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Latest Policy Briefs and Reports
Peace and Security in Northeast Asia
The New Takaichi Administration: Confronting Harsh Realities on the International Stage
Policy Brief No.256 - November, 2025 • By Daiju Wada
This policy brief examines the diplomatic challenges facing the Takaichi Administration. A clear direction in foreign and security policy can be inferred from the new prime minister’s cabinet appointments. This paper will delve into the structural challenge of the Takaichi administration's political vulnerability and explore the expectations and concerns of key international actors (the US and China) regarding this fragility. Finally, it will offer specific policy recommendations on how the Takaichi administration should execute a robust foreign and security policy to protect Japan's national interests under unstable political conditions, focusing particularly on diplomacy with South Korea to avoid undermining the critically important Japan–US–South Korea security cooperation.
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
Testing Deliberative Technologies to Identify Optimal Use
Policy Brief No.255 - October, 2025 • By Davis Smith
Deliberative technologies are software tools that help create large-scale dialogue among participants. This article outlines the experience of testing four of these tools—Crowdsmart, Pol.is, Talk to the City, and Deliberation.io—with a group of student volunteers to understand their function and effectiveness, and to identify digital facilitation strategies. The paper concludes with recommendations to make deliberative tools more accessible in the future to enable collective decision-making. Common Good AI, a US-based nonprofit organization, created this programme to support its mission to foster inclusive civic engagement and social cohesion. The organization aims to transform how communities find common ground and solve problems together.
Peace and Security in Northeast Asia
Building Mutual Reassurance on the Korean Peninsula Through Stable Coexistence
Policy Brief No.254 - October, 2025 • By Frank Aum
The Korean Peninsula remains dangerously unstable due to irreconcilable end-states: North Korea's demand for nuclear recognition and regime autonomy versus the US–South Korea alliance's goal of deterrence, denuclearization, and democratic unification. This clash fuels distrust and heightens the risk of conflict, while regional powers complicate the dynamics. This policy brief proposes a stable coexistence framework to manage rivalry and reduce tensions, assuming denuclearization is off the table for now. The plan includes five themes: stable coexistence with respect for sovereignty, arms control without nuclear recognition, front-line guardrails, humanitarian/societal contact, and strengthening regional scaffolding. This approach seeks to narrow miscalculation pathways and manage risk while preserving each side's long-term political aims.
Social Media, Technology and Peacebuilding
Tending to the Digital Commons: Examining the Potential of Artificial Intelligence to Detect and Respond to Toxic Speech
Report No.253 - October, 2025 • By Miriam Bethencourt, Grace Connors, and Lisa Schirch
This paper explores the potential of Artificial Intelligence (AI), particularly Large Language Models (LLMs), as an emerging tool to address the proliferation of online toxic speech. The research focuses on two key applications of LLMs: hate speech classification and detection, and response generation, specifically the use of LLMs for creating counterspeech. While LLMs show significant advances in detecting hate speech through various models, including supervised, unsupervised, and GenAI-based approaches, the paper notes crucial limitations. These include the difficulty in processing the nuance and context of online communication, understanding implicit hate speech, and the significant issue of models learning and amplifying human biases present in training data. The paper reviews efforts to develop AI-powered counterspeech tools, including challenges in generating human-like, constructive responses that adequately engage with specific hateful content. The paper suggests that LLMs show promise in developing counterspeech tools, and closes with a set of recommendations for technology developers and governments to guide the ethical development and deployment of LLMs in addressing online harms.
Weaponisation of Law: Assault on Democracy
Policy Brief No.252 - October, 2025 • By Jordan Ryan
This policy brief examines the growing instrumentalisation of legal and administrative mechanisms to target and suppress civil society organisations. Drawing on recent developments in the United States and global patterns of democratic backsliding, it explores how national security and counter-terrorism rhetoric are being repurposed to silence dissent and constrict civic space. The brief argues that this systematic abuse of legal frameworks, now increasingly amplified by artificial intelligence (AI) and digital surveillance technologies, represents an accelerating assault on democratic institutions. It concludes with actionable policy recommendations for governments, civil society, technology firms, and international bodies to resist this trend and defend an independent civic sector.