The Evening CSIS: Terror Evolves, Final Stretch, CSIS Task Force, & 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 click here and if you want to view this in your browser, click here.

Terror Evolves
In his Oval Office address to the nation last night, President Obama stated that terrorism has evolved into a new phase and laid out the administration’s approach to this threat.

The Wall Street Journal’s Byron Tau outlined the “ 5 Major Themes in Obama’s Oval Office Speech ,” and you can read the full transcript of that speech on the White House’s Medium channel.

Dive Deeper: Read CSIS’s Tom Sanderson’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Terrorism last week on “ ISIS’s strategic shift.”

Learn about the changing trends in terrorism from the START center’s background report.

Final Stretch
Climate talks entered their final week in Paris, with roadblocks still in the way of an over-arching deal, as France 24’s Joseph Bamat reports.

To get caught up on the talks so far, the New York Times has a round-up of what was achieved today and what remains.

Dive Deeper: As the role of Asia in battling climate change takes center stage, Brookings’ Qi Ye and Tong Wu discuss China’s evolving role.

And CSIS’s Murray Hiebert looks at how Southeast Asia will be affected by any agreement.

CSIS Task Force
Last week, we launched the CSIS Task Force on Women’s and Family Health, with a distinguished and diverse group of leaders who will chart a bold vision for the future of US leadership to support women and families around the world. Task Force member and U.S. senator Susan Collins shared her thoughts today on why the task force is so important.

In that Number
$190 million
The amount of new assistance the White House wants to provide Ukraine as support for its reform agenda.
Source: White House.

Critical Quote
“There’s value for ISIS to claim it either way.”
—Tom Sanderson, director of the CSIS Transnational Threats Project, on the San Bernardino shootings last week.
Source: Voice of America.

One to Watch

(Photo Credit: Twitter)

Oriana Pawlyk (@Oriana0214) is the editor of the Military TimesEarly Bird Brief newsletter. Oriana previously served as the deputy news editor at the Air Force Times. For your morning dose of defense news, Oriana is one to watch.

Optics

(Photo Credit: Visual Information Specialist Jason Johnston / U.S. Army.)
This photo made it into the Atlantic’s top 25 news photos of 2015, a year in which international affairs loomed large.

Highly Recommended
“Here’s How Much ISIS Is Earning Every Day” —about $2 million per day, as the Fiscal Times’s Millie Dent reports.

CSIS Today
Today, CSIS hosted Tinatin Khidasheli, defense minister of Georgia, for a discussion on Georgia’s security future and its relationship with NATO. And afterward, CSIS hosted an event to discuss the dependence of defense-focused firms on capital markets for resources, and what this means for the allocation of resources to defense investments.

This Town Tomorrow
Tomorrow at 12:30 p.m., join the Atlantic Council for a discussion on US-GCC security cooperation since the summit. Featuring CSIS trustee General Jim Jones, panelists will discuss counterterrorism financing, cybersecurity, counter proliferation, and a range of other issues. Register here.

CSIS on Demand
The Russian annexation of Crimea has led to over two years of debate in Washington about the best strategy toward Moscow; as Russia and Ukraine become more important in the fight against ISIS, how should Washington engage the region? Last week panelists discussed more cooperative approaches and views of what’s possible to engage Russia.

Sounds
Just over a year after the Sony Pictures hack by North Korea, CSIS’s Korea Chair Victor Cha discusses the country’s cyber capabilities, and how the rest of the world can respond.

I Like It Like That
Eye-catching things in CSIS's orbit
Pew’s new report on the Washington press corps is interesting.

Smiles
I’m not a Beatles scholar. Which is why my friend Tom Herlehy had to alert me to the fact that the band’s landmark record “Rubber Soul” celebrated the 50 th anniversary of its release last week. Thanks Tom! Once alerted, I started to notice references to “Rubber Soul” everywhere—including via important commentary from the big kahunas out in the LA record biz, who continue to be astonished at Paul McCartney’s vitality.

“Rubber Soul,” the Beatles 6th studio album is important because it marked a stylistic turn for the Beatles toward greater experimentation with instruments such as the Indian sitar (“Norwegian Wood.”)

The very title of the record was a bit of a dig at the Rolling Stones’ Mick Jagger whose vocals African American musicians had coined a term for in “plastic soul.” But it was all in good fun, luv…

What absolutely slays me about “Rubber Soul” is a song that wasn’t even on the original US release—“Drive My Car.” It was on the UK release and became a huge song for the band anyway (it’s now part of the album as a digital download.)

“Drive My Car” is all Paul musically. John reworked the essential lyrics, but the song features McCartney in one of his funkiest vocal performances.

That’s why it’s still a staple of Sir Paul’s contemporary live shows. Take his summer 2009 tour, captured in the superb live record (and video) “Good Evening New York City” recorded live at New York’s Citi Field.

Paul has assembled a live band with whom he’s played longer live than he did with the Beatles. Imagine…Paul’s band is something to behold, especially drummer Abe Laboriel, Jr. who is almost as fun to watch as McCartney.

I can’t stop listening to and watching this clip of the Citi Field show featuring a high energy performance of “Drive My Car.” At the end of the song, Paul and band launch immediately into “Jet,” a staple of Paul McCartney and Wings’ best record, 1973s “Band on the Run.” It’s overpowering to watch McCartney rock out like this, and such a smile.

Feedback

I always welcome and benefit from your feedback. Please drop me a line at

aschwartz@csis.org

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