Matthew Brzezinski, an author and former Wall Street Journal Moscow correspondent, and Roger D. Lanius, a space historian at the Smithsonian Institute, discuss the legacy of Sputnik fifty years after the Soviet satellite’s launch.

Foreign assistance is an industry in itself: Every year, governments and charities spend some $200 billion on projects in poor countries. Development Executive Group, founded by Raj Kumar seven years ago, aspires to bring Bloomberg efficiency to the development business.  In this Washington Post op-ed, Sebastian Mallaby claims that foreign assistance is ripe for a Bloomberg-style leap forward.

The official in charge of running U.S.public diplomacy, Karen Hughes, says her insights as a roving ambassador increasingly help shape Bush administration policy.

The Information Technology Agreement signed in 1996 played a significant role in the doubling of productivity growth over the past decade. To maintain this rate of income growth, further liberalization is needed.

Some U.S. analysts recommend a national ID database with biometric cards to identify insurgents in Iraq, but the proposal faces resistance from the U.S. military.

Several high-profile cases show bloggers’ new political influence, but repressive regimes are fighting back.

Calvin Andrus and Stephen DeAngelis have a conversation with Mike Moran and Council members about the use of the wiki and blog in intelligence sharing.

Watch panelists discuss how technology will improve intelligence gathering with tools such as wikis and blogs.

Listen to panelists discuss how technology will improve intelligence gathering with tools such as wikis and blogs.

John Bryson and Vijay Vaitheeswaran discuss the technology options in the market, highlighting the weakness of the U.S. electric grid, the importance of conservation and efficiency, and the prospects for ethanol, wind, and solar as leading alternative energy sources.

Economist technology writer Kenneth Neil Cukier discusses issues he raised in a 2005 Foreign Affairs article about control of the Internet. At present the United States holds the most power, but other nations are clamoring to have a say.

Two missile-driven crises on opposite ends of the planet point up several realities about anti-missile technology: first, that nothing in current arsenals can counter them, and second, that the small, cheap artillery rockets fired by Hezbollah pose a far more difficult challenge today than complex ICBMs.

Hezbollah rockets strike deeper into Israel and North Korea continues to progress with missile testing. CFR missile expert Michael A. Levi says these developments are likely to tighten U.S. bonds with allies Israel and Japan on missile defense efforts despite mixed results on technology.

This special study from the East-West Center argues that innovation offshoring is driven by profound changes in corporate innovation management as well as by the globalization of markets for technology and knowledge workers.

If Congress does not approve the U.S.-India nuclear deal, “it would damage the bilateral relationship,” concludes a new Special Report. Congress should adopt a two-stage approach: formally endorsing the deal’s basic framework, while delaying final approval until it is assured that critical nonproliferation needs are met.