geneva), ASEAN Regional Forum (ARF), and the European Union.