The flux in U.S.-India relationship has evoked consternation within the analyst community, particularly in the U.S. In a recent article, analyst Sameer Lalwani wrote that repeated “India fatigue” (a term to describe India’s inability to match U.S. strategic engagement expectations) is a consistent feature of defense discussions in U.S. and that structural factors are not in consonance with the expectations of the relationship. The article ended on a pessimistic note by conceding that the potential of the relationship is likely to be held hostage to those factors. 

The "India Fatigue" lens essentially looks at the trajectory of the U.S.-India ties from the conception (or rather misconception) of strategic synergy as described by U.S. and therefore a false sense of the outcomes. A large part of this can be attributed to the fact that structural factors in the relationship are often relegated to U.S. concerns only. This can be corrected if U.S. has an explicit India strategy to counter the structural impediments rather than the ragtag mix spread across documents to no avail. 

Click here to read the full article in The Economic Times.

CARPO and the EastWest Institute (EWI) on July 3, 2019 officially launched the initiative “Iraq and its Neighbours – Enhancing Dialogue and Regional Integration in West Asia” – funded by the European Union (EU). The launch event was hosted by Casa Árabe in Córdoba, Spain, and attended among others by Deputy Foreign Minister of Iraq H.E. Nazar Khairallah and Secretary General of the European External Action Service H.E. Helga Schmid.

"The European Union strongly supports Iraq's policy of balanced outreach to all its neighbours,'' said Secretary General Helga Schmid at the opening panel of the launch event. "Given the current tensions in the region, providing avenues for dialogue and regional cooperation is more important than ever."

Deputy Foreign Minister Khairallah underlined the importance of trade relations for regional integration. “The best ways to counter distrust in the region is to foster economic cooperation and to build prosperity through healthy competition."

This 18-months project envisions Iraq as the center-point for regional dialogue and cooperation rather than as a theater of proxy wars and conflict. It envisages a series of bilateral and multilateral workshops to facilitate dialogue between civil society advisors from Iraq and its immediate neighbours Turkey, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait, with the aim of identifying and operationalizing tangible avenues for cooperation and coordination on issues of shared interest and concern. They will also discuss the current and future role of the EU both in Iraq and the region as a whole.

The initiative was launched with an event held in Belgrade, in March 2019, establishing a platform for discussion and debate on the key areas where competing interests collide and offered recommendations for defusing existing tensions arising from this reality.

Participants included Amb. Cameron Munter; Amb. Wolfgang Ischinger; Amb. Frank Wisner; Erhard Busek; Pierre Mirel; Amb. Kai Eide, Ivan Krastev and Aleksandar Vucic, President of Serbia, along with many other stakeholders and experts.

A report stemming from the meeting can be found here.

As part of the series of dialogues, future conferences are currently slated to take place in Berlin, Moscow and New York. Final substantive report will be made available at the conclusion of the dialogues. For more information on the initiative, please click here.

The EastWest Institute (EWI) today released a new report: Cyber Insurance and Systemic Market Risk—developed to provide a framework to better understand and address the systemic nature of cyber risk and the challenges it presents to the burgeoning cyber insurance industry. The report features an overview of the current state of the cyber insurance market along with proposals to help the market mature in a healthy, stable manner while promoting increased cybersecurity. 

The report outlines a definition of systemic cyber risk and the mechanisms behind the probability of contagion, emphasizing the role of the insurance industry, risk management firms and governments to ensure sufficient insurance capacity in the event of a cataclysmic cyber incident that impacts markets and consumer confidence globally.

Four recommendations to enhance the ability of the cyber insurance market to support cyber resilience efforts, guard against systemic risk and mitigate losses include the following:

• Enhance cyber insurance underwriting ability
• Promote a strong and healthy market with positive impacts on society
• Increase transparency and uniformity in underwriting language
• Establish a government backstop to increase capacity to handle a major, multi-market loss

The report is a product of the EastWest Institute’s Global Cooperation in Cyberspace program, and was authored by Davis Hake, Andreas Kuehn, Abagail Lawson and Bruce McConnell, with expert input provided by Arceo.ai, Marsh & McLennan Companies and Microsoft.

In March 2019, the Council of the European Union adopted the EU Cybersecurity Act, which forms part of the EU’s focus on cybersecurity announced in 2017, and the second EU-wide cybersecurity law. In addition to establishing an EU cybersecurity certification framework and promoting the European Union Agency for Network and Information Security (ENISA) to a permanent EU Agency for Cybersecurity, the Cybersecurity Act includes a clear commitment to protect the public core of the Internet. The Act states that the public core of the Internet is a global public good and underpins the normal operation of the Internet as a whole. The new law also tasks ENISA with assisting member states with policies that sustain “the general availability and integrity of the public core of the open Internet.”

