"'The approach that Biden supported was more along the lines of a war of attrition with North Korea,' Russel said. 'If giving up its nuclear program is the last thing on earth that North Korea wants to do, we need to make it the last thing on earth that North Korea can do in order to survive...'" Read the full article here: Full Article
"'The $300m is a rounding error compared to what the previous programme was,' said Jay Shambaugh, an economics professor at George Washington University who has been tracking the numbers. 'It's just a massive hole...'" Read the full article here: Full Article
"'Biden’s top priority is going to be trying to resuscitate the U.S. economy, trying to restore as much American leadership, American primacy as he possibly can,' said Russel. 'Those are tall orders and to try to address the havoc wreaked by the uncontrolled outbreak of COVID-19, you’ve got a lot more to worry about than just China...'" Read the full article here: Full Article
"A fresh surge in coronavirus cases is putting pressure on governments on both sides of the Atlantic to maintain emergency labour market support mechanisms at a time when politicians had hoped their economies would be gradually returning to normal. 'This is slowly morphing into long-term unemployment problem,' said Jay Shambaugh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution..." Read the full article here: Full Article
"In this sample from the United Security podcast, Lisa Monaco and Ken Wainstein break down the policy considerations and legal authorities associated with President Trump’s decision to ban Tiktok and WeChat by executive orders..." Listen to the full episode here: Full Episode
"President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, traveled to Bogota this week, ostensibly to announce up to $5 billion in financing under the White House’s new United States-Colombia Growth Initiative. The money had been pledged months ago by the U.S. Development Finance Corporation, and it is contingent on investment-worthy projects, in any case. But the timing of the visit was hardly a coincidence. One of the officials traveling with O’Brien was Mauricio Claver-Carone, the White House’s point man on Latin [...]
“US temporary job losses are declining, pushing the unemployment rate down from 14.7 per cent in April to 10.2 per cent in July. "But on both sides of the Atlantic, the improvements are showing worrying signs of petering out. “'This is slowly morphing into a long-term unemployment problem,' said Jay Shambaugh, a fellow at the Brookings Institution and former White House adviser, noting that 5 per cent of the US workforce had now been unemployed for more than 15 weeks..." Read [...]
"Michèle Flournoy, former undersecretary of defense during the Obama administration, said that the Trump administration’s approach of maximum pressure 'has [put] a lot of pressure on Iran, but it hasn’t created any path to the negotiating table.' "'There’s no way for them to get back into negotiations,' she continued. 'And so, in desperation they have turned to China. Every US administration since Nixon has had a strategic dialogue with China, except this one. This one has taken a very transactional unilateral [...]
"'Taiwan is the most important thing from a military and credibility point of view,' said Elbridge A. Colby, the former deputy assistant secretary of defense for strategy and force development. Mr. Colby wrote the Trump administration’s national defense strategy, which emphasizes competition with China and Russia... "'We need to change things on Taiwan to improve the deterrent and make clearer where we stand, especially by ending any remaining ambiguity about how we’d react to the use of force and altering our [...]
"Recent reports of an ambitious 25-year comprehensive strategic partnership agreement between Iran and China have reverberated across Southwest Asia and beyond. The agreement raises the question of whether we are witnessing a tectonic shift in Asia’s geostrategic landscape or merely a marriage of convenience. The answer is not yet clear, but the agreement will likely face several hurdles, and may have unintended consequences by drawing China into the vortex of Middle Eastern politics..." Read the full article here: Full Article