The Evening: Heading Home, Nuclear Authority, Communiqué and More

Good Evening,

It's Tuesday, November 14th.

Trump Heads Home

President Donald Trump said goodbye to Asia on Tuesday after visiting five countries, attending three international summits, and meeting with more than a half-dozen foreign leaders, as NPR reports.

Trump’s messages while in Asia left allies unsure of America’s staying power and fed a growing sense that China, not the United States, drives the agenda in the region, according to NYT.

Dive Deeper : See the Brookings commentary, “Trump’s trade deals with China offer little new.”

Nuclear Authority

Congressional lawmakers raised concerns about President Trump’s ability to use nuclear weapons during a hearing Capitol Hill Tuesday amid bipartisan anxiety over launch process procedures and indications that the administration has considered the option of a first strike on North Korea, as CNN reports.

The last time Congress debated a U.S. president’s authority to launch a nuclear attack was over 40 year ago, in March 1976, as BBC reports.

Dive Deeper : See the video and testimony of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Hearing on Authority to Order the Use of Nuclear Weapons.

Zimbabwe’s Power Struggle

Soldiers in armored personnel carriers moved into the outskirts of Zimbabwe’s capital on Tuesday, and the ruling party accused the head of the military of treason, as the battle to succeed the world’s oldest head of state entered a dangerous new phase, as WSJ reports. After purging a former vice president from power, President Robert Mugabe was poised to tap his own wife as one of his two vice presidents at an extraordinary party congress next month.

In That Number

$60 billion

Venezuela has suffered what is expected to be the first in a cascade of defaults on more than $60 billion of international bonds after missing several interest payments. Source: FT .

Critical Quote

“China is willing to sign deals all day long, as long as it stays away from industrial policy and the market access issues that they’re seeking to avoid.”

— CSIS’s Chris Johnson via NPR.

iDeas Lab

“Asia’s Creeping Catastrophe,” from Reconnecting Asia, examines the impact of rising sea levels on Asia’s developing infrastructure projects.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and video.

Optics

(Photo credit: ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images.) An Iranian boy rides a bicycle through the rubble past damaged buildings in the town of Sarpol-e Zahab in Iran’s western Kermanshah province near the border with Iraq today, following a 7.3-magnitude earthquake that left hundreds killed and thousands homeless two days before.

Recommended Reading

“House declares U.S. military role in Yemen's civil war unauthorized,” by Politico’s Gregory Hellman.

This Town Tomorrow

Join the CSIS International Security Program at 10:00 a.m. for “Building the 350-Ship Navy: Prospects and Challenges,” a Maritime Security Dialogue with three former secretaries of the navy.

At 10:00 a.m., join CSIS for the report launch of Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing as a National Security Threat .

And, join CSIS’s Human Rights Initiative at 2:30 p.m. for a report launch and expert panel discussion on building young people’s resilience to violent extremism in the Middle East and North Africa.

Video

CSIS hosted an event with the chief executive of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, Dr. Abdullah Abdullah, to discuss U.S. strategy in the country, as well as regional dynamics that effect security and stability.

Sounds

Dr. Amy Searight, director of the CSIS Southeast Asia Program, joined the Smart Women, Smart Power podcast to discuss President Trump’s Asia trip, the state of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar.

Listen on SoundCloud or Apple Podcasts

Smiles

Thanks to all for the great notes about Dire Straits. My favorite was one in which the writer said “the singularity and clarity of each sound lingers even now” about Dire Straits’ music. So true, and so well put.

I’ve been listening to Dire Straits’ second album, “Communiqué,” which the band recorded in Nassau in 1978. The great Jerry Wexler, Aretha Franklin’s famous producer who coined the very term “rhythm and blues,” produced the album along with Muscle Shoals session man Barry Beckett.

Several tracks on “Communiqué” have that patented Wexler-Muscle Shoals groove. Take “Once Upon a Time in the West.” It’s distinctly Dire Straits, with that singularity and clarity of each note, but it also has a swampy, lose funky beat with jazzy guitar and keyboard licks. I love this live version of the song.

I invite you to email me at aschwartz@csis.org and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz