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The National Security Implications of Antitrust: The Homefront

 

On Wednesday, December 8, from 12:00 – 1:00 PM ET, as part of NSI’s Tech Innovation and American National Security project, NSI hosted the fourth and final event of a four-part series examining the national security implications of antitrust challenges at home and abroad.

Background: This event explored lessons presented in each of the previous three events, taking deep dive into the ongoing calls for additional U.S. government regulation of our domestic tech industry and looking at what impact – including harms – to both U.S. economic and national security interests which may result from such regulation. The panel also discussed actionable alternative policy recommendations that both respond to concerns regarding the protection of competition, while promoting private sector innovation and allied national security interests.

 

The National Security Implications of Antitrust Home and Abroad Series Overview: Throughout much of the 20th century, the United States has led the world in technological innovation – with this innovation driving sustained economic growth and underpinning U.S. global military capabilities.  However, today, U.S. tech companies face antitrust challenges at home and abroad.  This four-event series will provide an overview of domestic and international antitrust laws and how these regulations and legal challenges impact U.S. and foreign tech companies, and explore how notwithstanding these antitrust challenges, the U.S. should position itself to preserve its preeminent role in leading technological innovation and to protect vital U.S. security interests. You can find more information about the Antitrust series here.

 

This event features:

 

Asheesh Agarwal serves as American Edge Project’s Advisor on Antitrust and Economic Policy. Asheesh has served in senior roles in the several administrations, including at the Federal Trade Commission and Department of Justice. At the FTC, Asheesh served as Assistant Director of the Office of Policy Planning, where he helped to lead the Commission’s competition advocacy program and an initiative to examine regulatory barriers to the growth of e-commerce. Both in government and in the private sector, Asheesh has litigated numerous high-profile cases and argued a dozen cases in federal appellate courts. Asheesh received his J.D. from the University of Chicago Law School, where he graduated with honors and served on the Law Review, and his B.A. from Northwestern University, where he graduated with highest distinction and was a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Asheesh clerked for Hon. Eugene Siler on the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

 

 

Oren Cass is the executive director of American Compass, whose mission is to restore an economic orthodoxy that emphasizes the importance of family, community, and industry to the nation’s liberty and prosperity. From 2015 to 2019, Cass was a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, where his work on strengthening the labor market addressed issues ranging from the social safety net and environmental regulation to trade and immigration to education and organized labor.

Cass regularly writes for publications including the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, National Affairs, and National Review, speaks at universities, and testifies before Congress. Prior to his time at MI, Cass held roles as the domestic policy director for Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign in 2012, as an editor of the Harvard Law Review, and as a management consultant in Bain & Company’s Boston and New Delhi offices. He earned a B.A. in political economy from Williams College and a J.D.

 

Evelyn Farkas serves as the President of Farkas Global Strategies where she provides corporate executives and boards of directors with targeted advice based on her assessment of global patterns and trends for potential opportunities or challenges. In recent years, she ran to represent New York’s 17th Congressional District in the House of Representatives. Prior to that, Dr. Farkas served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia/Ukraine/Eurasia, was the Senior Advisor for public-private partnership to the Supreme Allied Commander NATO/Commander, U.S. European Command, and the Special Assistant “Sherpa” to the Secretary of Defense for the 2012 NATO Summit. Earlier, she was Executive Director of the congressional Commission on the Prevention of Weapons of Mass Destruction Proliferation and Terrorism and Senior Fellow at the American Security Project. Dr. Farkas also taught at the Command and Staff College of the Marine Corps University and served in Bosnia with the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). She served almost a decade as a professional staff member of the Senate Armed Services Committee responsible for Asia Pacific, Western Hemisphere, Special Operations Command, and policy issues including combatting terrorism and export control. More recently she was Senior Fellow at the German Marshall Fund and the Atlantic Council.

She has published numerous journal articles and opinion pieces and “Fractured States and U.S. Foreign Policy: Iraq, Ethiopia, and Bosnia in the 1990s” (Palgrave/St. Martin’s Press, 2003, 2008). She speaks Hungarian and German, has studied French, Spanish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Hindi. Dr. Farkas obtained her MA and Ph.D. from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She is a member of the board of trustees of Franklin & Marshall College and Aspen Institute Socrates Seminar, and Harold Rosenthal Fellowship advisory boards. She has received several Department of Defense and foreign awards and an honorary doctorate from Franklin & Marshall College.

 

Jennifer Huddleston currently serves as Policy Counsel at NetChoice. She was formerly the Director of Technology and Innovation Policy at the American Action Forum. Jennifer’s research focuses on the intersection of emerging technology and law. Her work has appeared in a wide range of outlets including USA Today, the Chicago Tribune, Business Insider, Slate, the New York Daily News, and The Hill. Jennifer has appeared on media outlets including CNBC and Fox Business to discuss to technology–related issues. She has also testified before Congress and state legislatures, and has been a regular panelist on issues such as transportation innovation, data privacy, and liability for content on online platforms including Section 230. Jennifer has a JD from the University of Alabama School of Law and a BA in political science from Wellesley College. Prior to joining AAF, Jennifer was a research fellow at the Mercatus Center.

 

 

View the previous events of our Antitrust series: