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Newsletter
ISP Brief December 2018
December 21, 2018

This monthly newsletter from the International Security Program features articles and commentary written by our scholars, appearances in various media sources, and links to recent events.


Critical Questions
The Mattis Resignation: What Does It Mean for the Future of National Security?
December 21, 2018 | Mark F. Cancian, Todd Harrison, Andrew Philip Hunter

Many commentators regard Defense Secretary Mattis’s departure with concern because he was seen as an experienced and moderating voice in an administration that tended to the erratic. So, there is a high level of uncertainty and anxiety about what happens next.

Report
A CSO Playbook to Reclaim Civic Space: Version 1.0
December 21, 2018 | Amy K. Lehr

This brief consolidates key lessons and recommendations from several years of research conducted by the CSIS International Consortium on Closing Civic Space (iCon) regarding how civil society can respond to narrowing civic space.

Commentary
Why Putin Targets Minorities
December 21, 2018 | Suzanne Spaulding, Devi Nair, Arthur Nelson

The two recently released Senate-commissioned reports, prepared by New Knowledge and the Computational Propaganda Research Project, describe in detail how Russia targeted specific groups with disinformation campaigns.

Commentary
Building the Great Wall of Texas
December 21, 2018 | James Andrew Lewis We can’t expect to hermetically seal a border that is almost 2,000 miles long. And as long as Americans are willing to spend billions of dollars on illegal drugs, there will be incentives for people to cross illegally.

Commentary
Bad Idea: Conflating the Space Force with NASA
December 21, 2018 | Kaitlyn Johnson As the administration moves forward with establishing a new military service focused on space, leaders should keep their language clear and use this opportunity to educate the public about both civil and national security space.

Commentary
Bad Idea: Demanding Allies Spend Two Percent of GDP on Defense
December 21, 2018 | Todd Harrison, Seamus P. Daniels It’s time we ditch the 2 percent (or any percent) of GDP metric for allied defense spending and focus on what really matters—capability, capacity, readiness, and interoperability.

Commentary
Bad Idea: Scrapping the Federal Acquisition Regulation
December 21, 2018 | Andrew Philip Hunter The Federal Acquisition Regulation can and should be improved. But tossing it out and starting over will slow, not accelerate, acquisition in the near term. Worse, it will ultimately undermine the usefulness of the alternative pathways that we are currently developing.

Commentary
Bad Idea: Competing with China (without Knowing What Winning Looks Like)
December 21, 2018 | John Schaus Competing is not the problem. What is a problem is competing without a concept of what success in that competition would look like. If the United States is going to engage seriously in a competition with China, that effort will be long-term.

Commentary
Bad Idea: Sectored Air and Missile Defense Radars
December 21, 2018 | Thomas Karako In a world where unmanned aerial vehicles are plentiful, effective defenses require an air and missile defense sensor architecture that looks in all directions as well to address the realities of this environment.

Commentary
Into the Great Wide Open: How Millennials Look at Trade
December 21, 2018 | William Alan Reinsch

There is another aspect to demographic reality that deserves some comment, and that is how a changing population inside a country changes its politics and policy, as CSIS Scholl Chair William Reinsch writes in his commentary.

Newsletter
The Evening: Mattis Resigns, Troop Withdrawals, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and More
December 20, 2018 | H. Andrew Schwartz

This edition of CSIS's nightly newsletter covers Mattis Resigns, Troop Withdrawals, Santa Claus is Coming to Town and More.

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