"However, besides blasting the decision in speeches, Erdogan didn’t immediately hit back at Washington. The muted response suggests he wants a good relationship with Biden, said Rachel Ellehuus, an analyst at the Washington think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies…" Read the full article here: Full Article
"Daniel Russel, who served as assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs in the Obama administration, told Nikkei Asia that 'providing a readout of the U.S. policy review on North Korea seems to be one reason for the call…'" Read the full article here: Full Article
"'Where cyber can gain traction is under the strategic stability umbrella,' said Andrea Kendall-Taylor, director of the transatlantic security program at the Center for a New American Security, to prevent misunderstandings over cyber-espionage or hacking from escalating to the point of armed or nuclear conflict…" Read the full article here: Full Article
"How good is the bond market at predicting inflation? Joseph Gagnon, senior fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics, suggests that yields are far more closely correlated with past inflation than future inflation, though much of the data used predates the existence of inflation-protected bonds…" Read the full article here: Full Article
"Eventually, NASA selected [Charlie Bolden] in 1980 for the second group of space shuttle astronauts. Around 10 minutes into his first space flight, which he piloted, the crew was orbiting Earth when he saw a big island — which turned out to be Africa, he said. 'Being of African descent, I had spent a lot of time studying the geography of the planet so I’d be able to try to find, perhaps, one or more of the countries from which my [...]
"'Whether that’s in economics or trade or foreign policy or defense, there is a sense that, "well, you’ve been gone for a while, so you can’t just come back and assume your seat at the head of the table. Things have moved on, and we have to create space for European leadership,"' said Rachel Ellehuus, a former U.S. Defense Department official now at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a think tank. 'And I think this could play out even [...]
"Michael Singh, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said that Iranian naval vessels crossing the Atlantic Ocean 'is in itself not very concerning, much less threatening' but the transfer of weapons is… "Asked about US options, Mr Singh said that 'certainly, the US can threaten Venezuela and Cuba with sanctions for allowing Iranian military ships to dock in their ports. The bolder option would be to interdict the shipment at sea, but that would depend on [...]
"'At this point, the say-do gap is the problem,' said Elbridge Colby, a former Pentagon official who played a key role in developing the national defense strategy during the Trump administration. 'We have had prioritization of China for several years. But not enough has been done to translate that into reality, and the problem is alarmingly urgent…'" Read the full article here: Full Article
"'The rest of Syria’s problems are not going to go away,' said James Jeffrey, a former career foreign service officer who served as Trump’s point person on Syria. Putin won’t open the lifelines for free, Jeffrey warned… "Jeffrey recalled Russian negotiators attending previous bilateral talks with the United States over Syria with a long list of its own requests, including freezing sanctions against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and halting efforts to block other countries and international development agencies from investing in [...]
"Several NATO allies may be shifting nervously in their seats when President Joe Biden takes the floor at the alliance’s upcoming June 14 summit. Rather than deliver the usual lecture on the importance of equitable burden sharing and increased defense spending, the new U.S. president is more likely to reflect on NATO’s founding principles. As U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken stressed in his first visit to NATO headquarters, 'We also have to hold one another [accountable] to the values at [...]