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Welcome back to another week of ASPI suggests, where we\u2019ll kick off with a quick look at some of the debate around FBI chief James Comey\u2019s announcement on Tuesday that the Bureau won\u2019t be recommending criminal charges over Hillary Clinton\u2019s mishandling of classified information.<\/span> Politico <\/span><\/i>asks the simplest question<\/span><\/a>: while everyone\u2019s looking at the emails that have been made public, what\u2019s missing from Clinton\u2019s email history and why might those emails have been deleted?<\/span> The Washington Post<\/span><\/i><\/a> questions Comey\u2019s presentation, which saw him spend 14 minutes building an unquestionable case for Clinton\u2019s negligence before branding it as solely \u2018extremely careless\u2019. And<\/span> The Atlantic<\/span><\/i> takes a detailed look<\/span><\/a> at this and other familiar scandals (from Lewinski to Benghazi) that might come back to bite Clinton during the race for the Oval Office.<\/span><\/p>\n But there\u2019s no way HRC is having a worse week than The Donald, who has missed the opportunity to use the \u2018<\/span>ready-made attack ad<\/span><\/a>\u2019 that is Comey\u2019s verdict. (Check out<\/span> this piece from <\/span>Vanity Fair<\/span><\/i><\/a> on how Clinton\u2019s victory is actually Trump\u2019s gain). This week, Trump not only made his (thinly-veiled) debut as<\/span> Marvel Comics\u2019 latest villain<\/span><\/a> and <\/span>praised Saddam Hussein<\/span><\/a> at a North Carolina rally, but was also<\/span> forced to defend<\/span><\/a> an image used by his campaign\u2014widely viewed as anti-Semitic\u2014which degenerated into<\/span> a Twitter row with Clinton<\/span><\/a> on\u2026 <\/span>Frozen.<\/span><\/i> Let it go, Donald.<\/span><\/p>\n Another headline-topper this week was the release of the long-awaited Chilcot report on the reasons behind the UK\u2019s entry to the war in Iraq, which clocked in at a cool 2.6 million words. Two good pieces from <\/span>The Economist<\/span><\/i> unpack the findings of the report:<\/span> the first<\/span><\/a> on the lessons on supporting the invasion of Iraq,<\/span> the second<\/span><\/a> on the report\u2019s significance.<\/span> An article by Peter Leahy in <\/span>The Australian<\/span><\/i><\/a> argues that we shouldn\u2019t be calling for our own inquiry anytime soon, and <\/span>openDemocracy UK<\/span><\/i> republished<\/span> a 2003 interview<\/span><\/a> with Ron G Manley\u2014who was responsible for chemical weapons destruction operations in Iraq in the early 90s\u2014on the legitimacy of claims about Iraq\u2019s WMDs. But if an in-depth understanding of the whole report is what you\u2019re after, follow The <\/span>@ChilcotBot<\/span><\/a>: the Chilcot report, one Tweet at a time.<\/span><\/p>\n But if Chilcot hasn\u2019t been enough to distract you from what\u2019s been happening in the UK with the Brexit referendum, have a gander at<\/span> this Venn diagram from <\/span>Vox<\/span><\/i><\/a> which looks at why no moves have been made towards formally withdrawing from the EU\u2014because it\u2019s impossible to do so \u2018without causing a political or economic crisis\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n For a longer weekend read, look no further than <\/span>this stellar new piece from <\/span>The New Yorker<\/span><\/i><\/a> which frames music as a tool of evil and discusses its use by various authoritarian dictatorships and in interrogation techniques: <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018<\/span>Music has accompanied acts of war since trumpets sounded at the walls of Jericho, but in recent decades it has been weaponized as never before\u2014outfitted for the unreal landscape of modern battle\u2019<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And finally, as the PCA\u2019s ruling on <\/span>The Philippines v. China<\/span><\/i> case approaches, this week\u2019s fresh research is dominated by maritime security analysis. In<\/span> International Affairs<\/span><\/i><\/a> (PDF), Katherine Morton asks if it\u2019s possible to balance China\u2019s South China Sea ambitions with a legitimate maritime order, while over at <\/span>War on the Rocks <\/span><\/i>an<\/span> interesting new piece<\/span><\/a> (adapted from<\/span> this report<\/span><\/a> by The National Bureau of Asian Research) offers some thoughts on cooperative initiatives to ease US\u2013China maritime tensions.<\/span> A new publication from the International Crisis Group<\/span><\/a> (PDF) looks at methods to prevent China and Japan butting heads in the East China Sea from becoming all-out war, and CSIS\u2019s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative<\/span> examines Vietnam\u2019s island-building plans<\/span><\/a>, comparing them to China\u2019s larger-scale and less environmentally-friendly efforts.<\/span><\/p>\n Podcasts<\/b><\/p>\n Harvard\u2019s Shorenstein Center has<\/span> released an interview<\/span><\/a> (14 mins) with Paul Wood, a BBC world affairs correspondent, on his new paper, \u2018<\/span>The Pen and the Sword: Reporting ISIS<\/span><\/a>\u2019. Not for the faint-hearted, Wood\u2019s research focuses on the experiences of journalists kidnapped and held hostage by the caliphate. He also queries the role of journalists reporting on the Middle East: are they there to unbiasedly inform the world, or to emotively rally a global response to atrocities?<\/span><\/p>\n In<\/span> this week\u2019s episode<\/span><\/a> (28 mins) of <\/span>Foreign Policy<\/span><\/i>\u2019s podcast series <\/span>The E.R.<\/span><\/i>, David Rothkopf, Kori Schake, Ben Pauker and <\/span>Financial Times<\/span><\/i>\u2019 Ed Luce ask whether globalisation\u2014or simply a rise in nationalism and xenophobia\u2014is to blame for the UK\u2019s <\/span>au revoir<\/span><\/i> to the European Union, and if similar voter demographics across the Atlantic might spell trouble for the US presidential election.<\/span><\/p>\n Videos<\/b><\/p>\n Love him or hate him, there\u2019s no doubt that Barack Obama is one of the most consequential presidents in the history of US politics.<\/span> Vox<\/span><\/i> takes a brief look<\/span><\/a> (5 mins) at some of his most divisive accomplishments, including appointing two of the four women who have served in the US Supreme Court (both of whom played a role in legalising same-sex marriage in the US) and moving to normalise US\u2013Cuba relations.<\/span><\/p>\n Another pick on the US,<\/span> this great little video<\/span><\/a> (4 mins) from the Council on Foreign Relations looks at how the trade policy of the future president will affect the lives of millions of Americans, and offers some thoughts on how to \u2018promote growth, while helping Americans adjust to new competition and ensuring regulatory standards\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n And finally,<\/span> Slate<\/span><\/i> offers a big-picture look<\/span><\/a> (4 mins) at the military strategies employed by the Bolton army and Jon Snow\u2019s troops in the mind-blowing 9th episode of Game of Thrones, which is<\/span> said to be<\/span><\/a> inspired by the battle of Cannae from the Second Punic War in 216 BC. A must-watch for any GoT and\/or strategy wonk.<\/span><\/p>\n Events<\/b><\/p>\n Canberra: ANU\u2019s Bell School will host a discussion next Monday with Dr Andrew Futter on the nexus between the rise of cyber warfare capabilities and nuclear weapons. This talk will be a great way to get ahead of the curve on a significant issue for regulating global nuclear security, so make sure you<\/span> register your interest here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n