News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs
1. High-level Chinese Defection Rumored
2. Has a top Chinese official defected to the US?
3. Can Biden Reverse Trump’s Damage to the State Department?
4. Elite Afghan Forces Suffer Horrific Casualties as Taliban Advance
5. Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces Teaming for Great Power Competition
6. Pentagon Works to Sharpen Definition of ‘Extremism’
7. G-7 leaders back Taiwan for first time
8. Juneteenth and General Order Number Three
9. American Decline: Losing the Campaign for Influence
10. FDD | New ICC Prosecutor Provides Opportunity for Closing Investigations of U.S. and Israel
11. How Xi’s China came to resemble Tsarist Russia
12. Putin Suddenly Looks Very Small
13. SOCOM’s controversial head of diversity and inclusion is back in his job
14. CYBERCOM Seeks 'Hunt Forward' Funding Boost
15. FDD | FAQ: Issues Ahead on Iran’s Nuclear Program
16. FDD | Ali Larijani, Iran’s Rejected Hardliner
17. Biden Is Wrong: Europeans Should Focus on Europe, Not Asia
18. 'Hopelessly divided' Supreme Court defies narrative with another unanimous opinion
19. Iran's Leading Presidential Candidate Has Committed Crimes Against Humanity
20. Mapped: The countries where China's influence has surpassed the U.S.
1. High-level Chinese Defection Rumored
spytalk.co · by Matthew Brazil and Jeff Stein
RUMINT.
2. Has a top Chinese official defected to the US?
Daily Mail · by Harriet Alexander and Ross Ibbetson · June 18, 2021
More on this alleged defection.
3. Can Biden Reverse Trump’s Damage to the State Department?
The New Yorker · by Ronan Farrow · June 17, 2021
A troubling assessment of our State Department. If we want to be successful in great power competition and across the national security spectrum we need a strong State department that is dominant in foreign affairs and developing US foreign policy and national security strategy.
4. Elite Afghan Forces Suffer Horrific Casualties as Taliban Advance
The New York Times · by Najim Rahim · June 17, 2021
The best trained force in Afghanistan with fearless fighters who were created in the image of US SOF.
5. Marine Corps and Special Operations Forces Teaming for Great Power Competition
Small Wars Journal · by Michael F. Masters Jr.
Conclusion: “To optimize the USMC’s FD2030 concept for GPC, a strategy for USMC-SOF teaming is required. Specifically, USMC-SOF Integration, Interdependence, Interoperability, and Deconfliction, must be addressed to ensure future operational success; particularly in the INDOPACOM AOR. The future operating environment and the USMC's EABO concept will likely demand a closer USMC-SOF I3D during execution. The value in realizing similar mission sets and potential capability gaps and requirements before hostilities enables mutually beneficial training opportunities, identification of reliable partners, and potential for future cost savings in the procurement of the service's next generation of equipment that is required to communicate in a highly joint and multi-domain operating environment.
6. Pentagon Works to Sharpen Definition of ‘Extremism’
defenseone.com · by Jacqueline Feldscher
Again, we have to get this right. We have to root out extremism but we have to be careful not to play into the extremist narrative.
Good order and discipline is destroyed by extremism. But poor or incorrectly applied methods to root out extremism will also destroy good order and discipline.
7. G-7 leaders back Taiwan for first time
washingtontimes.com · by Bill Gertz
Excerpts: “It was the first time the Group of Seven voiced support for Taiwan, the island-state 100 miles off the southern Chinese coast that Beijing regards as a breakaway province.
A day later, at a NATO summit in Belgium, the alliance’s communique also issued a rebuke, stating China poses “systemic challenges” to international order.
“We are concerned by those coercive policies which stand in contrast to the fundamental values enshrined in the Washington Treaty,” said the NATO communique, referring to the alliance’s founding document.
“China is rapidly expanding its nuclear arsenal with more warheads and a larger number of sophisticated delivery systems to establish a nuclear triad,” the communique said. “It is opaque in implementing its military modernization and its publicly declared military-civil fusion strategy.”
8. Juneteenth and General Order Number Three
warontherocks.com · by WOTR Staff · June 18, 2021
Important history to re-read on this historic day.
There is no better kind of holiday than one that celebrates freedom.
I wonder if Maj Gen Granger's Civil Affairs officers had a role in drafting his order? :-)
9. American Decline: Losing the Campaign for Influence
mwi.usma.edu · by Andrew Milburn · June 18, 2021
42 minutes well spent listening to this podcast at this link.
Bottom line: The two discuss how controlling the information environment has supplanted armed conflict as the means by which nations and other actors achieve their objectives. They explain why the ability to project influence is an all-important component of strategic power and how the United States has fallen far behind its adversaries in this competition.
10. FDD | New ICC Prosecutor Provides Opportunity for Closing Investigations of U.S. and Israel
fdd.org · by Orde Kittrie · June 17, 2021
Conclusion: Karim Khan’s inauguration as the new ICC prosecutor enables a reset of the U.S.-ICC relationship. The Biden administration should work with U.S. allies to encourage Khan to refocus the ICC on its core mission, including by closing his predecessor’s cases against the United States and Israel and by remedying the ICC’s serious management problems.
11. How Xi’s China came to resemble Tsarist Russia
Financial Times · by Jamil Anderlini · June 16, 2021
I will be curious to read the comments of China hands on this.
