Jeff Bleich Centre

The Jeff Bleich Centre was established to address the misuses of digital technologies that undermine public trust and effective democratic governance, thereby threatening all democratic societies and alliances.

The rate of change in the digital space has outpaced government planning and action, and that gap will likely widen with rapid adoption of increasingly autonomous and networked digital technologies. Democratic resilience, both within nations and across alliances, will depend upon new trusted institutions that generate public-facing and influential research, actionable solutions, a broad talent pool of new leaders, and international collaboration on democratic resilience.

The JBC is designed to earn trust by being non-partisan, non-profit, transparent in its relationships with partner institutions, accountable, and rigorously truthful in all aspects of its work. It seeks to generate public-facing and influential research by attracting and retaining the most talented social scientists and digital anthropologists in the world and providing them with platforms that allow them to deliver accessible and understandable distillations of their work for mass audiences and policymakers. It will produce actionable solutions by orientating its specific research undertakings in collaboration with institutions seeking answers to specific challenges. It will develop a broad talent pool through a program of internships, fellowships, and other programs designed to train emerging leaders. And it will promote international collaboration beginning with the U.S. and Australia alliance and extending to other allies through partnerships with policy-making institutions, universities, and international organizations committed to meeting these challenges.

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Our Mission

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Introduction
Jeff Bleich

We live today in a globalised world, where news travels at the speed of light and threats move just as fast. We all know that the advent of digital technology has fundamentally changed the way we each work, eat, shop, and live. But it has also changed our societies and how we defend ourselves. Our nations — both separately and together—must operate in new ways to preserve our values and protect our people and allies in new battle spaces. This is the mission of the Jeff Bleich Centre for the US Alliance in Digital Technology, Security, and Governance.

For over a century, Australia and the United States have offered the world a model alliance that demonstrates how nations who trust each other can make one another stronger, more prosperous, and more secure. Alliances are not static, though, and new models are needed to meet new challenges.

To date, no nation or alliance has fully adapted to the fact that our greatest security threats reside not in land, sea, or air, but in space and cyber. New technologies have empowered hostile nations, organised crime networks, terror groups, and hacktivists with low cost, high-impact tools. The threats go beyond damage to grids, finance systems, etc. — they threaten things as basic as how we elect our leaders and govern ourselves, and how we will work with close allies.

If any two nations can chart the path forward, it is the United States and Australia. We have developed an unrivalled trust between nations, unparalleled technical sophistication, and an unflinching work ethic that says “she’ll be right.”

I am honoured that Flinders, with its focus on technology, its innovative scholarship, and its strong connections to defence leaders in both nations, will be its home. I am grateful to be part of this effort and committed to give all I have — including my own name — to advancing the success of its mission.

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I am honoured that Flinders, with its focus on technology, its innovative scholarship, and its strong connections to defence leaders in both nations, will be its home.

Mission

The JBC is a research and training centre established to

inform the public and democratic policymakers about challenges posed to democratic societies by digital technologies and to
promote cooperative solutions to these challenges through trusted research, a cohort of researchers skilled in communication, and a program for empowering a new generation of policymakers to bring solutions forward.

Vision

The JBC aspires to be a trusted and respected public resource from which leaders of allied democratic nations, their universities, and other civic institutions seeking an international liberal order can draw valuable insights, develop collaborative solutions, and find talent to address the policy issues posed by the digital age that threaten their common democratic values and structures.

Strategic plan

Core values and institutions of democratic societies are under threat from digital exploitation and anticipated uses of future digital technologies. Research and talent are needed to help the public and policymakers recognize potential threats, coalesce around solutions, and deploy laws, regulations, countermeasures, and public education to anticipate and develop plans to deal with new threats. Because of their rare history of trust and cooperation in the digital space, the United States and Australia are uniquely positioned to collaborate in developing these solutions.

Flinders University is based in Adelaide, South Australia, the hub of Australia’s efforts to advance new technologies that enhance digital and space security between our nations. And Flinders has rapidly established itself as a leading non-profit institution for studying digital technologies, acquiring a large industrial space and transforming it into new technology hubs.

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Provide… an Australian research hub, focused initially on social science research, for government, industries and NGOs to address current and emerging issues of digital technology, security and governance, especially in relation to the US-Australia Alliance.

Create… opportunities for strategic collaborations with high quality partners in academia, industry and defence both within Australia and overseas.

Establish… the Centre as an Australian leader at the intersection of digital technologies, security and governance.

Support… defence related projects through analysis of current and future cyber threats.

Collaborate…with international centres in the vanguard of the digital revolution and those developing responses to that revolution. In particular, the JBC anticipates links with significant and relevant institutes in California’s higher education system.