Rebecca Skoryanc, Author at WestExec Advisors

Lisa Monaco in The Washington Post: “We’ve declared war on foreign terrorism. Why not do the same for domestic threats?”

In the span of a week, our nation experienced a torrent of hate-fueled attacks: the slaying of two African Americans in a Kentucky supermarket , the mail-bomb assassination attempts and the mass slaying in a Pittsburgh synagogue . These attacks tragically demonstrate that domestic terrorism is on the rise as political polarization and hateful echo chambers on social media radicalize people. As we mourn those who died in Kentucky and Pittsburgh, we should recognize that such tragedies highlight a dangerous counterterrorism [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:30:29-04:00November 5, 2018|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Meghan O’Sullivan in Bloomberg: “Some Context for Canadians Who Love or Hate the New Nafta”

Americans are not the only ones still unpacking the new USMCA trade deal that is due to replace Nafta. Two issues have received a great deal of attention in Canada — one which is misunderstood as a great concession by Canada and the other wrongly celebrated as an unequivocal victory. Both deserve a deeper look. Just recently, Canada’s prime minister and foreign affairs minister, Justin Trudeau and Chrystia Freeland, struggled to explain the significance of a provision that many Canadians have interpreted [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:34:03-04:00October 30, 2018|Economy & Trade|

Dennis Ross in The Hill: “US must impose a price on Saudis, but one with a clear purpose”

The Hill | October 30, 2018 The murder of Jamal Khashoggi has dominated international attention for weeks. Sadly, his death may have more impact on Saudi Arabia and its future than did his articles for the Washington Post. In the best case, where his killing was not ordered but was the result of overzealous Saudi operatives, there is still something grievously wrong with a policy designed to silence dissidents or critics, either by rendition or intimidation. As important as Saudi Crown [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:33:46-04:00October 30, 2018|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Bridge Colby in Foreign Affairs: “If You Want Peace, Prepare for Nuclear War”

Foreign Affairs | November/December 2018 In a little under three decades, nuclear weapons have gone from center stage to a sideshow in U.S. defense strategy. Since the 1990s, the United States has drastically reduced its stockpile and concentrated on its conventional and irregular warfare capabilities. Nuclear weapons policy has focused overwhelmingly on stemming proliferation to countries such as Iran and North Korea, and prominent political and national security figures have even called for abolishing nuclear weapons altogether. What was once the [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:33:33-04:00October 19, 2018|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Julianne Smith in the New York Times: “Angela Merkel Could Save Europe. Why Won’t She?”

October 12, 2018 | Opinion BERLIN — Campaigning in the spring of 2017, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany declared at a packed beer hall in Bavaria that it was time for Europe to “take its destiny into its own hands.” In the face of Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Hungary’s slide into illiberalism and an American president who viewed the European Union with disdain, Europe, she argued, needed a leader who could push forward reform and push back against [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:33:15-04:00October 12, 2018|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Dennis Ross in The Washington Post: “Saudi Arabia’s ruler should understand that the ends don’t justify the means”

October 11, 2018 | Opinion President Trump may not believe in a rules-based international order, but we may now be seeing the consequences of the absence of global norms. The Russians have no qualms about poisoning a former agent in Britain. Lately the Chinese have felt free to disappear or detain some of their most prominent citizens — from an Interpol chief to a leading actress — by extralegal means. And now it appears the Saudis may have lured journalist and [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:33:01-04:00October 11, 2018|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Lisa Monaco in Foreign Policy: “The Next Pandemic Will Be Arriving Shortly”

September 28, 2018 | By Lisa Monaco, Vin Gupta There are plenty of security threats that could keep a former homeland security advisor awake. There is the possibility of a terrorist attack, a cyber-cataclysm, or any number of natural disasters—all threats that are capable of visiting destruction on entire communities in a matter of hours. Right at the top of that list is the threat of a deadly pandemic—an outbreak of infectious disease that rapidly crosses international borders. In January 2017, [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:30:57-04:00September 28, 2018|Cybersecurity & Defense|

Dan Shapiro in The New York Post: “How to make Russia back off in the Middle East”

September 25, 2018 | Opinion For the first time in decades, Israel finds itself on the receiving end of Russian threats. The tensions follow the downing last week of a Russian Ilyushin IL-20 military aircraft, and the deaths of its 15 crew members, by Syrian air-defense batteries responding to Israeli airstrikes on Iranian weapons shipments in Syria. A crisis like this one cries out for US diplomacy to help manage it. So far, there’s no sign of it. Two things have [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:31:21-04:00September 25, 2018|Geopolitical Perspectives|

Bob Work and Bridge Colby in The Washington Post: “The Pentagon must modernize before it’s too late”

September 17, 2018 | Opinion For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the Pentagon has a genuinely new strategy: Focus on our rivals — Russia and, in particular, China — and maintain a competitive advantage over them. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis warns in his 2018 National Defense Strategy that if we fail to do so, we may lose the next big war against these nations. If that happens, say goodbye to the free and open international order [...]

Rebecca Skoryanc2020-04-07T16:31:38-04:00September 17, 2018|Cybersecurity & Defense|

About Rebecca Skoryanc