Credit Image: ESO/José Francisco Salgado (josefrancisco.org)
Our weekly scan for geopolitical risks for 15 August 2019. Using horizon scanning, each week, we collect weak – and less weak – signals. These point to new, emerging, escalating or stabilising problems. As a result, they indicate how trends or dynamics evolve.
This week’s scan is ready. Check it out below…
This article focuses on the participation of the Chinese Web and IT giants in the race to quantum information science (QIS) and technologies.
We look at Alibaba, Baidu, Tencent, and Huawei involvement in QIS. Their quantum activity ranges from setting up research and development labs and centres to launching quantum cloud platforms. It goes from quantum computing research to emphasis on users’ applications. We highlight investments when available. Alternatively, we estimate activity, when possible, through other means. […]
On 14 July 2019, new Chinese statistics revealed that growth in China was lowering. Media sensationally reported the news. For example, The New York Times titled “China’s Economic Growth Hits 27-Year Low as Trade War Stings” (Keith Bradsher). Meanwhile what is happening in the area of new technologies? Are other indicators available? Indeed, the famous […]
Quantum computing and more generally Quantum Information Science (QIS) are more than ever on the global agenda. We focus here on the UK National Quantum Technologies Programme and policy, and how the UK fares in the race to quantum technologies. This article is part of our ongoing research on the issue. With the first item […]
Credit Image: Jean-Dominique Lavoix-Carli using a photo by Getfunky CC BY 2.0 and background vector by freepik On 4 June 2019, the French National Cybersecurity Agency, the ANSSI, celebrated its 10th Anniversary with a Cyberfestival. The Agora 41 is taking shape The Agora 41 (see its dedicated page on the ANSSI website) was fully part of the […]
In May 2019, for the second time in three months, Central U.S. is hammered by record-breaking floods. Those floods are impacting Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois, Nebraska and Iowa (Susannah Cullinane, Hollie Silvermane, Sheena Jones, “Central US reels from week of deadly weather”, CNN, May 26, 2019). In Van Buren, Arkansas, the Arkansas River level reached […]
The U.S. and China are locked in an increasingly heated struggle for superpower status. Many perceived this confrontation initially only through the lenses of a trade war. However, the ZTE “saga” already indicated the issue was broader and involved a battle for supremacy over 21st century technologies and, relatedly, for international power (see When AI […]
Amazon’s director of robotics stated in April 2019 that it would be “at least 10 years” before warehouses become fully automated (Rachel England, Endgadget, 2 May 2019). Meanwhile, as we detail below, the Chinese production of industrial robots has been falling continuously since September 2018 (-16.4%) to March 2019 (-14%) and April 2019 -7.3% (China […]
Riots and protests have been progressively, and in an accelerating way, occurring in many countries, starting with France in 2005, spreading throughout most of the world, from the Arab Spring to Thailand through Hong Kong, the U.S. or, more recently Venezuela, Algeria and France with the Yellow Vest movement at the end of 2018 and […]
