"Never Dream of Breaking This Fixation" ✨📡🏛️✨

{2017-2019.} Foreign policy, national security and international politics. And thoughts on the current administration. From a US perspective.

[theweekmagazine]

Good news from the past decade

A lot of good things happened over the last decade: scientific breakthroughs, incredible acts of kindness, feats of athleticism, and historic firsts. Here’s a look back at some of those moments.

[diplomacyforthewin]

So it’s obviously more difficult than I expected to have a blog about the current administration. There’s always something interesting or diplomatically terrifying or whatever....so here’s a post about my excitement for purposely delving into more political science: 

Ahah, I thought I wasn't ready for graduate school today. But my dreams had other ideas...in one of them I was a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (like Gen. Selva). In other dream I was doing something with research and development. And in the last dream, there were presentations and I was panicking about quantitative analysis (like using the program, R, for research).

So yes, I guess I'm ready to fill my brain with new information about politics, research and international relations. I think I've prepped well though, last summer I read Annie Jacobsen's The Pentagon's Brain and P.W. Singer and Allan Friedman's Cybersecurity and Cyberwar. This spring and summer I read P.W. Singer's Wired for War (from 2009) and Sharon Weinberger's (who is now the news editor for Foreign Policy magazine) book, The Imagineers of War.

[21st-century-time-traveller]

Assessing the Implications of Allowing Transgender Personnel to Serve Openly | RAND

To inform a potential change in policy, a RAND study examined the health care needs of transgender military personnel, costs of gender transition-related care, and potential readiness implications of allowing transgender personnel to serve openly.

Since the Defense Department’s announcement allowing trans people to serve in the military mentioned that RAND did research to help create new policies I decided to read their report. As a whole the main findings from their site summarize the report. The document itself I found useful to read as well because it included polices that are already used in Australia, Canada, Israel and the UK.

It was a lengthy, but interesting report. I’m quite impressed with it, the authors mainly used current wording and definitions that I’ve seen used by and in articles about trans people. RAND’s suggestions sounded good to me. Yet there’s room for improvement-which could come later on if the DoD does take some of their advice as they make new policies. I liked that the report compared policies that have been in place in other countries.

Two changes could be that future reports about trans people use “gender confirmation” or “re-affirming” in relation to surgeries instead of “reassignment”. Another welcomed change is that studies could include those that identify as nonbinary. Although the report’s definition of transgender and appendices /did/ include that “transgender” is an umbrella term itself.

I also liked that the report reiterated that not all people that identify as trans want surgeries or hormone therapies. The report included social and medical/surgical transitions. As I mentioned before it was a interesting, but dry at times, report.

[21st-century-time-traveller]

Here’s a reminder of a report by the RAND Corporation about how trans people serving in the military isn’t as threatening as the 45th POTUS, VP Pence and the conservatives think.

[diplomacyforthewin]

Me in 2016: Ooh I’ll make a blog that will provide commentary of the next administration. It’ll be great for US and international audiences and for other political science nerds.

Now: What?! I don’t know--there’s so many strange--sometimes distracting (to say the least) elements of this current administration. Ahah, where to start?! 

[21st-century-time-traveller]

Theresa May Faces Parliament After Triggering Brexit

British Prime Minister Theresa May delivers a statement on triggering Article 50, which begins the process of withdrawal from the E.U. She also fields questions from parliamentary colleagues,…

Bye Britain, it seems like it was nice knowing you. I wouldn’t know exactly since I’m not in a EU country.

[politico]

Follow along with Trump’s address to Congress here

[diplomacyforthewin]

Part 2 of a press conference with VP Pence and NATO Secretary Jens Stoltenberg. The most terrifying part of the conference is at 11:40-12:10, Pence explains how the administration will deal with news media, “But you can anticipate that the President and all of us will continue to call out the media when they play fast and loose with the facts”. Stoltenberg seemed at a loss for words. Which I poked fun at here. 

[diplomacyforthewin]

A couple of memorable quotes from VP Pence’s press conference with Jens Stoltenberg at NATO headquarters. 

[diplomacyforthewin]

Speaker John Bercow criticised over Donald Trump comments - BBC News

Downing Street says the Commons Speaker's Trump comments "a matter for Parliament".

"I feel very strongly that our opposition to racism and sexism and our support for equality before the law and an independent judiciary are hugely important considerations in the House of Commons," he told MPs. 

Speaker Bercow should feel strongly. US allies should voice that they disagree with the 45th POTUS’ statements and values. To me, it is important that the international community recognises that the 45th POTUS’ actions (like the immigration ban, border wall mess and attacks on the press) are not normal.

[thenib]

From Tom Tomorrow.

[diplomacyforthewin]

Maybe people will realize the importance of welcoming fellow humans in need through the relationships between humans and animals.

For about 19 years, I did not think about the fact that I was adopted. Throughout most of my life I wanted to ignore that. I wanted to think that I was like everyone else, like a “regular” American. I remember when I was in elementary school I wondered why there was only one other student of color. In high school and college I also questioned the lack of diversity.

