Monthly Archives: March 2022

Louisiana State Treasurer John M. Schroder has joined a number of other State Treasurers across the country in an effort to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The treasurers are pledging to divest their state-controlled investments in Russian companies.

"I am sickened by the images of the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine," says Louisiana State Treasurer John M. Schroder. "Louisiana Treasury is joining other states in divesting from any Russian investments in an attempt to do our share in forcing an end to this invasion and crippling the Russian government."

According to Schroder, Louisiana Treasury manages one fund that currently owns international stocks with any exposure to Russia.

The Treasury Department says The Louisiana Education Quality Trust Fund (LEQTF) investment is an index fund managed by Vanguard. The index held less than 1% in Russian stocks. The index removed all Russian stocks on March 7, 2020.

See the full statement from the joint treasurers below:

"We, the undersigned State Treasurers, condemn Russia's unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine. The Russian invasion is a threat to democratic freedoms and global stability and cannot be tolerated. State governments invest a significant amount of public funds with some invested in Russian-domiciled companies. Actions taken by states can help the people of Ukraine by putting additional pressure on the Russian economy to force an end to this invasion. These actions are not only morally imperative, but the current crisis also constitutes a substantial risk for states' investments and our economic security. We cannot continue to invest funds in a way that runs counter to the foreign policy and the national interests of the United States. Moreover, we choose to stand on the side of freedom and security for free and independent democratic countries."

"Therefore, we support efforts at all levels of government and across the public and private sectors, which include cross-functional and multi-agency partnerships, to divest State Treasury and pension funds from investments in Russian-domiciled companies. We are committed to taking steps that include divesting as soon as possible to have the quickest and most meaningful impact on this tragic situation."

Treasurer Kimberly Yee, ArizonaTreasurer Dennis Milligan, ArkansasTreasurer Fiona Ma, CaliforniaTreasurer Dave Young, ColoradoTreasurer Shawn Wooden, ConnecticutTreasurer Colleen Davis, DelawareTreasurer Julie Ellsworth, IdahoTreasurer Michael Frerichs, IllinoisTreasurer Michael Fitzgerald, IowaTreasurer Lynn Rogers, KansasTreasurer Allison Ball, KentuckyTreasurer John Schroder, LouisianaTreasurer Henry Beck, MaineTreasurer Dereck Davis, MarylandTreasurer Deb Goldberg, MassachusettsTreasurer Rachael Eubanks, MichiganTreasurer David McRae, MississippiTreasurer Scott Fitzpatrick, MissouriTreasurer John Murante, NebraskaTreasurer Zach Conine, NevadaTreasurer Monica Mezzapelle, New HampshireTreasurer Elizabeth Muoio, New JerseyTreasurer Tim Eichenberg, New MexicoTreasurer Thomas Beadle, North DakotaTreasurer Robert Sprague, OhioTreasurer Randy McDaniel, OklahomaTreasurer Tobias Read, OregonTreasurer Stacy Garrity, PennsylvaniaGeneral Treasurer Seth Magaziner, Rhode IslandTreasurer Josh Haeder, South DakotaComptroller Glenn Hegar, TexasTreasurer Marlo Oaks, UtahTreasurer Mike Pellicciotti, Washington*Treasurer Sarah Godlewski, WisconsinTreasurer Riley Moore, West VirginiaTreasurer Curt Meier, WyomingTreasurer Carmen Pigler, District of ColumbiaCommissioner of Finance Bosede Bruce, U.S. Virgin Islands

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LA Treasurer joins other states in divesting Russian investments - KATC News

In recent days, Ukrainian officials and citizens have made it clear: even if the country does fall to Russias massive invasion, the fight wont stop there.

It is high time to proceed to resistance! said defense minister Oleksiy Reznikov in a March 2 Facebook post. I appeal to the citizens who are in the territories temporarily occupied by the enemy. With your help, our army will quickly defeat and drive out the occupiers.

