{"id":19528,"date":"2015-04-03T06:00:22","date_gmt":"2015-04-02T19:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=19528"},"modified":"2015-05-13T18:07:36","modified_gmt":"2015-05-13T08:07:36","slug":"aspi-suggests-48","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/aspi-suggests-48\/","title":{"rendered":"ASPI suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Portrait<\/a>If you’re looking to get your defence and national security fix over the Easter long weekend, look no further!<\/p>\n

Long-read, world leader profiles are becoming a tradition for Suggests: the latest is a\u00a0The New Yorker<\/em>\u00a0piece that explores how\u00a0China’s Xi Jinping became the most authoritarian leader since Mao<\/a>. In tracing his transformation from provincial administrator to president, author Evan Osnos highlights\u00a0Xi’s shaking up of the system, including relentless crackdowns on corruption, but also his\u00a0growing cult of personality:<\/p>\n

The state news agency has taken the unprecedented step of adopting a nickname for the General Secretary: Xi Dada\u2014roughly, Big Uncle Xi.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sticking with a New York state of mind, if you’re interested in the enigmatic origins of the Houthis in Yemen, read Robert F. York’s review<\/a> in The New York Review of Books<\/em> of\u00a0Safa al Ahmad\u2019s film Yemen: The Rise of the Houthis<\/em>. It serves as a useful backgrounder on a conflict that’s also involved al-Qaeda and now Saudi Arabia. For another perspective, I recommend reading Yemen expert Sarah Phillips’ work, including her latest Lowy Interpreter<\/em> post<\/a> that sheds light on\u00a0the Houthis’ relationship with Iran.<\/p>\n

Over on\u00a0World Politics Review<\/em>, Clint Watts has a provocative essay<\/a> on how al Shabaab serves as a model of decline for Islamic State. Watts argues that the combined pressure of a\u00a0coalition reduced al Shabaab ‘from the dominant entity in Somalia to a fractious force pushed to the rural interior’, providing\u00a0insights into how events in Iraq and Syria may unfold. All eyes remain on al Shabaab, however, as more reports<\/a> emerge about an attack by the group on\u00a0a university in northeastern Kenya yesterday, killing 147 people.<\/p>\n

Speaking of Islamic State, make time for this discussion<\/a> between Graeme Wood\u2014best known for his recent essay on ‘What ISIS really wants’<\/a>\u2014and Robert Wright on bloggingheads.tv<\/em> on Wood’s research on IS’ social media material, its ‘Islamic’ credentials and why sending group troops would be a terrible idea (video, 50mins).<\/p>\n

Kevin Rudd’s TED talk on China and the US<\/a>\u00a0is finally available online, and it begins with the words ‘Hello, my name’s Kevin. I’m from Australia. And I’m here to help’. Keep watching to see whether his alternative narrative can steer\u00a0Washington and Beijing away from a collision course (video, 20mins).<\/p>\n

Lastly, we pay our respects to military working dog Sarbi who passed away<\/a> from a brain tumour last week. On a positive note, replacing\u00a0their fallen canine colleagues is a\u00a0new breed of military working cats<\/a>. Results, so far, have been mixed:<\/p>\n

Kitten First Class Nermal, a gray, mackerel tabby, has been assigned to stop\u00a0a known hostile from stealing documents and embedding an improvised explosive device within a computer. Instead, Nermal can be seen batting\u00a0a ball of yarn around for forty-five seconds before becoming bored and then discovering\u00a0an unassuming but fascinating box.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Happy Easter long weekend, readers!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If you’re looking to get your defence and national security fix over the Easter long weekend, look no further! Long-read, world leader profiles are becoming a tradition for Suggests: the latest is a\u00a0The New Yorker\u00a0piece …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":19531,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[478],"tags":[588,52,1211,895,1212,204,542],"class_list":["post-19528","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aspi-suggests","tag-al-shabaab","tag-china","tag-houthis","tag-islamic-state","tag-military-working-cats","tag-xi-jinping","tag-yemen"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nASPI suggests | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/aspi-suggests-48\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"ASPI suggests | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If you’re looking to get your defence and national security fix over the Easter long weekend, look no further! 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