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PacNet #44 - Comparative Connections Summaries
Regional Overview: Déjà Vu All Over Again … Only Worse!
by Ralph A. Cossa and Brad Glosserman
Categories: Defense Policy
Back to the Future: Devolving Acquisition to the Services
On May 12, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) released a summary of its long-anticipated proposals for the reform of organizations and processes in the defense acquisition system. Taken together, these proposals would dramatically extend the devolution of acquisition to the services that was initiated in the FY 2016 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Categories: Defense Policy
Word of the Day: Nordic + Easy = NORD-EASY
“If only everyone could be like the Scandinavians, this would all be easy…” President Obama
Categories: Defense Policy
Restructuring National Security Organizations and Decisionmaking
On May 12, the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) released its long-anticipated proposals for reform of organizations and processes in the national security enterprise. The proposals come on top of earlier proposals by the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) and Secretary of Defense Ash Carter. The proposals are not entirely consistent.
Categories: Defense Policy
U.S. Strategy and the War in Iraq and Syria
Iraq has just seen one of its most horrifying days of terrorism in what is now some thirteen years of war. ISIS has struck at Iraq’s civilian population with the clear goal of dividing the country between Sunni and Shi’ite—although one of its three bombs did kill Sunnis as well.
Categories: Defense Policy
Fully Lifting the U.S. Lethal Arms Ban Will Add Momentum to U.S.-Vietnam Relations
Ahead of President Barack Obama’s visit to Vietnam in late May, officials and analysts in both Washington and Hanoi have been talking about whether the United States should fully lift the ban on the sale of lethal weapons to Vietnam that was imposed when the Vietnam War ended in 1975.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #43 - U.S.-India Defense Partnership 2.0: Making Good (incrementally) on Strategic Congruence
Against many odds, Prime Minister Narendra Modi – with capable assists from President Obama – has repaired the US-India strategic equation that had begun to fray during the latter years of his predecessor’s second term in office.
Categories: Defense Policy
Why the U.S.-Nordic Leaders Summit Matters to the Next U.S. President
Clarifying his views on U.S.
Categories: Defense Policy
The Middle East's Centenarian
One hundred years into the Sykes-Picot Agreement, a growing chorus of voices is asserting its imminent demise. Skeptics say that few of the Arab states’ borders ever made any sense, and the uprisings sweeping through Syria, Iraq, Libya, Yemen and elsewhere represent the long-overdue death rattle of the post-colonial order in the Middle East.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #42 - Regional strategic challenges and East Asia Summit
Growing contestation among big powers, mostly between the United States and China, has become a key strategic issue underlining the security environment and architecture in East Asia and the Asia-Pacific. Regional security forums, and the East Asia Summit (EAS) in particular, can help mitigate the negative implications of intensified strategic competition.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #41 - Philippines’ next president: implications for ASEAN
Filipinos went to the polls on May 9, 2016 to elect a new president. All indications point to the victory of the maverick, front-runner candidate Rodrigo Duterte, a long-time mayor of Davao city in the southern Philippines island of Mindanao.
Categories: Defense Policy
A Rebalanced Transatlantic Policy Toward the Asia-Pacific Region
The United States and the European Union share similar interests and objectives in the Asia Pacific. Trade and investment are key components of U.S. and EU policy, and both have launched ambitious negotiations with regional partners to liberalize trade with East Asia’s burgeoning economies.
Categories: Defense Policy
Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) and the Uncertain Cost of U.S. Wars
The United States has been involved in some form of warfare or conflict for most of the period since 1941, and has been continuously at war since September 11, 2001—nearly a decade and a half. The United States has never, however, come to grips with the reality of its involvement in such conflicts.
Categories: Defense Policy
Saudi Change is Slow
While Saudi Arabia is not always the easiest place to understand, Western misunderstandings of last weekend’s cabinet reshuffle are especially notable.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #40 - Endorse the 1992 Consensus, Ms. Tsai
Following Ma Ying-jeou’s election as president of the Republic of China (Taiwan) in 2008, Taiwan endorsed the “1992 Consensus.” Under this arrangement, both Taiwan and the Chinese mainland accept the principle of “one China,” but each side holds its own interpretation of what that means.
Categories: Defense Policy
Russia’s Nuclear Doctrine
What are Russia’s plans for its nuclear weapons? As tensions between Russia and the West have grown over the last two years, Kremlin officials have appeared to emphasize Russia’s nuclear capacity and perhaps even threaten its use. This has led some Western analysts to argue that Russia now has a low threshold for nuclear war: a terrifying proposition.
Categories: Defense Policy
PacNet #39 - The Asian Development Bank and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank: conditional collaboration?
Creation of the Chinese-sponsored Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) has won considerable attention in many capitals, particularly in Washington and Tokyo. Some view the establishment of the AIIB as a challenge to the supremacy of the post-World War II Bretton Woods order. Others see it as a symbol of shifting regional power in Asia.
Categories: Defense Policy
2016 JoongAng Ilbo-CSIS Forum Welcoming Remarks: Ambassador Hong Seok-Hyun
The CSIS Korea Chair will be featuring a series of Korea Platforms with remarks from the distinguished speakers at the annual JoongAng Ilbo-CSIS Forum took place in Washington D.C. on May 3. The third in the series is the welcoming remarks by Ambassador Hong Seok-Hyun, Chairman and CEO of the JoongAng Media Network.
Ambassador Hong Seok-Hyun
Categories: Defense Policy
May 2016 JoongAng Ilbo-CSIS Forum Luncheon Address: The Honorable Wendy R. Sherman
The CSIS Korea Chair will be featuring a series of Korea Platforms with remarks from the distinguished speakers at the annual JoongAng Ilbo-CSIS Forum took place in Washington D.C. on May 3. The second in the series is the featured luncheon address by the Honorable Wendy R. Sherman, Senior Counselor, Albright Stonebridge Group, and Former Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs, U.S.
Categories: Defense Policy
India in a Reconnecting Eurasia
India in a Reconnecting Eurasia examines the full scope of Indian national interests in the South Caucasus and Central Asia and analyzes the broad outlines of Indian engagement over the coming years. It is part of a six-part CSIS series, “Eurasia from the Outside In,” which includes studies focusing on Turkey, the European Union, Iran, India, Russia, and China.
Categories: Defense Policy