Hunters. Foresters. You know every pathin your area, Reznikov said, adding that guerillas should leave the [Russian] tanks and target logistics convoys. The enemy must feel that every step without invitation on Ukrainian soil may be his last.

Ordinary Ukrainians near or behind enemy lines appear to be listening, resisting through both violent and non-violent means.

For some officials, that means everything is going to plan.

Since 2018, U.S. and European officials have quietly helped Ukraine implement key portions of a total defense framework that military officials call the Resistance Operating Concept, according to a U.S. special operations official who requested anonymity to discuss the project with Military Times. The work took place over time, through interagency meetings in Kyiv and with multinational representation, the official explained.

Special Operations Command-Europe was unable to grant Military Times interview requests for resistance experts due to the ongoing conflict. The Pentagon has adopted a restrictive media posture on the war in Ukraine, denying media embed requests and conducting routine intelligence updates on background.

The Resistance Operating Concept centers around building up the capacity of NATO members and friendly countries to mount an effective civil and military resistance if they were to face Russian invasion.

The ROC also encourages civil disobedience and non-violent resistance in the face of enemy occupation.

Nations supported under the ROC are encouraged to develop the legal and organizational framework for a resistance and bring it under the official control of their armed forces. That makes it easier for resistance forces to receive external training, funding and weapons.

Ukraines total defense project, which is part of a U.S.- and NATO-supported defense reform collaboration that has been ongoing since war began in 2014, resulted in such a framework last year and not a second too soon.

The ROC did help Ukraine self-evaluate [their national defense plan]...and it generated some momentum for Ukraine to catch up with their neighbors in that proper legal structure, explained the U.S. special operations official familiar with the countrys resistance planning. The official added that other countries have also implemented lessons from Ukraines combat experience against Russia in the Donbass region.

Kyivs legislature passed On the Fundamentals of National Resistance in July, according to a release from president Volodymyr Zelenskys office. The legislation included important measures aimed at developing territorial defense and [a] resistance movement, and introducing a system of preparing the population for national resistance.

It also offers legal protections for any civilian in Ukraine who takes up arms against an occupying force, while offering the government options for disavowing or blocking counter-productive resistance.

The law also placed Ukraines highly capable SOF units who have trained extensively with U.S., Canadian and European troops since 2014 in charge of building out and coordinating insurgent forces in the event of occupation.

Its not clear yet whether Ukrainian SOF are organizing and leading insurgent forces amid their ongoing ambushes and raids against Russian columns. But early signs of resistance are appearing as Western nations flood the country with man-portable anti-tank and anti-aircraft weapons.

One of many widely shared videos out of the conflict zone depicts a drive-by Molotov cocktail attack on a disabled Russian vehicle under tow.

Videos emerging from Kherson, one of the few cities currently under Russian occupation, show a restive population that regularly protests and impedes occupation forces. One video even showed protestors brawling with Russian troops as a hail of warning shots sounded in the background.

Citizens in Energogar, another town in southern Ukraine, delayed a Russian advance on the towns nuclear power plant when hundreds of residents blocked the road with vehicles, barricades and their own bodies.

Ukrainian officials are doing their best to fan the flames, too.

A new official website the National Resistance Center run by Ukraines Special Operations Forces offers advice and handbooks for would-be insurgents of all stripes. It also disseminates fresh news daily on protests and resistance actions in Russian-occupied areas of the country.

The website includes how-to guides on reporting Russian troop movements, tactical medicine, secure communications, sabotage and more.

A 19-page pocketbook consolidates much of the training material into a single PDF document illustrated with various images of Vault Boy, a symbol from the Fallout video game series where players navigate a post-apocalyptic world through smarts and sabotage.

Notably, the website also instructs everyday citizens on how they can resist Russian occupation without taking up arms.

This portion of a resistance handbook published by Ukraine's Special Operations Forces instructs readers on how to conduct sabotage operations. (Screenshot)

One page instructs office workers in any future Russian occupation administration to work as slowly as possible, spread alarming workplace rumors, do your job badly and misplace documents.

