Archive | Blog Posts

08 May 2021

China Is Building Entire Villages in Another Country’s Territory

It’s not often that a single article opens up a major window into a vital, under-studied area. This must-read piece does all that, and more… Be sure to read the fascinating details and view the informative maps and revealing photos—many of which show immediately why there were no substantial “settlements” in the contested but climatically […]

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12 March 2021

U.S. Territories: The Frontlines of Global Competition with China

Must-read analysis by two former officials with top-level experience and expertise!
Alexander B. Gray and Douglas W. Domenech, “U.S. Territories: The Frontlines of Global Competition with China,” RealClearDefense, 11 March 2021.
Alexander B. Gray, a Senior Fellow in National Security Affairs at the American Foreign Policy Council, served on the staff of the National Security Council from 2018 to […]

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24 February 2021

Xinjiang Production & Construction Corps: Key Policy Tool from Mao to Now, Under Xi

People of conscience worldwide recoil in horror at the tragic repression continuing across Xinjiang. Policy-makers of conviction, in the Biden Administration and around the world, are weighing options to respond. To help inform these vital efforts, it is important to revisit just how much Chinese Communist Party’s efforts in Xinjiang have been militarized, securitized, and […]

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10 January 2021

Inspiration in This Time

Never doubt the ability of a heroic individual to make a difference when answering the call of duty.

Officer Eugene Goodman, U.S. Capitol, 6 January 2021

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07 January 2021

Washington, DC Metropolitan Police Department—Persons of Interest in Unrest-Related Offenses on January 6, 2021, U.S. Capitol Grounds

May 2020-January 2021 Unrest-Related Arrests and Persons of Interest
There are peaceful demonstrations in the District of Columbia on a daily basis. The same rules apply for all demonstrations in DC and we welcome anyone to our city who wants to come to exercise their First Amendment rights peacefully. The Metropolitan Police Department will work with […]

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07 January 2021

FBI Seeking Information Related to Violent Activity at the U.S Capitol Building

FBI Seeking Information Related to Violent Activity
at the U.S Capitol Building
https://tips.fbi.gov/digitalmedia/aad18481a3e8f02
The FBI is seeking information that will assist in identifying individuals who are actively instigating violence in Washington, DC. The FBI is accepting tips and digital media depicting rioting and violence in the U.S. Capitol Building and surrounding area in Washington, DC, on January 6, […]

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19 December 2020

Regional Responses to U.S.-China Competition in the Indo-Pacific: Australia and New Zealand

Michael S. Chase and Jennifer D. P. Moroney, Regional Responses to U.S.-China Competition in the Indo-Pacific: Australia and New Zealand RR-4412/1-AF (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2020). 
This report on Australia and New Zealand is part of a project examining the perspectives of U.S. allies and partners in the Indo-Pacific as they formulate and implement their responses to […]

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17 December 2020

The Challenges in Resetting U.S.–Southeast Asia Relations

Ja Ian Chong, “The Challenges in Resetting U.S.–Southeast Asia Relations,” East Asia Forum, 10 December 2020.
Ja Ian Chong is Associate Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore.
The incoming Biden administration needs to be ready for a Southeast Asia that is more skeptical of US commitment and careful about Beijing’s reactions. Southeast Asian […]

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20 September 2020

The Joseph Gavin Aerospace Engineering Bookshelf: Centennial Edition

On the centenary of his birth (18 September 1920), I would like to offer a compilation of background research and personal perspectives on one of the space age’s pioneers, Joseph Gleason Gavin, Jr. His life and career interconnected with a bold new era that saw humans transcend their earthly bounds and set foot on another […]

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17 September 2020

Toxic Politics: China’s Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State

Yanzhong Huang, Toxic Politics: China’s Environmental Health Crisis and its Challenge to the Chinese State (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2020).
Summary: China’s deepening health crisis reveals the fragility of the party-state and undercuts China’s ability to project influence internationally.
Watch for further information and related events at the Council on Foreign Relations!

