Today, a new episode of the UnArchived video series explores how new technologies are disrupting longstanding theoretical foundations of warfare; Matthew Kahn takes a look at the business plan for state-owned supermarkets in New York City; and Šumit Ganguly notes the consequences for both the US and India of a new Trump administration rule that is likely to curb foreign enrollment in American colleges.
Security and Defense
Innovative military capabilities like cheap, single-use drones are changing the landscape of modern battlefields. But how has the proliferation of these new technologies altered the US military’s theory of warfare itself?
The Big Idea: A new episode of the short video series UnArchived draws on the research of National Security Visiting Fellow Nadia Schadlow to argue that maintaining military advantage today will require the US to blend the traditional concept of mass with greater flexibility. Watch here.
State and Local Governance
Visiting Fellow Matthew E. Kahn analyzes at his Substack the likely business plan for publicly financed supermarkets, an initiative championed by New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani. Kahn notes that the state-owned supermarkets will pay no rent, meaning “the city will ignore opportunity cost and give land for free to the supermarket.” The economics professor writes that other costs, including the goods sold and electricity and water, will be acquired at artificially low prices through various means. Kahn asks, “If customers do not like the variety of the service, will their feedback be valued by the stores?” He also explores the incentive problem created by the likelihood that employees will perceive that, for political reasons, their jobs are safe no matter what. “Such firings would cause a public relations disaster for the mayor,” Kahn writes, also noting that theft from the state-owned supermarkets will lower their expected revenue. Read more here.
Immigration Policy
In a column for the Deccan Herald, Senior Fellow Šumit Ganguly writes that a new rule issued by the Trump administration will “make it far harder for Indian students to pursue college and university education in the US.” The new regulation “will limit the stay of an international student in the US to four years,” or “the time it normally takes a student to complete an undergraduate degree.” But if a student’s education is interrupted for any reason, such as an illness or other unforeseen circumstance, they will need to “petition to extend their stay beyond the prescribed four years.” Additionally, Ganguly says, it is unclear how doctoral programs, many of which take more than four years to complete, will be affected by this policy. Ganguly says the change is likely to “choke off a pipeline of international talent that has contributed dramatically to research and innovation in the US.” Read more here.
Philosophy and Technology
What is wilderness when 7 billion people share the planet and nowhere remains truly untouched? A new episode of EconTalk explores the meaning of wild spaces in our increasingly developed and technologized world.
The Big Idea: Visiting Fellow Russ Roberts speaks with author Cal Flyn about her book The Savage Landscape, which weaves together journeys to some of Earth's most remote places. Flyn rejects the myth of pristine, unpeopled wilderness, revealing how the wildest-looking landscapes have been shaped by humans for centuries. Watch or listen here.
Freedom Frequency
A religious minority known as the Kakai inhabit disputed lands in part of Iraq, Iran, and semiautonomous Kurdistan, seeking security and the freedom to pursue their own faith and way of life. Like other religious minorities around the world, they have little say in governance in their home region; they experience neglect from officialdom and the ungoverned powers that strive to control these geopolitical “seams,” argues Stanford undergraduate contributor Levi Schiffer. Kakai people in these realms of fractured sovereignty do enjoy official recognition in Kurdistan, Schiffer writes, thanks to decisions to foster religious diversity rather than merely to tolerate it. In Iran, the Kakai are under pressure to assimilate to escape discrimination. Schiffer says the Kakai exemplify a culture that is biding its time, waiting for the return of some degree of liberty defended by the state. Read more here.
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