I remember when I would occasionally talk about being adopted I would receive positive reactions. But they were weird to me. Why was it so “cool” or “really diverse” that my family adopted me? Unlike my younger sister, it has taken me a longer amount of time to even think to appreciate Asia or India. My sister, who is adopted from China, takes pride in learning about Chinese and East Asian culture.

 While until about a year ago, I only focused on Western European and US politics. Since I didn’t see representation of many Asians in any level of  the US government I did not think that my ethnicity was an important part of who I am. It wasn’t until last year that I learned the then-director of DARPA, Arati Prabhakar, was also from India. I was used to the perception that “Asian” only means people of Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean or Japanese descent. Nevermind that Asia includes Russia, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and  countries that are collectively called “the Middle East”. 

I was used to the fact that people believed the stereotype that all Asians excel in math and hard sciences. And a second stereotype that an Asian Americans either don’t speak English fluently or have accents. A third stereotype, and one that my sister has been affected by, is that all Asians are the same. “It doesn’t matter if she is Chinese, she looks Korean or whatever”,  was one of the kinds of remarks she has received. This goes back to the previous paragraph, Asia is a diverse continent. For me it seems to be that people of darker skin colors get to be forgotten. 

So why then are seven nations singled out? The hateful ideologies that the 45th POTUS thinks he is protecting the US from are not intrinsic to or based on a religion or ethnicity. But as a result of this the US will lose allies and gain more enemies. It is amazing and empowering to see that individuals within the US and in the international community are standing up to a terrible, isolationist order from the 45th POTUS. And a bipartisan reaction has taken place. I hope that this post is helpful to someone since I don’t have the time or resources yet to take the action.

[statedept]

America First Foreign Policy

The Trump Administration is committed to a foreign policy focused on American interests and American national security. The White House explains:  

“Peace through strength will be at the center of that foreign policy. This principle will make possible a stable, more peaceful world with less conflict and more common ground. 

“Defeating ISIS and other radical Islamic terror groups will be our highest priority. To defeat and destroy these groups, we will pursue aggressive joint and coalition military operations when necessary. In addition, the Trump Administration will work with international partners to cut off funding for terrorist groups, to expand intelligence sharing, and to engage in cyberwarfare to disrupt and disable propaganda and recruiting. 

“Next, we will rebuild the American military. Our Navy has shrunk from more than 500 ships in 1991 to 275 in 2016. Our Air Force is roughly one third smaller than in 1991. President Trump is committed to reversing this trend, because he knows that our military dominance must be unquestioned. 

“Finally, in pursuing a foreign policy based on American interests, we will embrace diplomacy. The world must know that we do not go abroad in search of enemies, that we are always happy when old enemies become friends, and when old friends become allies. 

“The world will be more peaceful and more prosperous with a stronger and more respected America.” 

Read more: America First Foreign Policy. 

[diplomacyforthewin]

I miss the State Department posts, like this one about the coalition to counter ISIS, that celebrated working together on an international level. 

[icontherecord]

ODNI Releases Third Annual SIGINT Progress Report

January 18, 2017

In 2014, President Obama signed Presidential Policy Directive-28, Signals Intelligence Activities. Since the release of PPD-28, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence has issued annual public reports on relevant updates and changes to the Intelligence Community’s signals intelligence (SIGINT) activities, covering calendar years 2014 and 2015. This is the third such update.

Read the CY 2016 Signals Intelligence Reform Progress Report:

DNI CLAPPER’S INTRODUCTION

OVERVIEW

ENHANCING PRIVACY PROTECTIONS

LIMITING SIGINT COLLECTION AND USE

INSTITUTIONALIZING TRANSPARENCY

[icontherecord]

ODNI Statement on Declassified Intelligence Community Assessment of Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections

January 6, 2017

On December 9, 2016, President Barack Obama directed the Intelligence Community to conduct a full review and produce a comprehensive intelligence report assessing Russian activities and intentions in recent U.S. elections.  We have completed this report and briefed President Obama as well as President-elect Trump and Congressional leadership.  We declassified a version of this report for the public, consistent with our commitment to transparency while still protecting classified sources and methods. 

The Intelligence Community did not make an assessment of the impact that Russian activities had on the outcome of the 2016 election, and DHS assesses that the types of systems the Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying. 

This declassified version of the report is being released to the public and can be accessed via IC on the Record.

Report:  Assessing Russian Activities and Intentions in Recent U.S. Elections

[diplomacyforthewin]

The Best Worst Quotes of 2016

The top 20 bloviations, lies, and just plain dumb lines from U.S. government officials this year.

[diplomacyforthewin]

A month from now the next president will be inaugurated. I want to say like many others, I don't know what to expect. I worry about what changes the new administration will make. I worry about the rise of the far-right and populism. And I worry about how the international community views the US. So here's a drawing that I hope exemplifies some of what I'm feeling.

The quote is a line from “Knights of Cydonia” by Muse. It should read: "How can we win if fools can be kings?/Don't waste your time/Or time will waste you". I missed the "your" in the second line. But I hope it gets the point across.

[thenib]

Hot Takes on Russian Hacking, from Matt Bors