By James Mattis, Michael Auslin, and Joe Felter via Foreign PolicyJames Mattis, Michael Auslin, and Joe Felter write that the Biden administration is wise to continue with its predecessor’s vision for a free and open Indo-Pacific region by engaging in talks with fellow leaders of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue (Quad), which includes Australia, India, and Japan. They list four ways in which cooperation can be strengthened in the informal Quad alliance: enhancing maritime security to deter Chinese aggression in the South and East China Seas; reducing dependency on China’s economy by building supply chains on the strengths of its members’ advanced free-market economies; achieving an edge in the next generation of telecommunications technology; and drawing on the diversity of the alliance to advance diplomacy with other nations in Asia.
By Dr. James M. Dorsey, March 11, 2021
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: A nationalist Turkish television station with close ties to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has dug up a 12-year-old map that projects Turkey’s sphere of influence in 2050 as stretching from southeastern Europe on the northern coast of the Mediterranean and Libya on its southern shore across North Africa, the Gulf, and the Levant into the Caucasus and Central Asia.
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Testimony by Matt Pottinger via US Senate Committee on Armed ServicesMatt Pottinger explains that following the Cold War, the United States replaced the Soviet Union as China’s primary security concern, leading Beijing to devise a grand strategy aimed at supplanting American power in Asia and dominating the global order to promote an authoritarian model of governance. He explains that, currently, Beijing is attempting to leverage its dominance in international production chains to pursue its political objectives. Pottinger advises that American policy makers adopt a counterstrategy against the policies that China initially set 30 years ago.
This would include addressing immediate challenges such as bypassing Beijing’s communication firewall and establishing common cause with China’s middle and entrepreneurial classes; ensuring that the financial activities of American citizens aren’t supporting China’s modernization of its military or Beijing’s human rights abuses; winning the race against China for supremacy in technological innovation; and increasing funding for Taiwan’s military to deter People’s Liberation Army aggression against the island nation.
By Russell Berman and Dania Koleilat Khatib via National Interest
Russell Berman and Dania Koleilat Khatib write that President Biden’s upcoming meeting with Turkish leader Recip Erdogan is an opportunity that should not be squandered to repair bilateral relations and stabilize the NATO alliance. Berman and Khatib advocate that Biden should initiate a comprehensive strategy of reconciliation based on mutually beneficial exchanges and compromises. Such an approach, they believe, would help diffuse a range of potentially explosive issues, including the conflict between Turkish and Kurdish forces in Northeast Syria and Ankara’s decision to purchase S-400 missiles from Moscow.