The protection of the public core is a principle norm developed by the Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace (GCSC) in 2017. “The EU’s adoption of the norm to protect the public core of the Internet bears testament to the fundamental importance of this norm for enhancing stability and security in cyberspace,” said Marietje Schaake, GCSC Commissioner and Member of the European Parliament. “Furthermore, its inclusion in ENISA’s mandate is indicative of the EU’s commitment to protect the technical foundation of the open Internet, a global public good managed in a multistakeholder manner where all actors have a role.”

Michael Chertoff, Co-Chair of the GCSC, stated that, “The Global Commission on the Stability of Cyberspace welcomes the adoption of this resolution and commends the European Union for its sustained commitment to protecting the public core of the Internet.” Latha Reddy, also Co-Chair of the GCSC, added that “this marks an important step in the continuation of the GCSC’s work. We will continue to call upon a wide range of stakeholders to adopt and implement norms of responsible behavior wherever this would advance stability in cyberspace.”

Learn more about the EU Cybersecurity Act here.

Learn more about the GCSC Call to Protect the Public Core of the Internet here and see the definition of the Public Core of the Internet, to which the norm applies, here.

The EastWest Institute (EWI) together with its partner, the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence (BFPE), convened its Balkan Dialogues initiative on March 29, in Belgrade. Comprised of decision makers and experts from the six countries of the Western Balkans (WB6), including Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia, along with the European Union, United States, Russia and China—the dialogues are designed to help increase and deepen understanding, while building trust between representatives of varying geopolitical interests present in the region today. The launch event in Belgrade will be the first of four planned dialogues with subsequent summits to be held in coming months.

“Instability, economic weakness and fragile security in the Western Balkans continue to significantly impact the region’s internal dynamics, as well as its relations with neighbors,” stated Cameron Munter, former U.S. Ambassador to Serbia and current CEO and President of EWI. “We are developing a forum to discuss these issues where competing interests or strategies could collide, and create an opportunity to mitigate and defuse tensions before they arise.”

Participants include Frank Wisner, former U.S. diplomat and international affairs advisor; Wolfgang Ischinger, Chairman of the Munich Security Conference; Ivan Krastev and Ivan Vejvoda of Vienna’s Institute for Human Sciences; and Sonia Licht of the BFPE; along with a host of senior representatives from the public and private sectors. Aleksandar Vučić, President of the Republic of Serbia, opened the proceedings with a keynote presentation

The Balkan Trust for Democracy, a project of the German Marshall Fund and Open Society Foundation-Serbia also supported this event.

For additional information, please contact Maja Piscevic at mpiscevic@eastwest.ngo.

The EastWest Institute is pleased to release its 2018 Annual Report, chronicling the programmatic activities, achievements and new initiatives in the past year and reflecting key geopolitical trends around the world.

The institute remains focused on tackling these evolving issues, as well as on forecasting challenges in other topics and regions.

To access the complete report, please click below:

Munter says "the responses [from India and Pakistan] have been measured enough that I think we can still have hope that this will not lead to a wider conflict." However, he says there is "always" the problem of possible violence or terrorist attacks surrounding upcoming elections in India, especially since Pakistan may not be able to control "radical" actors.

Click here to watch the full interview on CNBC.

The EastWest Institute (EWI) today released a new report: Smart and Safe: Risk Reduction in Tomorrow’s Cities—developed to provide guidance and support to key decision makers, including municipalities, governments, urban planners, businesses and community leaders—to make tomorrow’s Smart Cities secure and safe by managing technology effectively.

The guide will help to identify and describe city-wide challenges and provide recommended actions across four major areas:

• Cybersecurity
• Cyber Resilience
• Privacy and Data Protection
• Collaboration and Coordination in Governance

Click here for the full report.

Click here for the press release.

The guide is a product of the EastWest Institute’s Breakthrough Group on Secure, Resilient Cities and the Internet of Things, and was prepared by Bruce McConnell, EWI Global Vice President, who heads the institute’s Global Cooperation in Cyberspace program and Andreas Kuehn, EWI Senior Program Associate. Expert input and key support in producing this guide were provided by Unisys and Microsoft.

For general inquiries, please contact Abagail Lawson at alawson@eastwest.ngo.