{"id":35090,"date":"2017-10-27T15:14:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-27T04:14:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=35090"},"modified":"2017-10-27T15:15:40","modified_gmt":"2017-10-27T04:15:40","slug":"aspi-suggests-63","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/aspi-suggests-63\/","title":{"rendered":"ASPI suggests"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

The world<\/strong><\/p>\n

China watchers everywhere have spent the week glued to their screens for the CCP\u2019s 19th Party Congress. This Brookings Institution video<\/a> explains why the Party Congress matters. The main event of the Party Congress was never in doubt; Xi Jinping was given another five-year term as the party\u2019s general-secretary, re-empowering him to press on with his ambitious vision for China<\/a>. But the new seven-man Politburo Standing Committee<\/a> did hold a couple of surprises for pundits<\/a>. As this piece from the China File<\/em><\/a> points out, analysis of the closed world of the CCP is often built by layering information on unprovable assumptions, a tactic that has, at times, proven less than successful<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s a cracking read from the Daily Beast<\/em> this week about an American code-breaker during the Korean War<\/a>. Donald Nichols ran a small intelligence office inside the Pusan Perimeter and jealously guarded his \u2018code-breaking fiefdom\u2019 against any attempt to control it. Calling him \u2018America\u2019s Colonel Kurtz\u2019, as the article does, might be a bit strong, but this is an intriguing story of an intriguing man.<\/p>\n

In light of recent revelations about Russian state media outlets\u2019 interference in the 2016 US election, Twitter announced it would ban Russia Today<\/em> and Sputnik<\/em> advertisements<\/a>. In the interests of greater transparency, and noting the growing impact of political advertising<\/a> online, Twitter will work towards<\/a> labelling all political ads.<\/p>\n

Speaking of transparency, President Trump has decided to withhold<\/a> hundreds of J.F.K. assassination files, fuelling longstanding suspicions and conspiracies. There\u2019s some worthwhile reading on the power of conspiracy theories here<\/a>, but for real-time updates on the thousands of released files, check out the the Guardian<\/em>\u2019s feed<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The centenary of Russia\u2019s October revolution is approaching, and here are three pieces worth reading. The latest issue of The Economist<\/em><\/a> bestows the ambiguous title of the \u2018post-modern tsar\u2019 upon President Putin: on the one hand, his firm rule lifted \u2018his country out of \u2026 the chaos in the 1990s\u2019, but on the other, his authoritarianism (like that of his predecessors) undermines his power. Second, a very interesting piece from the Financial Times<\/em><\/a> explains the diversity of opinions in Russia on the impact and meaning of the revolution. Finally, the New Statesman<\/em><\/a> has an informative view of Russian history since 1917.<\/p>\n

The New Statesman<\/em> has also started a new series on European nations, kicking off with Estonia. Matthew Engel\u2019s piece<\/a> drips with affection for the Estonians, who refuse to be \u2018lumped together as one of those indistinguishable, put-upon, who\u2019s-invading-us-this-time Balts\u2019. From high-tech capital Tallinn, \u2018a Venice of the north\u2019, to the fortified border at Narva, he paints a nuanced picture of a nation in Russia\u2019s shadow.<\/p>\n

This fascinating and devastating inside report by the New York Times<\/em><\/a> tells the stories of 18 girls who were taken hostage by Boko Haram in Maiduguri, northeastern Nigeria. They were sent to detonate suicide bombs in crowded areas, but managed to escape.<\/p>\n

Moving on to some recent research on terrorist recruitment and radicalisation: the New York Review of Books<\/a><\/em> provides insightful fieldwork analysing radicalisation among various ethnic minority communities in Barcelona; a new paper from ICCT <\/a>details the policy implications of Islamic State\u2019s appeal to Western women; and George Washington University\u2019s Program on Extremism released its latest study<\/a>\u2014a review of more than 850,000 English-language IS tweets.<\/p>\n

Tech geek of the week<\/strong><\/p>\n

The pressure is building on North Korea after the US deployed three<\/a> aircraft carrier battlegroups to the Pacific. The USS Nimitz<\/em><\/a> joins the USS Theodore Roosevelt<\/em><\/a> and the USS Ronald Reagan<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The US has also begun shipping<\/a> hundreds of thousands of munitions into Guam, and has deployed a submarine capable<\/a> of supporting US Navy SEALs. Also, check out this Jamestown report<\/a> on Chinese PLA operations near North Korea.<\/p>\n

In terms of land warfare, the US Army is about to unveil a new operational concept<\/a> for high-intensity force-on-force battle against peer competitors, notably, Russia and China.<\/p>\n

In shock news, Northrop Grumman dropped<\/a> out of the MQ-25A Stingray unmanned airborne tanker competition, despite having the most advanced platform (the X-47B UCAS<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Finally, in space, the US Air Force is jumping on board<\/a> with SpaceX\u2019s \u2018BFR\u2019, signing a contract for engine development.<\/p>\n

Videos<\/strong><\/p>\n

The ABC this week hosted Sophia, a robot with some of the most advanced AI and human facial simulations. Prepare to get the creeps<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Stratfor\u2019s short \u2018geographic primer\u2019 explains<\/a> Romania\u2019s geographic challenge of remaining united while limiting the influence of more dominant neighbours.<\/p>\n

How does a test aircraft manage to crash on its last scheduled flight after logging more than 550 previous successful missions? NASA released an excellent documentary<\/a> on investigating the crash of its X-31.<\/p>\n

Podcasts<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the Global Politico podcast<\/a> this week, Susan Glasser interviews Pulitzer Prize\u2013winning Soviet historian Anne Applebaum and Russian defector (and formerly Russia\u2019s richest man) Mikhail Khodorkovsky. The episode\u2019s title, \u2018This myth about the great and horrible Putin\u2019, really says it all.<\/p>\n

The Diplomat<\/em>\u2019s Asia Geopolitics podcast<\/a> sets the scene for President Trump\u2019s first trip to Asia, discussing the likely issues in each stop on the visit.<\/p>\n

Michele Flournoy, formerly US under-secretary of defence, was interviewed by Michael Morell for this week\u2019s The Cipher Brief<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

Events<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sydney, 2 November at 1230: A colloquium on the political logic of the developmental state in East Asia. Details here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canberra, 2 November at 1830: CSIRO is hosting presentations from Mr Larry James and Dr Leslie Deutsch on the exploration of the solar system. Register here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Canberra, 9 November at 1745: A lecture at ANU\u2019s College of Law about climate change and international security. Register here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world China watchers everywhere have spent the week glued to their screens for the CCP\u2019s 19th Party Congress. This Brookings Institution video explains why the Party Congress matters. The main event of the Party …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":523,"featured_media":35097,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[52,163,127,31],"class_list":["post-35090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-china","tag-russia","tag-terrorism","tag-united-states"],"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-63\/\" \/>\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=\"The world China watchers everywhere have spent the week glued to their screens for the CCP\u2019s 19th Party Congress. 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