The adoption of total defense isnt unique to Ukraine, though the Eastern European country of more than 40 million is poised to be a test-case of these principles in action.

In recent years, other countries across Europe have quietly updated their national defense plans to lay the groundwork for an insurgency in the case of Russian invasion and occupation.

Countries at the vanguard of resistance planning include Poland, the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania; the Nordic countries of Finland, Norway and Sweden; and other vulnerable states, like Georgia.

Ukraine, should its government fall, will offer insight on a burning question for these countries can a country plant the seeds of insurgency before a full-scale war even begins?

Volunteers of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces talk to each other by a damaged vehicle at a checkpoint in Brovary, outside Kyiv, Ukraine, Tuesday, March 1, 2022. Russian shelling pounded civilian targets in Ukraine's second-largest city Tuesday and a 40-mile convoy of tanks and other vehicles threatened the capital tactics Ukraine's embattled president said were designed to force him into concessions in Europe's largest ground war in generations. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)

Thats what military planners from countries who have invested heavily in resistance capabilities are closely monitoring, explained the editorial director of West Points Modern War Institute, John Amble, in a recent article.

Ultimately, the questions are whether civilian resistance is a credible means of defending against aggression and, if so, what balance between such an approach and conventional capabilities is appropriate, Amble explained. He noted that the effectiveness of such efforts thus far remain unknown in an operational sense but have certainly been symbolically powerful.

Ukraine is considered one of the countries best-suited for armed resistance among ROC adherents due to its combat experience in the countrys east, explained the special operations official familiar with the countrys resistance planning.

If resistance cant succeed there, some worry it wont succeed anywhere though Ukraine cant rely on NATO military intervention like many other ROC-inspired militaries can.

Meanwhile, planners supporting Ukraine are preparing for what could be a protracted fight.

According to the Washington Post, Ukraines partners are planning how to help establish and support a government-in-exile, which could direct guerrilla operations against Russian occupiers in the event that Kyiv and other cities fall and make continued conventional warfare untenable.

We must win the war, said one Zelenskyy advisor to the Washington Post. There are no other options.

Davis Winkie is a staff reporter covering the Army. He originally joined Military Times as a reporting intern in 2020. Before journalism, Davis worked as a military historian. He is also a human resources officer in the Army National Guard.

See the article here:

How the US and Europe helped Ukraine prep for insurgency - ArmyTimes.com

Karen Panetta developed a knack for computer programming in high school, inspired by the magic that was inside the box. That curiosity would fuel a trailblazing career in engineering as an educator, a researcher, a mentor for young women, and an inventor.

Panetta was recently elected to the National Academy of Inventors, the first woman from Tufts University to earn that honor. She joined Tufts in 1994, rising through the ranks to become the first woman granted tenure in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering; she is now also dean of graduate education for the School of Engineering. Her research includes developing software that uses artificial intelligence to improve medical diagnostics and to enhance robotic vision, for applications such as underwater search-and-rescue.

Panetta also has paved the way for young women to pursue their own engineering paths. She founded the Nerd Girls program in 2000 to encourage young women to pursue engineering and science; today the program is a nationalmultimedia enterprisethat includes the Nerd Girl Nation web series. She was honored for her pioneering work in education with a U.S. Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Math and Engineering Mentoring, presented by President Barack Obama in 2011. She also foundedIEEE Women in Engineering Magazine, of which she is editor-in-chief.

Tufts Nowasked her about her trailblazing career and her advice for young people today.

Tufts Now: What early influences shaped your invention skills?

Karen Panetta: I was always inventing things, like rollercoasters out of paper towel rolls. My dad, who grew up in Medford, worked on heavy construction equipment. He loved to make machinery, which he sold to pay for our college educations.

He saw my aptitude for math and science and thought I should be a civil engineer, but I had no idea what that was. Zero. When it came time for college, he said: You're going to be an engineer.

Thats why, when we used to walk around campus years later, I held his hand. I think students who saw us thought it was a bit funny: The professor is holding her fathers hand! And I wanted to say to them: You know what? I'm very proud. I am a professor, and I wouldnt be here without him.

