Frontiers of Repression: How Technology is Reshaping Authoritarian Control: Professor Steven Feldstein

Advances in technology are fundamentally reshaping the relationship between citizen and state. From artificial intelligence, data mining, and mass surveillance to DNA collection and facial recognition biometrics, authoritarian regimes are exploiting emerging technologies in new and disruptive ways. The implications for democratic governance and civil society around the world are alarming. This talk will look at specific technologies which are redefining the frontiers of repression, how particular authoritarian states are applying these technologies to consolidate power, and ideas for how citizens and democracies can navigate this rapidly changing environment.

Steven Feldstein is an Associate Professor and holder of the Frank and Bethine Church Chair of Public Affairs at Boise State University. He is also a nonresident fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace’s Democracy and Rule of Law Program. Previously, he served as a deputy assistant secretary in the bureau of democracy, human rights and labor at the Department of State, and the director of the office of policy at the U.S. Agency for International Development. He has also served as counsel on the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Chairmen Joseph Biden and John Kerry. He earned a J.D. from UC Berkeley School of Law and a B.A. from Princeton University. His research interests include U.S. foreign policy, national security and counterterrorism, international politics, and democracy and human rights. His articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, The National Interest, Newsweek, U.S. News & World Report, World Politics Review and The Hill.