{"id":31253,"date":"2017-04-07T14:30:42","date_gmt":"2017-04-07T04:30:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=31253"},"modified":"2017-04-07T15:51:48","modified_gmt":"2017-04-07T05:51:48","slug":"aspi-suggests-7april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/aspi-suggests-7april\/","title":{"rendered":"ASPI suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>horrific chemical attack\u00a0that took place in Syria\u2019s Idlib province this week<\/span><\/a> is yet another <\/span>brutal milestone<\/span><\/a> for those living fractured lives in a broken country. It\u2019s thought that upwards of 80 people were killed, at least 30 of them children; <\/span>22 of the victims were from one single extended family<\/span><\/a>. Now in its seventh\u00a0year, the war is <\/span>estimated<\/span><\/a> to have killed over 400,000 people, <\/span>displaced<\/span><\/a> 6.3<\/span> million and led <\/span><\/a>4.8 million to flee the country. Those numbers are\u00a0diabolical. A gang of four from the Century Foundation recently held a sizable discussion on <\/span>where things stand\u00a0in Syria<\/span><\/a>, one year after <\/span>their first meeting<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s worth setting some time aside for, especially after today’s news\u00a0that the US has\u00a0launched 59 Tomahawk\u00a0missiles<\/a> at regime-controlled Shayrat\u00a0airfield and is said to be cobbling together an international coalition to oust Basher al-Assad. Watch this space as the implications unfold.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the<\/span> recently released book <\/span>Civil Wars: A History in Ideas<\/span><\/i>, David Armitage looks at how the concept of \u2018civil war\u2019 has developed over the last two millennia. Turns out it\u2019s been surprisingly slippery, as <\/span>this elegant review<\/span><\/a>\u00a0points out:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2018Armitage\u2019s insight is that the concept of the civil war has become one that is best understood, or perhaps only understandable, by reference to the struggles that inevitably accompany its invocation. One person\u2019s freedom fighter is another\u2019s terrorist, as the saying goes. So too one person\u2019s civil war is another\u2019s criminal conspiracy or treason plot or <\/span>coup d\u2019etat<\/span><\/i>. The language matters because entire worlds of meaning \u2013 moral, political, and legal \u2013 follow from the choice of words. And so people embrace or reject the label because of the train of consequences that will follow from its successful invocation.\u2019<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Hats off to the ANU\u2019s National Security College team for pulling together the <\/span>Women and National Security conference<\/span><\/a> that went down in Canberra this week. If you couldn\u2019t get along, never fear: thankfully there was a remarkable level of digital fluency among those who did, so head on over to the <\/span>#WaNS<\/span><\/a> collection on Twitter to catch up with the goings-on. The Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong delivered a <\/span>dinner keynote<\/span><\/a> which won mad props online; check out an <\/span>edited extract here on <\/span>The Strategist<\/span><\/i><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Two stateside national-security sites have recently had their work scrutinised and celebrated by some big-deal operations. <\/span>Lawfare<\/span><\/i> had it\u2019s time in the sun in <\/span>The New York Times<\/span><\/i>: <\/span>\u2018How a Wonky National-Security Blog Hit the Big Time\u2019<\/span><\/a>. And <\/span>Nieman Lab<\/span><\/i> was digging the erudite efforts of <\/span>War on the Rocks<\/span><\/i>: <\/span>\u2018War on the Rocks is a national security site for a military \u201ctribe\u201d that knows what it\u2019s talking about\u2019<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

And finally, Rex Tillerson: Hemingway or Kerouac? After his sparse statement this week on North Korea\u2019s latest missile moves, it seems that prolix stream-of-consciousness isn\u2019t his thing. His <\/span>23-word statement<\/span><\/a> was equal parts remarkable, confusing and off-beat. As you could almost fit State\u2019s statement into a tweet, former Caerus Associates boss, Erin Simpson, naturally took to the Twitterverse to deliver a surgical strike in the form of <\/span>this GIF thread<\/span><\/a>. Boom.<\/span><\/p>\n

Podcasts<\/b><\/p>\n

This week, two good listens from the Harvard Kennedy School\u2019s PolicyCast. First up is a snappy lecture on <\/span>public diplomacy and journalism in the post-truth world<\/span><\/a>, which was delivered by Rick Stengel, a former managing editor of <\/span>Time<\/span><\/i> who until recently headed up Foggy Bottom\u2019s public diplomacy effort (31 mins). The second involves another Obama-era official in Josh Earnest, who <\/span>talked Trump and Clinton and pulled back the curtain<\/span><\/a> on some key moments during his time wrangling the White House press corps (32 mins).<\/span><\/p>\n

Video<\/b><\/p>\n

The FT<\/span><\/i>\u2019s foreign affairs chief, Gideon Rachman, has just released a new book, <\/span>Easternization: Asia’s Rise and America’s Decline<\/span><\/i>. The thesis is familiar, with Rachman outlining how the status quo is being remade, before offering a plan for how we might stay upright as the sands shift. He was at CSIS this week to launch the book, sitting down for a <\/span>meaty conversation with Senior VP for Asia Mike Green<\/span><\/a> (56 mins).<\/span><\/p>\n

Events<\/b><\/p>\n

Brisbane: If you\u2019re in Brissie next week, be sure to get along to Peter Layton\u2019s speech to the AIIA. Peter will survey Beijing\u2019s efforts to win friends and influence people in Southeast Asia, and will also turn his mind to how Canberra should be calibrating its efforts in response. <\/span>Registration essential<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sydney: CSIS\u2019s Andrew Shearer will be back in Oz in a couple of weeks, and will be stopping by the USSC at Sydney Uni to talk about the Trump administration\u2019s first few months in office and what\u2019s on the cards for the alliance relationship. Details <\/span>here<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The horrific chemical attack\u00a0that took place in Syria\u2019s Idlib province this week is yet another brutal milestone for those living fractured lives in a broken country. 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