| | | | Donald Trump "was a totally unconventional candidate who broke all the rules and did things that would have destroyed anyone else running for president," Fareed writes ahead of his latest special "Why Trump Won." So, how did he win? Indeed, how did he even get close?
"Here's the answer: America is now divided along four lines, each one reinforcing the others. Call them the four Cs," Fareed argues. Capitalism, culture, class, communication
"All these forces have been at work for decades, but in recent years, the Republican Party has been better able to exploit them and identify with those Americans who feel frustrated, anxious, angry -- even desperate about the direction that the country is headed in. Donald Trump capitalized on these trends even more thoroughly, speaking openly to people's economic anxieties, cultural fears, and class rebellion. He promised simple solutions, mostly aimed at others -- Mexicans, Muslims, Chinese people and, of course, the elites and the media.
"It worked. He won. Whether his solutions are even enacted is another matter."
"Why Trump Won" airs tonight on CNN at 9 p.m. ET.
| | U.S. Troops Relearning Cold War Playbook | | After a decade and a half fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan, the U.S. military is "scrambling to relearn Cold War-era skills" to prepare for potential threats from Russia, the New York Times' Eric Schmitt reports.
"Soldiers accustomed to operating from large, secure bases in Iraq and Afghanistan must now practice using camouflage netting to disguise their positions and dispersing into smaller groups to avoid sophisticated surveillance drones that could direct rocket or missile attacks against personnel or command posts," Schmitt writes.
"The Russian military threat has changed markedly since the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has invested heavily in modern infantry forces, tanks and artillery. Moscow has also increased its galaxy of surveillance drones that can identify targets and coordinate strikes launched from other weapons.
"Russia's so-called hybrid warfare combines conventional military might with the ability to manipulate events using a mix of subterfuge, cyberattacks and information warfare."
| | Chinese Propaganda: Coming to You from a TV in Africa? | | | For 15 years, a private Chinese telecoms firm virtually unknown in the West has been "overhauling [Africa's] broadcast infrastructure and beaming Chinese content into millions of homes. It has subsidiaries in 30 African countries, including such war-torn states as the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic," writes Jonathan Kaiman for the Los Angeles Times. "But there's a catch. StarTimes has substantial backing from the Chinese state -- and an explicit political mandate."
"China's relationship with Africa -- for decades defined by resource-for-infrastructure deals -- is evolving, as Africa becomes wealthier and China's foreign policy objectives grow more ambitious."
"StarTimes signals a change in tack, one that highlights the depth and complexity of Beijing's efforts to win hearts and minds -- with much of that effort now being directed at Africa, one of the world's great emerging media markets."
| | The Danger of Merkel's "Warm and Fuzzy" Politics | | Angela Merkel is poised to win the chancellorship for a fourth time next month, and she is broadly popular among Germans. But she has also sucked the life – and any sense of real debate – out of the country's politics, suggests Paul Hockenos in Foreign Policy. That could be dangerous.
Merkel has solidified her position by "essentially, depoliticizing German politics," Hockenos says. "She skillfully avoids instigating or acknowledging real conflict on substantive topics. She ensures that there are no quality nationwide debates taking place. At a time when much of the West seems to be bolting toward extremes, she's turned German politics into one big, warm-and-fuzzy centrist feather bed. In doing so, she may be doing lasting damage to the Federal Republic."
"In the upcoming term…not just Germany but all of Europe will be looking to Berlin -- in tandem with Emmanuel Macron's France -- to undertake sweeping reforms of the EU, address the still-floundering economies of Southern Europe, drive forward climate policy, and come up with long-term policies to confront migration. Germany is seen as a bulwark against the authoritarianism of the Trumps, Putins, and Erdogans who seem to be multiplying and morphing into ever more pernicious regimes. These are difficult topics -- and all have barely merited mention in Germany's tepid election campaign."
| | There's Far More than Drugs to Mexico's Drug Cartels | | Mexico's drug cartels are increasingly exploiting the ongoing crackdown on the U.S. border to generate new sources of revenue -- from migrants hoping to tap their expertise in evading law enforcement, writes Jeremy Kyrt for the Daily Beast.
"In fact, some crime syndicates in Mexico make more money from kidnapping, extortion, illegal mining, and other such crimes than they do from narcotics, rendering the quaint phrase 'drug cartel' anachronistic. Human smugglers aiming for the U.S. frontier can charge as much as $10,000 per head. They can also take the migrants' proffered money for a cross-border run, then kidnap them, sell them into sexual bondage, or demand ransoms for release," Kyrt says.
"Meanwhile the growing crisis of gang violence and stark poverty in the 'Northern Triangle' of Central America continues to cause scores of thousands of migrants to flee their homelands each year, providing plenty of candidates for exploitation amid ferocious violence."
| | Secretary of State Rex Tillerson travels to Thailand on Tuesday and then on to Malaysia on Wednesday. Wasamon Audjarint notes for Thailand's The Nation newspaper that the country is trying to strike a balance between ties with Western allies like the United States and regional allies like China. "While Thailand is the U.S.'s oldest Asian treaty ally, it also has diplomatic and trade ties with North Korea. The ruling Thai junta has also leaned on China, a major claimant over disputed territories in the South China Sea, notably on military hardware purchases and infrastructure deals."
Kenya holds its presidential election Tuesday. But Kevin Sieff writes in the Washington Post that "for all of Kenya's success and modernization, its elections are still decided almost exclusively by ethnicity, with the Kikuyus and Luos at the forefront of a fractured electorate, where ideology is obscured by identity politics."
Foreign ministers from more than a dozen countries in the Americas are scheduled to meet Tuesday in Lima to discuss the situation in Venezuela. On Saturday, the regional Mercosur trade bloc suspended Venezuela indefinitely. Reuters reports that: "Mercosur has no provision for expulsion. It had suspended Venezuela temporarily in December for not complying with the bloc's regulations, and toughened its stance following the controversial election of the constituent assembly on Sunday and the arrest of several opposition leaders." | | | | | | |
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