Cepa

3 weeks ago | cepa.org | James Lewis

Military metaphors are a symptom of intellectual laziness. “AI arms race” is an example. AI is not an arm, nor does the possession of advanced AI guarantee strategic advantage. The image of an arms race is stale and obscures the complexity of AI’s effects and the processes that create it. A new vocabulary would better guide policy and help Washington and other capitals better understand the processes, effects, and challenges of technology, disruption and innovation.

1 month ago | cepa.org | Aliide Naylor

Grigory Melkonyants, co-chair of Golos, the country’s sole independent election watchdog, was jailed for five years on May 14 and barred from “engaging in public activity” for nine years under laws targeting “undesirable organisations.” He has already spent nearly two years in prison awaiting trial, which the judge said would contribute towards his sentence. In his final statement to the court, Melkonyants, a lawyer, was defiant and criticized the judicial process that led to his conviction.

1 month ago | cepa.org | Enrique Dans

Trains stopped. Phones cut off. When the Iberia Peninsula’s electricity grid collapsed in a matter of minutes recently, daily life came to a crashing halt.  Many critics immediately blamed renewables. Sun and wind generated more than half of Spain’s electricity last year, up from about a quarter 15 years ago. The rapid increase has put Spain at the forefront of Europe’s transition to renewable energy, just as pressure rises to curtail the continent’s green hopes.

1 month ago | cepa.org | Alison Mutler

The dramatic victory of the pro-Western and pro-Ukrainian mayor of Bucharest, Nicușor Dan, in Romania’s second-round presidential vote on May 18 has been hailed as an endorsement of the EU and ongoing support for Ukraine. The relief was clear in the congratulatory messages that flooded in to herald Dan’s 54%-46% win. Everyone who was anyone in Brussels and among the big European powers offered their sincere best wishes.

1 month ago | cepa.org | Chris Stephen

“I had hoped we were hurling a wildcat onto the shore,” Winston Churchill once said of a failed amphibious operation. “Instead, we got a stranded whale.” That may be the fate of Europe’s new crime of aggression court for Ukraine, launched this month with much fanfare, but which may never hold a trial. The Special Tribunal for the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine was approved by European ministers on May 9.