Book description
Environmental degradation in China has […]

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13 September 2020

China’s Grand Strategy: Trends, Trajectories, and Long-Term Competition

Andrew Scobell, Edmund J. Burke, Cortez A. Cooper III, Sale Lilly, Chad J. R. Ohlandt, Eric Warner, and J.D. Williams, China’s Grand Strategy: Trends, Trajectories, and Long-Term Competition (Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2020).
Click here to read a press release.

To explore what extended competition between the United States and China might entail out to 2050, the authors identified and characterized China’s grand strategy, […]

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26 August 2020

“Warning to the United States!” China Fires DF-26B & DF-21D Anti-Ship Ballistic Missile (ASBM) “Aircraft-Carrier Killer” into South China Sea

Kristin Huang, “Chinese Military Fires ‘Aircraft-Carrier Killer’ Missile into South China Sea in ‘Warning to the United States’,” South China Morning Post, 26 August 2020.

Weapon one of two sent over disputed waters a day after American spy plane reportedly nears Chinese naval drill, source says
PLA flexes muscle in response to continued US testing of Beijing’s […]

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20 August 2020

The Definitive History: International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Symposia on the History of Rocketry & Astronautics

Ingemar Skoog and R. Cargill Hall, “Fifty Years of IAA History Symposia (1967–2016),” Acta Astronautica, Volume 134, (May 2017): 368-84.
a International Academy of Astronautics, Immenstaad, FRG
b International Academy of Astronautics, Arlington, TX, USA

The International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Symposia on the History of Rocketry and Astronautics have been held annually at the International Astronautical Congresses since […]

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19 August 2020

Which Way the Dragon? Sharpening Allied Perceptions of China’s Strategic Trajectory

This well-written, pathbreaking analysis is unrivaled in its timeliness, relevance, and quality! Strongly suggest reading the full report with your full attention if you possibly can. At very least, don’t miss the key excerpts below…
Ross Babbage, Jack Bianchi, Julian Snelder, Toshi Yoshihara, Aaron Friedberg and Nadège Rolland, Which Way the Dragon? Sharpening Allied Perceptions of China’s Strategic Trajectory, Future […]

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18 August 2020

“South China Sea Military Capabilities Series”—Unique, Penetrating Insights from J. Michael Dahm, former Assistant U.S. Naval Attaché in Beijing

J. Michael Dahm, South China Sea Military Capabilities Series: A Survey of Technologies and Capabilities on China’s Military Outposts in the South China Sea (Laurel, MD: The Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, 2020).
In the information age, the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) believe that success in combat will be realized by winning a struggle for information […]

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16 August 2020

Lessons from ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ for Today

Charles Edel, “Lessons from ‘Tales of the South Pacific’ for Today,” Made by History Perspective, Washington Post, 15 August 2020.
The war in the Pacific holds the keys to addressing our problems today.
Today marks the 75th anniversary of Japan’s surrender to American forces in World War II. According to the novelist James Michener in his 1948 […]

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13 July 2020

Washington Post: Trump “administration plans to say the U.S. now regards virtually all Chinese maritime claims outside its internationally recognized waters to be illegitimate”

Matthew Lee and Lolita C. Baldor, “US to Reject Nearly all Chinese claims in South China Sea,” Washington Post, 13 July 2020.
U.S. officials say the Trump administration is poised to… [reject] outright nearly all of Beijing’s significant maritime claims in the South China Sea.
In a move the officials say is expected as early as Monday… […]

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29 June 2020

The Hong Kong Watch Floor

An unclear, but clearly worrisome, future has arrived. Now that Beijing has adopted, and will be implementing, a popularly-opposed National Security Law that effectively invalidates core One Country, Two Systems-promised protections, risks are mounting for Hong Kongers. Under assault: some of their most cherished values and freedoms, and Hong Kong’s much-touted status as Asia’s World City.
Hong […]

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16 June 2020

Why the Compacts of Free Association Matter to Washington

A timely treatment of a vital American interest, one that the Trump Administration has rightly prioritized.
Grant Wyeth, “Why the Compacts of Free Association Matter to Washington,” The Diplomat, 9 June 2020.
With its eyes on China, the United States seeks to reaffirm its presence in the western Pacific.
Last week, virtual meetings were held between officials from the U.S. […]

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