Policy Currents | The newsletter for policy people
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** April 17, 2025
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Targeting Cartels as Terrorists Puts New Tools in Play
In February, the U.S. State Department added eight groups, including powerful Mexican drug cartels, to its list of foreign terrorist organizations.
According to RAND's Stavan Singh and David Luckey, this designation makes new legal and policy tools available that "could be the key to stopping transnational criminal organizations' ambitions for global expansion."
For example, the U.S. government now has legal authority to prosecute people who aid or work for these organizations, even if these individuals are based outside U.S. borders. The terrorism designation also makes new criminal charges available, such as conspiracy, harboring terrorist organizations and, in extreme cases, the label of state sponsor of terrorism.
The designation might also encourage more countries to ramp up security cooperation with the United States. "No country wants to be viewed as a nonsecure state or a harbor for terrorist organizations," Singh and Luckey say. If U.S. allies and partners enhance their own efforts to counter transnational criminal organizations--and work with Washington to do so--then this could open the door for a multinational coalition to address a top U.S. priority: combating synthetic opioid trafficking.
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AI and the Future of the U.S. Electric Grid
AI data centers suck up energy like small cities. And as AI systems grow in scale and are deployed more widely, the power they demand risks overwhelming the U.S. electric grid. However, findings from a recent RAND study suggest that AI can be part of the solution, too. AI could be used to help increase energy efficiency, resilience, and affordability. The power grid is "the network of all networks," says RAND's Ismael Arciniegas Rueda, coauthor of the study. "The key over the next few years is going to be fixing it without breaking anything."
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Russia and North Korea: United Against the West
The Russia-North Korea relationship may be just beginning, says RAND's Benjamin Young. Both nations see themselves as "protectors of traditional values" that are "embroiled in a spiritual conflict with the West," he writes. This shared ideology led North Korea to send troops to fight alongside Russian soldiers in Ukraine, but the budding alliance between Pyongyang and Moscow will likely outlive that conflict, Young says: "The two nations are now destined for convergent geopolitical fates."
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** Events
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Policy Lab: Mapping the Use of High-Quality Instructional Materials
Wednesday, April 30, 2025 (Online)
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