![\"Image](\"http:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/05\/3491798558_ba79f89c6d_z.jpg\" "\\"Image")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Barack Obama will today make history as the <\/span>first sitting US president to visit Hiroshima<\/span><\/a>. <\/span>The Atlantic<\/span><\/i> has two photo essays: one looking at the modern city of <\/span>Hiroshima and A-bomb survivors today<\/span><\/a>; another juxtaposing the <\/span>vibrant pre-war city with the devastated remnants<\/span><\/a> that were left behind. (If you\u2019re after a history of Japan\u2019s struggles in those post-war years, look no further than John W. Dower\u2019s <\/span>Embracing Defeat<\/span><\/i><\/a>\u2014a stunningly written effort that took out the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction in 2000.)<\/span><\/p>\n Roger Cohen, a columnist with <\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/i>, is currently <\/span>spending some time working out of Sydney<\/span><\/a>, where he\u2019s doing his bit to put Australia up in lights. Cohen\u2019s focus so far has been trained on our dirty laundry: he started the\u00a0week on our asylum policies (<\/span>Australia\u2019s Offshore Cruelty<\/span><\/a>) and ended it on our environmental policies (<\/span>Coral vs. Coal<\/span><\/a>). Serendipitously, Cohen\u2019s column came as it was revealed that a <\/span>new UNESCO report had been scrubbed of references<\/span><\/a> to Australia and the Great Barrier Reef.<\/span><\/p>\n A new Brookings Essay landed this week, just in time for Memorial Day state-side. Penned by Phil Klay, a US Marine Corps veteran, <\/span>The Citizen-Soldier<\/span><\/a> is a brilliant read on morality, the modern military and \u2018what it means to be an American in an age of perpetual war\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018I can\u2019t say that I joined the military because of 9\/11. Not exactly. By the time I got around to it the main U.S. military effort had shifted to Iraq, a war I\u2019d supported though one which I never associated with al-Qaida or Osama bin Laden. But without 9\/11, we might not have been at war there, and if we hadn\u2019t been at war, I wouldn\u2019t have joined.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Congratulations to Brendan Nelson and his standout team at the Australian War Memorial, which was <\/span>recently anointed<\/span><\/a> the number one landmark in both Australia and the South Pacific for 2016. If you find yourself in Canberra, get along to check out their great galleries and exhibitions.<\/span><\/p>\n For your weekly dose of brand new analysis from around the world, we\u2019d recommend having a gander at the<\/span> latest release from CNAS<\/span><\/a> on the challenges China\u2019s A2\/AD capabilities pose to security in the Asia\u2013Pacific. The report recommends that US efforts to counter Chinese aggression should have a focus that transcends unilateralism, arguing that:<\/span><\/p>\n \u2018More operational and integrated alliances with Japan, Australia, Korea, and the Philippines will go a long way toward creating a geographically dispersed network that can work more closely on a web of security partnerships with Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, India, and others.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Charlie Winter\u2019s Special Report for ASPI,<\/span> An integrated approach to Islamic State recruitment<\/span><\/i><\/a>, is also worth a look. Winter examines IS enlistment in our region by examining the three complementary mechanisms involved in the recruitment process: The Echo Chamber where a recruit is exposed to jihadism; The Propaganda that \u2018realigns a curious individual\u2019s moral norms\u2019; and contact with The Enlister. Winter also published<\/span> a stellar article over at <\/span>War on the Rocks<\/span><\/i><\/a> on IS\u2019s nascent presence in Southeast Asia. By decoding \u2018the difference between being an Islamic State \u201cfan\u201d and an Islamic State \u201caffiliate\u201d,\u2019 through the lens of propaganda, Winter judges that \u2018a fully ratified \u201cPhilippines Province\u201d of the caliphate could well be on the horizon\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n An<\/span> interesting read over at <\/span>The Economist<\/span><\/i><\/a> argues that one of the Obama administration\u2019s biggest failures in its nuclear deterrence strategy has been its lack of response to North Korea\u2019s nuclear program. With a fully-fledged program able to \u2018strike New York\u2019 expected sometime during the second term of Obama\u2019s successor, it\u2019s time for the US to start taking the hermit kingdom\u2019s ambition seriously. (ASPI\u2019s Rod Lyon has also <\/span>ventured down this path<\/span><\/a>.) And on just as sombre a note,<\/span> here<\/span><\/a> is the enormous, smiling, (surprisingly) un-Photoshopped, hi-res photograph of Kim Jong-un that you didn\u2019t know you needed in your life. Kim and 27 other DPRK top guns had their professional mugshots published on the Korea Central News Agency on Wednesday, and it doesn\u2019t seem too much thought was put into having unique \u2018dos for staff photo day.<\/span><\/p>\n Podcasts<\/b><\/p>\n CSIS launched a new podcast series yesterday, <\/span>On Violent Extremism<\/span><\/a>, which explores the violent extremism phenomenon\u2014its causes, manifestations, and responses. In each episode, CSIS\u2019s Shannon Green sits down with a different expert or practitioner from all around the world, building a chorus of voices and perspectives on violent extremism. The first episode is an interview with Imam Mohamed Magid, head of the largest Muslim congregation in the United States (1 hour).<\/span><\/p>\n The Perth USAsia Centre\u2019s Perspectives podcast series this week hosted Sidney Jones, renowned terrorism expert and director of the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict in Jakarta.<\/span> In the interview<\/span><\/a> (30 mins), Jones discusses the problems Indonesia faces on the home front despite its comparatively small number of foreign fighters in Syria and Iraq.<\/span><\/p>\n Videos<\/b><\/p>\n After the departure of US President Barack Obama, Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc sat down for a rare interview with foreign media. Discussing Vietnam\u2019s role in the South China Sea and the fine balance Vietnam must strike between the US and China now that the former has lifted its longstanding arms sales embargo on Vietnam. Watch some snippets of the interview<\/span> here<\/span><\/a> (3 mins).<\/span><\/p>\n ASPI alumna Natalie Sambhi continues her efforts for the <\/span>bloggingheads.tv<\/span><\/i> Foreign Entanglements series, alongside Robert Farley. This week, <\/span>Natalie sat down with Lauren Dickey<\/span><\/a>, a PhD candidate at King\u2019s College London, to muck into Tsai Ing-wen\u2019s inauguration, what it means for the US, for Taipei\u2013Beijing relations, and a range of other China-centric matters (57 mins). And while we\u2019re here, the <\/span>Foreign Entanglements archive<\/span><\/a> is a veritable goldmine.<\/span><\/p>\n Events<\/b><\/p>\n Sydney and Melbourne: The always-impressive Kaldor Centre for International Refugee Law will soon host two panel discussions on human displacement and climate change. Sydneysiders, <\/span>mark your calendar for 7 June<\/span><\/a>; Melburnians, you\u2019re up <\/span>the following day<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n\n
\n