The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies' International Center for Terrorism Studies hosted a seminar, International Cooperation in Combating Terrorism: Review of 2011 and Outlook for 2012, on Thursday, February 2, from 2-4 pm, in the National Press Club's Holeman Lounge. This is the fourteenth in a series of annual ICTS events highlighting developments in the field of counterterrorism. Co-sponsors included the Inter-University Center for Terrorism Studies and the International Law Institute's Inter-University Center for Legal Studies. Speakers included Michael S. Swetnam, Chairman and CEO of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies; Prof. Yonah Alexander, Director, International Center for Terrorism Studies, and Senior Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies; The Honorable Charles E. Allen, Former Under Secretary for Intelligence and Analysis, U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and Former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Collection, Central Intelligence Agency ; Dan Rosen, Director, Plans and Policy, Bureau of Counterterrorism, U.S. Department of State; Ambassador Arun K. Singh, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of India; The Honorable Timur Soylemez, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Turkey; and Mahmoud Hmoud, Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Click below to watch a video of the event.
The Potomac Institute for Policy Studies held a lecture and panel discussion, Russian Cyber Capabilities: Policy and Practice, with Michele Markoff, Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues at the US Department of State, Amb. David J. Smith (Ret.), Senior Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, and Khatuna Mshvidobadze, Associate Academic Fellow, Potomac Institute for Policy Studies, on Tuesday, November 8. Panelists discussed the intersection of Russian government, business and crime, and the Russian approach to information warfare. Click below to watch a video of the event.
Please note: The views of guest speakers are the speakers' alone and do not represent the views of the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies or its staff. The Potomac Institute is a non-partisan, not-for-profit research organization dedicated to the free exchange of ideas for the purpose of informing public policy.
Prof. James Giordano, PhD, is Vice President for Academic Programs and Director of the Center for Neurotechnology Studies at the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies. On January 11, he took questions in a live web chat format on "Created Consciousness: The Future of Sentient Machines." In this chat, Prof. Giordano addressed the development of sentient or "conscious" computers, a notion that is downright scary to some, exciting and promising to others. Many experts in the neuroscience and neurotechnology arenas say it’s bound to happen – and some say it’s happening already. To read the archived chat, please visit the 
Potomac Institute for Policy Studies Senior Fellow Amb. David Smith, (Ret.), is the Director of the Georgian Security Analysis Center in Tbilisi, Georgia. Amb. Smith writes and lectures extensively on cybersecurity, and his presentation at the International Cyber Defence Conference in Istanbul, Turkey, in May of 2011, was entitled "Russia, Georgia and the Shape of Cyber Wars to Come." On Thursday, December 1, he took questions in a live chat forum on “'Friending' the Enemy: Social Media, Foreign Threats and Deterrence in Cyberspace."