The Evening CSIS: Push Back, May Day, Bennie and the Jets and More

Good Evening,

Welcome to The Evening CSIS—my daily guide to key insights CSIS brings to the events of the day plus HIGHLY RECOMMENDED content from around the world. To subscribe, please sign up here.

Pipelines

President Trump signed executive orders today to revive the Dakota Access and Keystone XL oil pipelines, as the Washington Post’s Steven Mufson and Juliet Eilperin report.

Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Sarah Ladislaw wrote about the key energy choices for the Trump administration in CSIS’s 2017 Global Forecast.

Also, see the World Resources Institute’s “Powering America Forward Under the New US Administration.”

May Day

It remains unclear whether British prime minister Theresa May’s plans or timetable for taking Britain out of the European Union will be altered by the UK Supreme Court’s ruling today that she must secure Parliament’s approval before beginning the process, as the New York Times’ Katrin Bennhold reports.

Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Heather Conley penned a new commentary: “The State of Brexit Ahead of the Trump-May Meeting.”

Push Back

A day after White House press secretary Sean Spicer vowed that the US would stand up to China’s military expansion in the South China Sea, China is firing back. “There might be a difference” of opinion regarding who has sovereignty over the islands in the South China Sea, “but that’s not for the United States” to get involved in, Lu Kang, a senior official with the Chinese foreign ministry, told NBC News in an exclusive interview today.

Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI), an interactive micro-website monitors and analyzes the South China Sea disputes.

In That Number

450

The number of Syrian police—trained and equipped by Turkey—that have begun operating in the Syrian border town of Jarablus. Source: Reuters.

Critical Quote

“From a realist perspective, the United States should wait out the situation in Syria at least until it is clear to the key warring factions and outside forces that remain that no stable form of victory by one side is likely, and that the only practical outcomes are sheer exhaustion or continued conflicts and/or instability.”

—CSIS’s Anthony H. Cordesman and Aram Nerguizian released a new report today, The Case for and Against a "Realist" Strategy in Syria.

One to Watch

Davis Hake is the co-director of the Cybersecurity Expert Group at the Truman National Security Project and an adjunct fellow with the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program. Davis recently did a Q&A with the Cipher Brief, “Obama’s Lasting Impact on Cyberspace.”

Optics

(Photo credit: ED JONES/AFP/Getty Images.)
South Korean and US soldiers perform a demonstration for the media today during a joint annual winter exercise in Pyeongchang, some 180 kilometers east of Seoul.

Highly Recommended

NPR’s Melissa Block launched a new road trip series, “Our Land.” In the first installment, Block meets freshly minted citizens at their naturalization ceremony in Kansas City, Missouri.

CSIS Today

CSIS’s Europe Program hosted “In Defense of the Arctic: Assessing U.S. Security Concerns,” with Senator Dan Sullivan (R-AK).

And CSIS’s Japan Chair hosted “The Era of Geo-Economic Competition: Risks and Challenges for the Japan-U.S. Alliance.”

CSIS Tomorrow

Join us tomorrow for the 2017 Asia Forecast starting at 8:30 a.m., featuring a keynote address by General Robert B. Brown, commanding general, U.S. Army Pacific (USARPAC).

And join us for a book launch of The Beautiful Country and the Middle Kingdom: America and China, 1776 to the Present, featuring the author, John Pomfret.

This Town Tomorrow

Join the Wilson Center at 10:00 a.m. for “NATO and Russia: The Quest for Mutual Deterrence.”

Join the German Marshall Fund at 12:00 p.m. for “Europe’s Last Chance: A Transatlantic Talk with Guy Verhofstadt, MEP.”

CSIS On Demand

Ahead of our 2017 Asia Forecast tomorrow, take a look back at our Asia Forecast from 2016.

Sounds

This week, ChinaPower discusses what US-China relations might look like under President Trump.

I Like It Like That

Inside Instagram’s reinvention by Recode’s Kurt Wagner.

Smiles

I don’t know about you, but I love Elton John. I especially love vintage Elton from the early 1970s. When I was a kid, Elton used to absolutely knock my socks off. He was like Jerry Lee, Elvis and the Stones rolled into one. But he was even bigger in a way. Elton was a super hero. Who else takes a signature song like “Pinball Wizard” by The Who and makes it his?

Elton’s outfits were outrageous. His glasses defined what a rock start looked like. His voice, without compare. His band was so cool. And he churned out hit after hit after hit. His performances were legendary in the 70s, like nothing else before or since, really. For a long time, Elton owned rock and roll. The Elton cannon is incomparable. Take “Bennie and the Jets,” it just blew me away the first time I heard it, and still does.

Feedback

I always welcome and benefit from your feedback. Please drop me a line at aschwartz@csis.org