Mackenzie Eaglen | Breaking Defense
Middle East Quarterly
Fall 2019 (view PDF)
https://www.meforum.org/59294/the-great-saudi-iranian-proxy-game
For more than two centuries, the US has had the luxury of fighting its wars on offshore territories, with US bases on foreign soil facing few military threats. In a new Foreign Policy op-ed, Michael Beckley writes that in future wars, new technologies will enable rivals such as Russia and China to destroy US bases and logistics networks — including those on the homeland. Finish here.
Following Secretary of Defense Mark Esper’s firing of Navy Secretary Richard Spencer, Gary Schmitt took to the pages of the Bulwark to discuss the real issue: President Trump's involvement in the pardoning of two soldiers. Schmitt analyzes presidential pardoning powers and concludes that if the president continues to ignore the military's system for determining measures to ensure justice, it is a recipe for further abuse and hazard to the rule of law itself. Continue here.
One of the paradoxes of transatlantic relations is that the US has consistently encouraged Europeans to do more in defense and security. Yet, whenever Europeans unveiled new initiatives, they were met with criticism from America. In an AEIdeas blog, Dalibor Rohac argues that faced with numerous threats, the earlier the EU and the United States start focusing on defending liberal democracies, the better the prospects of the alliance in the 21st century. Read here.
Thirty years after the Cold War ended, there is still a transatlantic divide over why and how the West defeated the Soviet Union. In a Bloomberg op-ed, Hal Brands explains that while both the US and Europe are partially right, this argument has implications for great-power competition and alliance strategy toward Russia and China today. Finish here.
Three decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall, the number of people living in democracies has nearly doubled. This dramatic expansion of human freedom was unleashed by the collapse of socialism and the expansion of democratic capitalism, explains Marc Thiessen in a Fox op-ed. Yet, over 50 percent of young Americans think that socialism would be a good thing for the country. Thiessen argues that it is time that the evils of socialism be taught to young people. Read more here.
By Paul Behringer & Nathaniel L. Moir, RealClearDefense: "The fact that the war in Afghanistan has not been going well, despite assurances by military and civilian officials over a decade, is not new information."
Russia’s Eastern Mediterranean Strategy--
Implications for the United States and Israel
By Douglas J. Feith & Shaul Chorev, National Institute for Public Policy: For its decisive military support to Assad, Russia has been rewarded with access in Syria and control over upgraded military bases – the Tartus naval base and the Khmeimim air base. From those bases it can project power into the Middle East, the Balkans and farther west along the Mediterranean. In conflict, Russia is positioned to execute an area-denial strategy against the United States."