The R Street Institute has launched the Supply Chain Markets Initiative, a new effort designed to bring together experts who will develop a supply chain strategy building upon work from the Cyberspace Solarium Commission.
“The aim of the SCMI is to recommend a cohesive national strategy for securing the information communications technology (ICT) supply chain,” R Street, a think tank advancing free market policies, said Monday in a news release. “The strategy will balance the considerations of both the American free market economy and national security, and take into full account the challenges and necessity of working with allies and private industry in the immediate future and in the long term.”
The strategy will be guided by five principles:
- Security and Resilience as a Mindset
- Competitive and Free Markets
- International Partnerships and Engagement
- Transparency, Accountability and Privacy
- Access and Equity
- Public/Private Partnerships
R Street’s Tatyana Bolton spoke with Inside Cybersecurity in December about the new initiative and plans for upcoming work.
“Our goal is to come up with overarching strategy that considers national security considerations and the free market and balances those interests in order to come up with a way to move forward on China strategy as well as the ICT supply chain,” said Bolton, policy director of R Street’s Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team.
Bolton is a former senior policy director for the Solarium Commission and her work focused on government reorganization and resilience.
“We are first going to take a look at China as a problem and how to compete with China,” Bolton said, because “it is the important and galvanizing topic that is bringing all of these people together. From there will stem all of the basic principles we all agree on, such as free markets and American leadership in ICT.”
The coalition includes:
- Harvard Belfer Center Cyber Project
- Aspen Cybersecurity Forum
- Annie Fixler, Deputy Director for the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
- Cory Simpson, Adjunct Professor at Clemson University and former Senior Director for the U.S. Cyberspace Solarium Commission.
- David Forscey, Managing Director for the Aspen Cybersecurity Group
- Erica Borghard, Resident Senior Fellow for the New American Engagement Initiative at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council
- Gary Corn, Program Director for the Tech, Law, and Security Program at American University’s Washington College of Law and Senior Fellow for the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team at R Street Institute
- James Mulvenon, Chairman of the Board for the Cyber Conflict Studies Association and former Senior Political Scientist at the RAND Corporation
- Jeffrey Westling, Resident Fellow for Technology and Innovation at the R Street Institute
- Joshua P. Meltzer, Senior Fellow in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution
- Kathryn Waldron, Resident Fellow for the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team at the R Street Institute
- Lauren Zabierek, Executive Director for the Cyber Project at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center
- Mark Montgomery, Senior Fellow and Senior Director for the Center on Cyber and Technology Innovation at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies
- Mary Brooks, Senior Research Associate for the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team at the R Street Institute
- Nina Kollars, Associate Professor at the Cyber and Innovation Policy Institute of the U.S. Naval War College and Senior Adjunct Fellow at the Center for New American Security
- Paul Rosenzweig, Resident Senior Fellow for the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team at R Street Institute
- Tatyana Bolton, Policy Director for the Cybersecurity and Emerging Threats team at the R Street Institute
- Trey Herr, Director of the Cyber Statecraft Initiative at the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council
- Weifeng Zhong, Senior Research Fellow at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University
Participants will be split into working groups who “will focus in particular on the United States’ critical dependencies, the state of high-tech manufacturing, and the need to make international partnerships integral--rather than ancillary--to the final strategy,” R Street said. -- Sara Friedman (sfriedman@iwpnews.com)