Rebecca Skoryanc, Author at WestExec Advisors

Ely Ratner quoted in Bloomberg article: “Don’t Count on U.S.-China Trade Relations Warming Up Anytime Soon”

"Beijing has a reputation for waiting out U.S. administrations in the hope that the next person in the White House will take a more modest approach. This time, that strategy is unlikely to work. Analysts agree that the policy direction presumably would have shifted toward a tougher line even if Hillary Clinton had won the presidency in 2016, though likely with stylistic differences. 'The paradigm on China needed to be broken,' says Ely Ratner, deputy national security adviser to former Vice [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:24:47-04:00April 4, 2019|Economy & Trade, Geopolitical Perspectives|

Bridge Colby with Walter Slocombe in The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: “Respond to INF Collapse with Blunt Layer, Not a Repeat of Euromissiles”

"The INF Treaty has collapsed on the basis of Russian violation. Many seem to think that we are on the verge of a repeat of the 1980s, complete with Russian missiles aimed at Europe and new variants of American Euromissiles to counter them. "Russia does pose a threat to NATO Europe’s security. The way to deal with this is not, however, to respond to Russia’s new land-based missiles with deployments in Europe of new American ground launched systems that can reach [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:25:09-04:00April 3, 2019|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Julie Smith quoted in The New York Times article, “With Trump, NATO Chief Tries to Navigate Spending Minefields”

"...Friction is growing in Germany. The Social Democrats, Ms. Merkel’s center-left coalition partners who control the finance ministry and were in charge of the latest budget plan, are using the dislike of Mr. Trump in their election campaign ahead of European parliamentary elections in May. "Julianne Smith, a fellow at the Bosch Academy in Berlin and a former Obama administration national security official, said the Social Democrats were using the military budget to show they were the party 'that stands up [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:25:29-04:00April 2, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Julie Smith in Foreign Policy: “NATO Needs Solidarity for Its 70th Birthday”

"NATO marks its 70 anniversary this week—a remarkable milestone for a military alliance made up of 29 (soon to be 30) separate member states. But the big commemoration, scheduled for April 3 and 4 in Washington, has faced trouble from the start. "Given U.S. President Donald Trump’s past behavior at NATO gatherings (last year, he called allies “delinquent”), the alliance wasn’t even sure hosting an anniversary summit was a good idea. Last fall, it wisely downgraded the event to the foreign [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:25:40-04:00April 2, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Mike Singh in The New York Times: “How to Make Trump’s Israeli-Palestinian Peace Plan Work”

"After two years of playing coy, the Trump administration is reportedly finally ready to unveil its plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace. The plan’s details remain confidential, but if it is anything like President Trump’s moves so far on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, it will be bold. "Some of those steps have worked out far better than the president’s critics anticipated. Moving the United States’ embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, for example, failed to elicit the protests in the wider Arab world many [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:25:53-04:00April 2, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

David Cohen in The Washington Post: “Why Trump’s sanctions aren’t working”

"On March 22, President Trump tweeted that he ordered the 'withdrawal' of North Korea sanctions. It is still unclear whether he pulled back an upcoming package of North Korea sanctions or ones that had been announced just the day before. And although the president didn’t explain his reasoning, Sarah Sanders offered that he canceled the sanctions because 'President Trump likes Chairman Kim, and . . . doesn’t think these sanctions will be necessary.' "This policy-swerve-by-tweet reflects a chaotic national security process. But it [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:26:07-04:00March 30, 2019|Economy & Trade|

Michael Camilleri testifies on democratic governance before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs

Michael Camilleri testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs on the subject of “Understanding Odebrecht: Lessons for Combating Corruption in the Americas.” Read the full testimony here: Full Article

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:27:22-04:00March 26, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Michèle Flournoy comments on likely ISIS strategy in Task and Purpose article

"'Despite the loss of its former caliphate, ISIS has not been defeated,' warned Michèle Flournoy, who served as under defense secretary for policy from 2009 to 2012. "'We have seen this movie before,' said Flournoy, who was expected to become defense secretary if Hillary Clinton won the 2016 presidential election. 'When a terrorist organization loses territory, it usually goes to ground in order to fight another day. (This was certainly true for Al Qaeda in Iraq, ISIS' predecessor.)' "'ISIS is likely [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:27:31-04:00March 25, 2019|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Dennis Ross interviewed in Foreign Policy: “Trump’s Golan Giveaway ‘Makes It Harder’ to Achieve Peace”

"With a single tweet on Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump reversed a decades long U.S. policy on a fraught issue in the Middle East, announcing he would recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the strategically important Golan Heights on the Israel-Syria border. The move came two weeks before a critical Israeli election in which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a Trump ally who is facing indictment, is fighting for his political career. Foreign Policy spoke with Dennis Ross, a veteran U.S. diplomat of multiple [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T17:27:42-04:00March 22, 2019|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Nick Rasmussen co-authors Lawfare article, “The Christchurch Shooting: Domestic Terrorism Goes International”

"The United States has long built its approach to counterterrorism based on a fundamental distinction between “international terrorism” and “domestic terrorism.” The phrases were always misnomers to some degree, but the recent mass shooting at two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand, has revealed just how unsuitable that distinction is for today’s terrorist threats. Governments must reorient their counterterrorism approaches to reflect an environment in which all terrorist threats have transnational dimensions—and they must do so quickly to address the growing threat [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2019-08-06T13:52:31-04:00March 19, 2019|News|

About Rebecca Skoryanc