US-Singapore Tech & Innovation Virtual Series Session 5:
Considerations for US-Singapore Digital Economies in the Wake of the Invasion of Ukraine
April 18 (US) | 15:00 Honolulu / 21:00 Washington
April 19 (Asia) | 09:00 Singapore / 10:00 Tokyo/Seoul
ABOUT THIS EVENT
Besides Singapore, Southeast Asian nations have been relatively subdued in their responses to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24, 2022. Two days after the start of the invasion, ASEAN’s Foreign Ministers issued a lukewarm statement about the unfolding crisis.
Meanwhile, Singapore has imposed targeted financial and export sanctions against Russia. But as a consequence, Singapore may face possible retaliation from the Kremlin. Like many Western countries, the city-state is bracing for potential cyberattacks from Russian-sponsored hacking groups. As the region’s financial and technological hub, businesses in Singapore—from multinational to small and medium enterprises—are at a heightened risk of data breaches and ransomware.
Beyond the significant trends of a rapid rise in the price of oil and gas, food supply shortages, and inflation, this closed-door "rapid response" session explored the impacts of the Ukraine-Russia crisis for the US, Singapore, and Southeast Asia on their digital economies.
SPEAKER BIOS
Lyle J. Goldstein is Director of Asia Engagement at Defense Priorities. Formerly, he served as Research Professor at U.S. Naval War College for 20 years. In that post, he was awarded the Superior Civilian Service Medal for founding and leading the China Maritime Studies Institute (CMSI). His main areas of expertise include both maritime security and nuclear security issues. Major focus areas have also recently included the Arctic, as well as the Korean Peninsula. He has published seven books on Chinese strategy, including Meeting China Halfway (Georgetown UP, 2015). He speaks both Chinese and Russian and is currently writing a book on China-Russia relations. He has a PhD from Princeton, an MA from Johns Hopkins SAIS, and a BA from Harvard.
Manoj Harjani is a Research Fellow in the Future Issues & Technology cluster at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University. Prior to joining RSIS, Manoj was in the Singapore Public Service, with stints at the Public Service Division, Prime Minister’s Office Strategy Group and Ministry of Trade and Industry. Manoj holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from the National University of Singapore.
Dr. Jaclyn A. Kerr is a Senior Research Fellow for Defense and Technology Futures at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (INSS) at National Defense University (NDU). Her research focuses on digital and emerging technologies and their current and future impacts on international politics, national security, and democracy. In 2019-2020 Dr. Kerr served as a AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of State’s Office of the Science and Technology Advisor to the Secretary (STAS), where she advised on digital technology policy, particularly as it pertains to human rights, democracy, and national security. From 2016 to 2019, she was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Center for Global Security Research (CGSR) at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, where she led work on cybersecurity, cyber domain strategy, and information conflict. Dr. Kerr was previously a cybersecurity fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and Stanford University's Center for International Security and Cooperation, a visiting scholar at Harvard's Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and has held research fellowships in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Qatar. She also has prior professional experience as a software engineer with Comcast and Symantec. Dr. Kerr holds a PhD and MA in Government from Georgetown University, and an MA in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies and BAS in Mathematics and Slavic Languages and Literatures from Stanford University. Dr. Kerr is also a Non-Resident Fellow with the Foreign Policy Program at Brookings Institution and an Affiliate with the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University.