"In this Stay Tuned special bonus, national security experts Lisa Monaco and Ken Wainstein discuss the latest news stories that aren't about impeachment: Coronavirus, encryption, and the controversy over Carter Page FISA warrants..." Listen to the full podcast here: Full Podcast
“'One of the very odd pathologies of Washington and the defense establishment is this enthrallment with the Middle East, which just isn’t that important,' said Elbridge Colby, a former senior Pentagon official in the Trump administration. 'America has become energy independent. And we’re not very good at achieving our preferred outcomes in the Middle East.' "Mr. Colby was the main author of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, which recommended turning America’s war-fighting focus to the 'revisionist powers' of China and Russia..." [...]
"'The plan is largely a dead letter but the facilitation of the unilateral steps that it will bring about is really what could change the situation quite dramatically,' said Dan Shapiro, the former U.S. Ambassador to Israel under President Obama and visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv..." Read the full article here: Full Article
"When President Trump issued his 'Vision for Peace, Prosperity, and a Brighter Future for Israel and the Palestinian People' at the White House on Tuesday, I was reminded that no one should be more humble about critiquing new Middle East peace initiatives than those who have taken part in previous ones. I am in the club of U.S. government officials who poured thousands of hours into that effort — and failed. "So I appreciate President Trump, Jared Kushner and their colleagues' [...]
"One of the bolder claims in Donald Trump’s impeachment defense posits that the U.S. president withheld military aid to Ukraine out of genuine concern over corruption in the former Soviet republic, and not to extract an investigation into a political rival. The assertion might be more plausible were the White House not simultaneously contemplating revisions to the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which Trump has long derided as placing American businesses at an unfair disadvantage. Still, some U.S senators appear willing to [...]
“'If we are going to get this right, the China challenge has to be the single or one of the top organizing principles of U.S. foreign policy,' said CNAS senior fellow Ely Ratner, one of the report’s principal authors. 'What we need now is an honest conversation that dealing with the China challenge is going to require more cost and more risk than we anticipated...'” Read the full article here: Full Article
"According to a recent report by the bipartisan Aspen Cybersecurity Group, technological and scientific innovation isn’t just an economic issue; innovation has national-security and geopolitical implications. 'Will America lead the technology that secures Americans?' Lisa Monaco, co-chair of the Aspen group, asked Axios. 'Will American values be reflected in the technologies of the future?' "This is exactly the sort of question that America’s leaders should be asking..." Read the full article here: Full Article
"The Trump administration has now unveiled its Mideast peace plan. While we should expect plenty of debate about its terms, which represent a sharp departure from past U.S. peacemaking efforts, another development has essentially pushed the plan into the background. Israeli officials have announced that they plan to annex all West Bank settlements next week. If they do, this new phase of the process will be dead before it really starts. "The peace plan was supposed to take the interests of [...]
"Elizabeth Rosenberg, who served as a senior Treasury adviser working on sanctions issues during the Obama administration and who now studies sanctions policy at the Center for a New American Security, said Mr. Trump’s interventions were unusual and disruptive. “'This is not the norm in Washington,' she said. 'He is making up sanctions policy on his own, and influencing the course of policy in a way that undermines United States priorities and has shocked United States allies...'" Read the full article [...]
"Still, American diplomatic and military insiders tend to pooh-pooh the idea that the relationship is in crisis, or that France could supplant Britain. 'The uk is still our most capable partner militarily, and our most valuable partner politically,' says Rachel Ellehuus, who handled European and nato policy at the Pentagon until 2018..." Read the full article here: Full Article