Why electrical and computer engineering?

I had a knack for computer programming, but I wanted to learn not just programming, but also the magic inside the box. In college, I learned how to build semiconductors, and my dream was to work for Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC). That's what I did, and they also paid for my masters and Ph.D. in exchange for going into teaching. DEC thought that if they put engineers back into colleges as educators, students would have a more realistic education that mapped to real-world issues and challenges. At the time, there were no internships either, but I secured donor funding for the School of Engineerings first career internship coordinator. Now, everyone understands the value of industry experience while youre a student.

Did you have any sense that you were in the vanguard because of your gender?

I knew it was going to be a profession where I would have to make some inroads. When I came to Tufts, there were no women in my field. Career websites said: Electrical engineers work in labs doing math problems and working with soldering irons. I wouldn't have become an electrical engineer if I saw that. The message I took was that I could be a mentor for women studentsI could show them there was so much more to engineering.

What were early reactions to Nerd Girls, and how did the program make a difference?

I received pushback from some people who were thrown off by the name. You call them girls; they're women. And you call them nerds. Back then the definition of nerd had a certain stereotype associated with the name and I wanted to redefine that. I wanted to take ownership of the word and turn it into a positive thing. Most outreach programs show that women can be good teachers, but Nerd Girls went beyond this and emphasized that women can be innovators and leaders. And that helps the students learn there are no limits. All students, including women, can be teachers and business leaders and entrepreneurs.

Looking back, what were pivotal choices you made early in your own career?

Id have to say the most influential was joining the IEEE [Institute of Electronic and Electrical Engineers]. They gave me leadership opportunities, and that made all the difference to my career. I was interacting on committees with medical doctors and biomedical and physicists and mathematicians and learning about other people's research. Ive tried to do that throughout my career: The more perspectives you bring in, the more diverse personalities you bring in, the more robust and creative the solution.

You co-authored a book,Count Girls In: Empowering Girls to Combine Any Interests with STEM to Open Up a World of Opportunityin 2018with KatianneWilliams, E96, who was part of the Nerd Girls. Is there a key message from the book that you want to share with young girls and their parents and teachers?

Its never too early to start. We used to say, Get them in fourth or fifth grade or eighth grade. To that I ask: Did you teach them to read and write when they were in fourth grade? No, you start them from the very beginning. And that's exactly the way math and science need to be taught.

The Presidential Award is the nation's highest award for engineering, science, mathematics, and mentoring in education. What does national recognition mean to you?

It was a very proud moment in my career! But so was being accepted into the National Academy of Inventors. Invention is in everything I do. Even before I came to Tufts, when I was at DEC, I was the co-inventor of the first digital twin of a whole computer. Research Im doing now in artificial intelligence involves developing algorithms that emulate human vision and find ways to visualize sensor information the human eye cant readily see. I believe fundamentally that emulating human systems is the best way to channel my engineering knowledge.

What words of encouragement do you have for young girls and women who are considering engineering?

I use an analogy from sports. If you join a sports team and you lose the game, you don't give up the sport. Engineering is the same way. Failure is part of it, and if you're not failing, then you're probably not doing something right.

Everybody thinks their career is going to be a linear, direct path. It's actually a series of zig zags. So keep pivoting and keep going. Stay away from negative people. Find people who are going to empower you. Surround yourself with encouraging people and ignore the noise. Trust that you have the training you need, and that there are people out there ready to help you get where you want to go.

Laura Ferguson can be reached atlaura.ferguson@tufts.edu.

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A Trailblazing Engineer Says Invention Is in Everything I Do - Tufts Now

Russias invasion of Ukraine has provided a two-pronged challenge for South Korean diplomacy. The immediate challenge has been the need for South Korea to craft an effective near-term diplomatic response to the invasion in line with the United States and Europe that effectively meets the expectations of both the Korean public and South Koreas allies. The second, more consequential geopolitical challenge is the task of ensuring that the revisionist Russian challenge to the status quo in which a nuclear-armed state desires to revise or erase an existing national border does not set a precedent for North Korea, another nuclear-armed state with revisionist geopolitical aspirations toward South Koreas northern border.

