The Evening CSIS: Looking North, Obama Doctrine, Isle of Wight & More
March 10, 2016
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. If you want to view this in your browser, click here. To subscribe, please send me an email at aschwartz@csis.org.
Looking North
President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today announced plans from the White House Rose Garden for streamlining trade across the border and launching a new joint effort on climate change, as the Wall Street Journal’s Carol Lee and Paul Vieira report.
Dive Deeper: On the US-Canadian climate change effort, CSIS’s Energy and National Security Program today published a new " Energy Fact & Opinion," CSIS’s easy to digest series of short notes to cover energy market, policy and geopolitical developments in a timely manner.
Also, CSIS’s Energy and National Security Program today published an additional Energy Fact & Opinion, “ The United States Contributes to the Green Climate Fund .”
The Atlantic Interviews
By now you have probably heard of Jeffrey Goldberg’s article for the April issue of the Atlantic magazine, “ The Obama Doctrine.”
The New York Times’s Mark Landler reported this morning that the Goldberg interviews with President Obama underscore that Obama has “rarely been so blunt” about his frustration with the Arab world and that “a number of American allies in the Persian Gulf—as well as in Europe—were ‘free riders’.”
Foreign Policy magazine’s John Hudson reports that in Goldberg’s series of interviews with Obama, the President “expressed weariness with future US involvement in the Middle East, disdain for Washington’s foreign-policy establishment, and hope that the United States can turn more of its attention to faster-growing parts of the world such as Asia and Latin America.”
Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Anthony Cordesman today published a new analysis of the Goldberg article, Is there an Obama Doctrine? Analyzing Jeffrey Goldberg’s “The Obama Doctrine” by key strategic areas .
The ISIS Files
NBC News reports that thousands of documents said to be leaked from inside ISIS by a disillusioned ISIS fighter, paint a detailed picture of the terror group's personnel, including a 20-year-old from Minneapolis.
Dive Deeper: CSIS recently launched the Commission on Countering Violent Extremism (CVE) . The Commission, co-chaired by former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair and US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta, will work to shape a national framework for CVE policies and approaches, concentrating on how to better counter extremist ideologies and reduce their appeal around the world.
Prime Minister Blair was interviewed in late February by Vice News’s editor in chief, Jason Mojica, about the Commission for the Vice News Interview.
In that Number
$31 million
The State Department announced today that it is providing $31 million in additional humanitarian assistance to alleviate the Burundi crisis.
Source: US State Department
Critical Quote
“Improving the human condition for North Korea’s 24 million people is a moral imperative, but it’s also pragmatic.”
—Victor Cha, CSIS Korea Chair, on progressing US policy in North Korea.
Source: Foreign Policy.
One to Watch
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(Photo Credit: Twitter.)
Nate Raymond (@nateraymond) is a Reuters correspondent covering the US District Court in Manhattan and the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals. For legal news with foreign policy implications, Nate is one to watch.
Optics
Reuters has a photo roundup of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s state visit to Washington.
Highly Recommended
Robin Wright’s short essay for the New Yorker, “ The Bride Wore Green: What a Wedding Says about Iran’s Future .”
CSIS Today
Today, the CSIS Energy and National Security Program hosted a discussion with Ellen Williams, director of the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E). Dr. Williams discussed how ARPA-E plays a critical role in incubating new energy technologies.
This Town Tomorrow
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Arctic Council, with the United States handing over its two-year, rotating chairmanship to Finland in the spring of 2017. Join the Carnegie Endowment tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. for a discussion on what this transition will mean for Arctic issues in the years ahead, and what priorities will shape the conversation around sustainable development.
CSIS on Demand
Last week, the CSIS Energy and National Security Program hosted a discussion on Canada’s energy future in 2016. Click here to catch the event on demand.
Sounds
On the latest Smart Women, Smart Power podcast, CSIS visiting fellow Ritu Sharma and Grace Patterson from the interfaith group, World Faith, discuss youth extremism, religious violence, and efforts to prevent both.
I Like It Like That
Eye-catching things in CSIS's orbit
Google’s “ psychedelic paint brush.”
Smiles
Last night’s time capsule from The Who was a memorable 1982 performance that in many ways shaped the style and attitude of popular culture during my teenage years.
Now, in existence for the past 50 years, The Who is one of the few bands that multiple generations of rock and roll fans can trace the passing of time with.
My friend Emmy wrote me last night that in 1970 she attended the Isle of Wight festival with her then future husband. The festival famously featured explosive performances by The Who, Jimi Hendrix, and many other greats.
Emmy told me, the music was “non-stop, day and night. My future husband and I were so broke, we only ate jam sandwiches!”
What a smile.
Emmy also told me that during the daytime the biggest problem was that helicopters filming the festival drowned out the music with their noise.
I doubt any noise could ever drown out The Who, but fortunately, they played the night set in any case. Here’s a bit of what Emmy saw almost five decades ago.
Feedback
I always welcome and benefit from your feedback. Please drop me a line at aschwartz@csis.org.
NBC News reports that thousands of documents said to be leaked from inside ISIS by a disillusioned ISIS fighter, paint a detailed picture of the terror group's personnel, including a 20-year-old from Minneapolis.
