| | | | Intel Chiefs' Contemptuous Behavior: Rubin | | | The repeated refusal of Dan Coats and Adm. Mike Rogers to answer direct questions about the investigations into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia was "contemptuous and frankly unprecedented," argues Jennifer Rubin in the Washington Post. "All of these witnesses, national security adviser H.R. McMaster and other White House officials act as if they work for the president, not the American people," Rubin writes.
"This is unacceptable in a functional democracy and would, if perpetuated, do serious damage to our democratic system. They need to tell the truth, the whole truth. Transparency and honesty cannot be optional for members of the executive branch. We will see if Republicans in Congress exhibit the same level of outrage as do Democrats. If not, they will be revealing their own willingness to defend the president and refusal to wholeheartedly perform their duties as required by their oaths." | | America: Indispensable No More? | | The days of America as the "indispensable nation" on the global stage could be drawing to a close, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland appeared to suggest in a major speech Tuesday.
"For their unique, seven-decades-long contribution to our shared peace and prosperity…I would like to profoundly thank our American friends," Freeland said.
"Yet it would be naive or hypocritical to claim before this House that all Americans today agree. Indeed, many of the voters in last year's presidential election cast their ballots, animated in part by a desire to shrug off the burden of world leadership. To say this is not controversial: it is simply a fact."
"The fact that our friend and ally has come to question the very worth of its mantle of global leadership, puts into sharper focus the need for the rest of us to set our own clear and sovereign course. For Canada that course must be the renewal, indeed the strengthening, of the postwar multilateral order." - It didn't start with Trump, argues Terry Glavin in National Post.
"The great unraveling began with the 2007-2008 meltdown of the global neoliberal order, and with the election of Barack Obama. It was Obama who chose to 'shrug off the burden of world leadership,' and he was honest about it. It was the Obama generation that was 'war weary,' that had tired of serving as 'the world's policeman.' Obama was elected to focus on 'nation-building at home.' Globally, democracy has been in retreat ever since."
| | The "Dire" Implications of Iran Attack | | | Simultaneous gun and suicide bomb assaults Wednesday on Iran's parliament building and the shrine of the country's revolutionary founder, which were claimed by ISIS, could have "dire" implications for the region, argues Charlie Winter for the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence.
For a start, Winter says, "Iranian officials will be called upon to step up the intervention in Iraq and Syria. Even if there is little more that they can actually do, these calls could result in an intensification in the 'war' between Sunni and Shia Islam. This would have the effect of pouring petrol on the Islamic State's ideological fire."
But "perhaps most importantly, the attack will boost the Islamic State's flagging morale, especially at the foot soldier level," Winter writes. "Essentially, the group will say: 'We, the Islamic State, promised to hit the Safavids. We, the Islamic State, have followed through. Al-Qaeda, on other hand, is friend of Iran, and it has done nothing.' In the global jihadist war of ideas, this will be hugely important." | | What Trump's Qatar Tweets Reveal | | Donald Trump's tweets Tuesday, in which he seemed to take credit for several Arab states' decision to sever diplomatic ties with Qatar, reveal a strictly transactional view of diplomatic relations. But in counter-terrorism, that's a dangerous way to think, suggests Joshua Geltzer, a former senior director for counterterrorism with the National Security Council in the Obama administration.
"There are ups and there are downs in counterterrorism partnerships, but Washington's general approach has been to work through them," Geltzer writes in The Atlantic.
"That's because the alternative is simply unsustainable -- to take on, by ourselves, every terrorist threat everywhere. That's a recipe for overexpansion, military fatigue, economic drain, and frayed relationships across the globe. There's always a healthy balance in counterterrorism between how much Washington takes on itself and how much it asks of its partners. But to forgo certain partners outright -- especially via tweet, without apparent consideration and deliberation -- is to lose out on key tools in the counterterrorism toolkit."
| | Do Brits Have Trump to Thank for Corbyn Surge? | | | Britain has Donald Trump to thank for the surge in support among young voters for leftist opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, argues Nico Hines for the Daily Beast. The old rules no longer seem to apply – including the conventional wisdom that a candidate needs to pivot to the center in a general election. "When Corbyn swept to the party leadership…it was near-universally agreed that Corbyn would have to moderate his views, which are considerably to the left of the average Labour voter, if he was even to secure the support of his own side at a general election," Hines says. "Trump and Bernie Sanders have inspired leaders around the world to believe that you don't have to accept what the mainstream party elites are saying. You can disregard them, you can attack them directly in the press, and then you can remake the party in your own image." | | U.S. Is Losing "America's Lake" | | | For a century, the United States has seen the Pacific Ocean as "an American lake." But a chess game is on for influence in the Pacific islands – and the United States is being outplayed by China, writes Ben Bohane in the Wall Street Journal. "For the price of a single day's war in the Middle East, the U.S. could shore up its Western flank by courting the Pacific islands with investments in tourism and vital infrastructure while engaging meaningfully with its leaders. Instead, China is picking them off one by one," Bohane writes. "Where China has unleashed multibillion-dollar investments throughout the islands of Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia, offering critical infrastructure projects, planeloads of tourists and access to financial inclusion, the U.S. has stayed silent. It continues to neglect its treaty allies in Micronesia and ignore the rest of the region." | | Two Cheers for Electric Car Sales: IEA | | | The number of electric cars on the world's roads jumped 60% last year, the International Energy Agency says in a new report, with China leading the way in sales. "China remained the largest market in 2016, accounting for more than 40% of the electric cars sold in the world," the IEA said. Still, electric vehicles are a long way from being a game changer on climate change. "[E]lectric vehicles only made up 0.2% of total passenger light-duty vehicles in circulation in 2016," the IEA says. "In order to limit temperature increases to below 2°C by the end of the century, the number of electric cars will need to reach 600 million by 2040." | | | | | | |
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