South Koreas policy toward the Russian invasion of Ukraine has provided a revealing Rorschach test for how South Korea sees its international role. In the face of out-of-area regional crises, South Korea has historically kept its head down and has sought to protect its specific economic interests while doing the minimum effort necessary to satisfy demands and expectations from the United States as its main alliance partner. This is arguably the course of action South Korea took in response to Russian aggression in Crimea in 2014, at which time South Korea did not impose sanctions on Russia.

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But South Koreas international profile has continued to grow since 2014. Almost a decade later, South Korea is a top ten global economy and was invited to join with G7 powers in England last year. As an international leader, South Korea is expected to hold the line rather than ducking for cover in the face of concerted international action. Most importantly, South Korean public expectations for the governments response increasingly anticipate that South Korea will be in the vanguard with the other global leaders to uphold international norms such as the inviolability of territorial borders.

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South Koreas announcement of sanctions only on the day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine reflected the countrys focus on its own economic and political considerations. However, the Moon Jae-in administration has since quickly brought South Korea into alignment with the United States and Europe in imposing sanctions on Russia and cooperating with U.S. and European sanctions measures. But close American observers noted that the initial South Korean response was weaker than that of Japan, which imposed its own unilateral sanctions on Russia, while South Korean media fretted over the countrys initial failure to be included on the Joe Biden administrations list of allies aligned with the United States in its sanctions response. Secretary of State Antony Blinken has expressed satisfaction with South Korean efforts to hold the line on Russian sanctions a week into the conflict.On March 8, President Biden sent aletter of gratitudeto President Moon for South Koreas leadership and actions supporting Ukraines sovereignty.

The longer-term and more consequential impact of Russias invasion of Ukraine lies with whether Russias attempt to erase an international border might stand as a precedent for North Korea, which harbors its own revisionist aspirations regarding the erasure of the armistice line dividing the Korean Peninsula. Those aspirations are probably boosted by the fact that the immediate impact of Russias invasion has left a wide-open pathway for North Korea to pursue an even more robust missile-testing regime without fear of consequences from the UN Security Council. Chinese and Russian proposals to weaken Security Council-imposed sanctions on North Korea since December of 2020 had already eviscerated UN-led sanctions for North Korean ballistic missile testing that, in the context of the Ukrainian conflict, have now been shattered.

South Korea must also contend with the fact that though the United States has continued to condemn North Koreas two latest satellite rocket tests using intermediate-range ballistic missiles in the days following Russias invasion of Ukraine, U.S. top-level attention is clearly elsewhere. Conflict in Ukraine will put more pressure on South Koreas new leader to lead efforts to deter North Korean missile tests, but with few diplomatic tools available to do so. Instead, the task of deterring North Koreas ongoing testing regime will be an early challenge for South Koreas next president.

South Korea must carefully watch the nuclear dimensions of Russian aggression out of concern that those lessons might be applied to the peninsula, both with respect to attacks on civilian nuclear power plants and how to handle and effectively deter threats of nuclear use.

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The possibility that North Korea could launch a revisionist campaign to alter the existing border with South Korea might seem unthinkable given South Koreas conventional power advantages relative to North Korea and its alliance commitment from the United States. In this respect, South Koreas position on the fault line of a potentially shifting geopolitical tectonic plate remains far stronger compared to that of Ukraine.

But the nuclear dimensions of Russian actions in Ukraine are relevant and bear particularly close scrutiny by South Korea. First, both North and South Korea will be closely watching the impact of Russian threats regarding the risks of nuclear escalation and their implications for the Korean Peninsula. Second, there will be lessons for the two Koreas related to Russian efforts to secure control over Ukrainian nuclear power plants and the challenge of how to ensure the safety and security of civilian nuclear energy plants during a military conflict.

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Russias Invasion of Ukraine and Implications for the Korean Peninsula - Council on Foreign Relations