Excerpts: “Xi Jinping is the first Chinese leader since the death of Mao in 1976 who was not handpicked by Deng and he has consciously set out to define a fourth era in party rule. This involves a dramatic expansion of China’s military, a far more assertive stance globally and total suppression of dissent. Economically, he has laid out a state-dominated vision of self-reliance that one former World Bank official describes as a “wartime” economic plan.
The most accurate political comparison is probably with Russia in the 19th century, under Tsar Nicholas I or Alexander III. “Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era” was inserted into the constitution in 2017 and has been endlessly lionised ever since. Although party officials struggle to clearly define this new ideology, it describes a deeply conservative policy that closely resembles the “orthodoxy, autocracy and nationality” — also known as “faith, tsar and fatherland” — dogma of Nicholas I.
Instead of the Russian Orthodox Church, Xi emphasises a pseudo-religious mix of Sinicized Marxism, Confucianism and Maoism. The other two pillars of CCP rule today — autocracy and ethno-nationalism — are virtually identical to those of Nicholas I, although the mass incarceration and re-education of Muslim Uyghurs and other minorities is more ambitious than anything the tsars ever attempted in peacetime.
12. Putin Suddenly Looks Very Small
defenseone.com · by Kevin Baron
I know this is not the author's intent but I thought he looked and acted like a thug as well as a disinformation generating machine.
13. SOCOM’s controversial head of diversity and inclusion is back in his job
militarytimes.com · by Meghann Myers · June 17, 2021
14. CYBERCOM Seeks 'Hunt Forward' Funding Boost
breakingdefense.com · by Brad D. Williams · June 16, 2021
I like "hunt forward" better than "defend forward."
15. FDD | FAQ: Issues Ahead on Iran’s Nuclear Program
fdd.org · by Mark Dubowitz · June 17, 2021
16. FDD | Ali Larijani, Iran’s Rejected Hardliner
fdd.org · by Tzvi Kahn · June 17, 2021
Excerpts: “Yet Larijani’s history of loyalty to the revolution proved insufficient for the Guardian Council to approve his bid for the presidency in 2021. While the reason for the council’s decision remains unclear, it may be that Larijani’s record of enforcing submission to the regime lags behind that of another candidate, Ebrahim Raisi, the first choice and confidant of Khamenei. As a prosecutor, as attorney general, and later as head of Iran’s judiciary, Raisi oversaw the imprisonment, torture, and execution of countless prisoners of conscience, including the 1988 massacre of thousands of political dissidents.
Khamenei likely wishes to see an overwhelming victory for Raisi, who now faces three other opponents, none with Raisi’s prominence. At the same time, as the regime faces increasing challenges to its legitimacy by a disaffected public angered by a cratering economy and Tehran’s repression, turnout will likely be low, thereby weakening the victor’s ability to claim a mandate. One recent poll projected a turnout of only 41 percent.
Still, Larijani opted to serve a regime whose institutions all must bend to the will of the supreme leader. He should not be surprised when Khamenei spurns the people who served him most sedulously.
17. Biden Is Wrong: Europeans Should Focus on Europe, Not Asia
spectator.org · by Doug Bandow · June 18, 2021
Excerpts: “In Brussels, NATO’s members declared, “We face multifaceted threats, systemic competition from assertive and authoritarian powers, as well as growing security challenges to our countries and our citizens from all strategic directions. Russia’s aggressive actions constitute a threat to Euro-Atlantic security; terrorism in all its forms and manifestations remains a persistent threat to us all. State and non-state actors challenge the rules-based international order and seek to undermine democracy across the globe. Instability beyond our borders is also contributing to irregular migration and human trafficking.” The Europeans have plenty to do without faking readiness to confront China.
Ultimately, cooperation among Western and other democratic states will be important in dealing with the increasing challenge posed by Beijing. But the president and others in Washington shouldn’t fool themselves into expecting military assistance from Europe. They certainly shouldn’t allow this alluring chimera to divert them from the more pressing issue of shifting the primary burden of managing Russia from America to Europe.
18. 'Hopelessly divided' Supreme Court defies narrative with another unanimous opinion
USA Today · by Jonathan Turley
Perhaps the Supreme Court is doing what it is supposed to and judging the law and not playing politics. I noted in the majority opinion and Justice Alito's dissent in the ACA case it seemed to me that they were judging the law and not the politics and the same seems to be for the religious freedom case. This is what the Supreme Court is supposed to do, put the Constitution and the law above politics.
19. Iran's Leading Presidential Candidate Has Committed Crimes Against Humanity
realclearworld.com · by Tzvi Kahn
Excerpts: “In 2019, the Trump administration sanctioned Raisi, citing his conduct in the 1988 massacre and the 2009 protests. Now, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has indicated that the Biden administration may lift some non-nuclear sanctions on Iran in order to persuade Tehran to reenter the 2015 nuclear deal. The regime, for its part, has pressed America’s negotiators to lift all nuclear and non-nuclear sanctions, which would include a removal of Raisi from the blacklist.
The Biden administration should resist such pressure. Regardless of the fate of the nuclear accord, perpetrators of crimes against humanity should not receive pardons.
20. Mapped: The countries where China's influence has surpassed the U.S.
Axios · by Dave Lawler
Graphic at the link.
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“You must never, ever give out. We must keep the faith because we are one people. We are brothers and sisters. We all live in the same house: The American house.”
- John Lewis
“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”
- Martin Luther King
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- Al Edwards