 Thomas Donnelly writes: These days, the presence of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the South China Sea is a big deal, or at least a big enough one to yank the secretary of defense halfway around the world, along with his public relations team. And while there's more to American military power than aircraft carriers, the gap between Carter's breast-beating and the day-to-day balance in the western Pacific is not just dissonant. It is the very emblem of weakness. – The Weekly Standard All the radar systems, lighthouses, barracks, ports and airfields that China has set up on its newly built island chain in the South China Sea require tremendous amounts of electricity, hard to come by in a place hundreds of miles from the country’s power grid. Beijing may have come up with a solution: floating nuclear power plants. – NYT’s Sinosphere
With an eye on China's more muscular stance in the South China Sea, Southeast Asian governments are stepping up efforts to replace aging fighter aircraft fleets, paving the way for multi-billion dollar deals in a boon for warplane makers. - Reuters  “The $2 Trillion Project to Get Saudi Arabia’s Economy Off Oil” (Peter Waldman, Bloomberg) “‘From the first 12 hours, decisions were issued,’ says Prince Mohammed. ‘In the first 10 days, the entire government was restructured.’ He spoke for eight hours over two interviews in Riyadh that provide a rare glimpse of the thinking of a new kind of Middle East potentate -- one who tries to emulate Steve Jobs, credits video games with sparking ingenuity, and works 16-hour days in a land with no shortage of sinecures. Last year there was near-panic among the prince’s advisers as they discovered Saudi Arabia was burning through its foreign reserves faster than anyone knew, with insolvency only two years away. Plummeting oil revenue had resulted in an almost $200 billion budget shortfall -- a preview of a future in which the Saudis’ only viable export can no longer pay the bills, whether because of shale oil flooding the market or climate change policies. Historically, the kingdom has relied on the petroleum sector for 90 percent of the state budget, almost all its export earnings, and more than half its gross domestic product.” President Obama said on Thursday that the United States would continue to enhance security cooperation with its allies in the Persian Gulf, while encouraging them to carry out domestic reforms and bolster their ability to defend themselves. – New York Times
President Barack Obama tried his best to paper over differences between his administration and Saudi Arabia on Thursday as he concluded a two-day summit in Riyadh with the heads of six Persian Gulf countries. But the growing chasm between Washington and the oil-rich Sunni monarchy — inflamed by a fresh wave of criticism from lawmakers of both parties — overshadowed the summit’s scripted displays of camaraderie and unity. – Foreign Policy’s The Cable A Senate Democrat on Thursday warned the Obama administration against providing increased military firepower to Saudi Arabia in order to smooth over relations following the nuclear agreement with Iran. – The Hill A U.S. citizen who had been sentenced in Bahrain to 10 years in jail in 2013 has been granted a royal pardon and was freed on Thursday after paying a fine, he and his lawyer said. - Reuters Talks aimed at ending Yemen's war opened in Kuwait on Thursday, with Kuwait's top diplomat appealing to both sides to "turn war into peace" after more than a year of conflict which has killed more than 6,200 people and caused a humanitarian crisis. - Reuters Lee Smith writes: Our partners in the Middle East and elsewhere must think that Washington has lost its mind. The reality is worse—America is not able or willing to lead at this point because for the last seven years we've been governed by a man consumed with contempt for the rest of the world, and especially for America's allies. – The Weekly Standard David Daoud and David Weinberg write: The religious messages Saudi Arabia promotes at home and abroad have implications for international security, whether by helping to radicalize Muslims in places such as Belgium or through intolerant material in official textbooks. – WSJ’s Think Tank  Picture of Economist Joseph Schumpeter
AEI: What Clockmaking Teaches About Free Enterprise  The House Armed Services Committee will take up the 2017 policy bill next week, but with a budget resolution stalled, it is unclear how much money it will have to authorize for Defense Department programs. – Defense News
