The Evening CSIS: Brexit, Turkey, Blinded by the Light & More

Good Evening,

Welcome to The Evening CSIS—my daily guide to key insights CSIS brings to the events of the day plus HIGHLY RECOMMENDED content from around the world. To subscribe, please sign up here.

Brexit Strategy

Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain outlined, in the clearest terms yet, her government’s plans for exiting the EU—including an aim to leave the EU single market—in a speech she gave today in London. The New York Times’ Stephen Castle reported on the speech here.

Dive deeper: CNN’s James Masters covered the angles of today’s speech including what it might mean for Scottish independence.

Suspect Arrested

Turkish officials confirmed today the arrest of Abdulkadir Masharipov, an Uzbek national suspected of carrying out the fatal shooting of 39 people in an Istanbul nightclub on New Year’s Eve. The Washington Post’s Erin Cunningham and Kareem Fahim have the story.

Dive deeper: In June, the Atlantic’s Kathy Gilsinan outlined why it is that terror continues to stalk Turkey.

What’s Up First for Trump

Today at CSIS, three of our top experts joined Bob Schieffer to discuss the critical foreign policy challenges facing the next administration. In case you missed it, it’s available here on demand and a transcript is available here.

In That Number

12 million

The number of declassified pages of CIA documents, covering five decades, that are now available and searchable on the CIA website. Source: BuzzFeed News.

Critical Quote

“This is a best and brightest moment. We are looking at a series of profound regional challenges that impact U.S. national security. Let’s get the best and the brightest in there. We have got to figure this out and the world’s not going to wait for us. So I hope that’s a clarion call in building that bipartisan expert center again.”

—CSIS’s Heather Conley discussed the presidential transition during today’s Schieffer Series. A full transcript is available for download here.

One to Watch

Rebecca Hersman (@rebeccahersman) is director of CSIS’s Project on Nuclear Issues (PONI). Rebecca previously served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for countering weapons of mass destruction. She recently authored a primer on “The Deterrence and Assurance Conversation.”

Optics

(Photo credit: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images.)
President Xi Jinping of China sits after delivering a speech during the first day of the World Economic Forum on January 17, 2017, in Davos. It is the first time a Chinese leader has attended the summit.

Highly Recommended

Katherine A. Brown, Shannon N. Green, and Jian “Jay” Wang today authored a new CSIS report, Public Diplomacy and National Security in 2017: Building Alliances, Fighting Extremism, and Dispelling Disinformation.

CSIS Today

CSIS’s Freeman Chair in China Studies hosted an expert panel on “The Cross-Strait Security Situation.”

CSIS hosted a Schieffer Series dialogue on the Critical Foreign Policy Challenges Facing the Trump Administration, featuring CSIS trustee Bob Schieffer.

CSIS’s Energy and National Security Program hosted “IEA’s Medium-Term Coal Market Report 2016.”

CSIS’s International Security Program hosted “Getting Acquisition Right: Remarks and Book Signing with Under Secretary of Defense Frank Kendall.”

And CSIS’s Human Rights Initiative hosted “Public Diplomacy and National Security: Lessons Learned for the Next Administration.”

CSIS Tomorrow

Join CSIS’s Global Food Security Project at 9:00 a.m. for “A Look Back: Food Security and the Obama Administration,” featuring Nancy Stetson, special representative for global food security at the State Department.

Join CSIS’s Energy and National Security Program at 10:00 a.m. for “Power Africa’s Understanding Natural Gas & LNG Options.”

Join CSIS’s Russia and Eurasia Program at 2:30 p.m. for the launch of a special edition of the Strategic Affairs journal entitled “Russia in Global Affairs.”

This Town Tomorrow

Join AEI at 9:00 a.m. for “The future of American airpower: A conversation with Chief of Staff of the Air Force General David Goldfein.”

Join the Wilson Center at 10:00 a.m. for “China and Russia in Latin America in 2017 and Beyond” for a discussion of each country’s goals in the region.

CSIS On Demand

Former UK defence secretary Liam Fox joined CSIS in March to discuss the transatlantic implications of the UK referendum.

Sounds

Donald Trump will soon become the third US president to take command while US forces are in Afghanistan. In the latest CSIS Podcast, Anthony Cordesman discusses Afghanistan's progress and what’s at stake within the country.

I Like It Like That

If you want to see how one of the world’s top news organizations plans to tackle the changing demands of journalism, check out the New York Times’ 2020 report, released today.

Smiles

Rarely does a cover tune performance eclipse the original. But then there's the case of Manfred Mann's cover of the Springsteen classic "Blinded by the Light."

Feedback

I always welcome and benefit from your feedback. Please drop me a line at aschwartz@csis.org