When it comes to overseeing the Air Force’s next-generation bomber, Congress has a fine line to walk. The Air Force wants to keep certain details about the B-21 under wraps to protect the program from foreign competitors who might try to steal its cutting-edge technology. But on a potentially $100 billion program, some argue the taxpayers deserve to know exactly where their money is going. – Defense News The Army has successfully conducted a key flight test of its Northrop Grumman-built missile defense command system leading up to a production and deployment decision, according to Northrop. – Defense News Rep. Randy Forbes (R-VA) writes: The “phased modernization” plan remains an ill-advised one that Congress should continue to oppose. Both cruisers and amphibious ships are badly needed by our combatant commanders at present, and demand for these assets will only grow as air and missile threats proliferate and the Marines return to the sea. Rather than cutting force structure, Congress should be holding the line and keeping our existing ships in service, so that in cooperation with the next administration we can begin the important work of rebuilding our Navy and growing our fleet to the size we need. – Military Times Mackenzie Eaglen writes: A new Congress and leadership team at the Pentagon in 2017 should focus on these three areas of overdue and underappreciated reform when building a blueprint for governing in the next administration. Each is a complicated effort that will not be solved in just one year. But the benefits of sustained attention and care by policymakers can yield a happier workforce performing a critical mission for the nation along with the potential for some new investment in modernization and innovation. – American Enterprise Institute Michele Flournoy and Stephen Ondra write: By adopting value-based health care approaches and benefit designs, DOD can keep faith with those who serve by improving the both the consumer experience and quality of care they receive, while also ensuring that burgeoning health care costs do not undermine the DOD’s ability to provide the best possible equipment and training to those sent into harm’s way to defend us. - Politico  Latin America Goes Global offers a detailed account of how Latin American governments have failed to defend democratic principles, leading to a troubling weakening of the liberal international order.
Freedom House releases its latest “Nations in Transit” report, which covers the region’s continued democratic decline and warns that the stability of its authoritarian regimes is increasingly in doubt.   The West African Islamist terrorist group Boko Haram used ten times the number of child suicide bombers in 2015 as it did the year before, according to a report from the United Nations Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF). A fifth of all Boko Haram suicide attacks are now carried out by children, using kids as young as eight years old. Authorities in Nigeria have failed to distinguish between children abducted by the group and adult members, UNICEF officials say the child suicide bombers are coerced by Boko Haram into carrying out the attacks and not witting, voluntary attackers like their adult counterparts.
 Tunisia uncovered a history of state sexual violence. Can it do anything?” (Hind Ahmed Zaki, Monkey Cage)
“The extent of the use of rape as a weapon of political intimidation and the number of women who had suffered from sexual abuse at the hands of state agents was surprising, even to those following Tunisian affairs closely. Since the commission began to hear testimonies from more than 20,000 victims, an ugly picture of the state’s systematic use of sexual violence against female members of the opposition and female relatives of opposition members began to emerge. According to the commissioners, between June 2014 and December 2015, thousands of women came forward, recounting stories of being raped and tortured while held in detention, some suffering serious physical and psychological injuries that would last for decades. Tunisia’s nascent transitional justice process initially focused on government corruption and human rights violations in general without a special focus on gender-based violence. The true extent of the systematic use of rape and sexual assault against women by the Tunisian state became clear only after the commission started hearing testimonies from hundreds of female survivors of sexual violence. While women were victims of imprisonment, travel bans and constant government harassment like their male counterparts, they also faced another threat -- that of rape and sexual assault.”
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Introduction to Eric Hoffer's Classic "The True Believer: Thoughts on the Nature of Mass Movements".
FEMINISM: HOW WOMEN BETRAYED WOMEN
RESOLVING WORLD DISORDER
POLICY FRAMEWORK FOR MIDDLE EAST
HOW ISRAEL WINS
THE TREASON OF INTELLECTUALS: JULIEN BENDA
HAYEK & THE INTELLECTUALS
US STRATEGY FOR WINNING WORLD WAR IV
POLICY PAPERS FOR US GLOBAL ENGAGEMENT
COMPOSITION FOR THE LONG WAR
PROSPECT MAGAZINE
CategoriesArchives
February 2023
EXAMPLE OF SUCCESS IN U.S. FOREIGN POLICY ACE VENTURA
PAUL RAHE: REALISM IN FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SPARTA
CONSCIENCE & TEMPORAL AUTHORITY
SHAKESPEARE
POSITIVE LAW vs. CONSCIENCE
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