The Evening CSIS: Anniversaries, NATO Steps In, Woody’s Words & 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. If you want to view this in your browser, click here. To subscribe, please send me an email at aschwartz@csis.org.

Anniversaries
Iranians celebrated the 37^th anniversary of 1979’s Islamic revolution, as the AP reports.

And, today marks the 5^th anniversary of Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak’s resignation, as USA Today’s Oren Dorell reports.

Also, a good read by Egyptian photographer Laura El-Tantawy for Time, “ The Night Mubarak Stepped Down .”

Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Jon Alterman today published a new commentary, “ Egypt Five Years On.”

NATO Steps In
With more than a million migrants having reached Europe in the last year and many more on the way, NATO stepped into the crisis for the first time today, saying it would deploy ships to the Aegean Sea in an attempt to stop smugglers, as the New York Times’s Michael Schmidt and Sewell Chan report.

Dive Deeper: The Atlantic Council’s Steven Horrell today published, “ Questions to Consider as NATO Responds to Migrant Crisis .”

Plus, CSIS’s Kathleen Hicks and Heather Conley published a new report last week, Evaluating Future U.S. Army Force Posture in Europe .

And, the Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) has released its “ Military Balance 2016,” an annual report that assesses the military capabilities and defense economics of 171 countries.

Afghanistan Now
DoD officials said today that the US has expanded its fight against ISIS in Afghanistan, as the AP’s Lolita Baldor reports.

Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Anthony Cordesman today published an updated report, Afghanistan: The Uncertain Impact of a Year of Transition . According to Dr. Cordesman, “There is still no meaningful US Strategy for Afghanistan.”

In Other News You Need To Know
US oil prices hit a new 13-year low and then rebounded to unchanged in late trading as both oversupply and the threat of coordinated output cuts spooked the market in both directions, as the Wall Street Journal reports.

Israel’s military commanders are rethinking their concept of border security as they watch the reality of what is happening on the other side changing in front of their eyes, as the New York Times reports in “ Scanning Borders, Israel Surveys New Reality of Tunnels and Terror .”

Riots at a Mexican Prison left 52 inmates dead and more than a dozen injured, as Quartz reports.

In response to a Vice News FOIA request, most of Hillary Clinton’s emails will now be released before the South Carolina primary.

In that Number
11.5%
A new report by the Syrian Centre for Policy Research estimates that 11.5% of Syria’s population has been killed or injured since the Syrian crisis erupted in March 2011.
Source: Guardian.

Critical Quote
“This really is a punt."
—Todd Harrison, director of defense budget analysis at CSIS, on how the FY2017 Pentagon budget would put off to the next administration fundamental choices about personnel levels, force structure, and new weapons.
Source: Roll Call.

One to Watch

(Photo Credit: CNN.)
Peter Hamby (@PeterHamby) is the head of news at Snapchat. Peter previously reported on national politics for CNN and served as a producer for The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer. For innovative news delivery, Peter is one to watch.

Optics
The Atlantic published a photo essay today on America’s tent cities.

Highly Recommended
ICYMI, John Hudson’s “Inside Hillary Clinton’s Massive Foreign-Policy Brain Trust” is an interesting read.

This Town Tomorrow
Tomorrow join the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace at 9:00 a.m. as they host a review of its first Arab Experts Survey, " Arab Voices on the Challenges of the New Middle East ." A distinguished panel of experts will discuss the report and its findings.

CSIS on Demand
After the release of the FY2017 defense budget, get the latest analysis on what it means for upcoming defense spending with the CSIS International Security Program's latest project, Defense 360. Catch the launch here.

Sounds
The latest Smart Women, Smart Power podcast hosts Sherri Kraham Talabany of SEED Kurdistan, discussing her group’s efforts to help Yezidi (Yazidi) women, refugees, and other victims of ISIS/ISIL violence.

I Like It Like That
Eye-catching things in CSIS's orbit

Great interview with the first woman to ever head a US nuclear weapons lab, Jill Hruby, director of Sandia National Laboratories.

Smiles
Wilco, a band I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to since the early 1990s is a big smile to just about everyone I know in my immediate age group (us middle-aged folk.)

I’d even say that without them, rock and roll would be writhing in the throes of a mid-life crisis. And believe me, the genre is not far from a full-blown midlife crisis.

So Wilco is what we can depend on to save rock, album after album, tour after tour. Their new record “Star Wars” is nominated for a Grammy this year and is setting the standard for what being “current” in rock music is.

The Chicago Tribune’s eminent rock critic, Greg Kot, knows more about Wilco than anyone. In ’04 he authored Wilco: Learning How to Die, a book that details the band’s rich history if you want to learn more about the band.

And there are so many moments in Wilco’s history that stand out. Upon close examination, it is clear that the band continues to push the rock genre forward, in part, by being steeped in the past.

More than any musicians who are producing cutting edge rock today, the band understands how American roots music and rock and roll developed.

That’s why since the late 1990s the band has been involved with the “Mermaid Avenue” project.

Mermaid Avenue was the street in Coney Island, New York, where legendary singer/songwriter Woody Guthrie lived. Guthrie, of course, wrote songs like “This Land Is Your Land.”

When he died prematurely in 1967 due to complications from a progressive genetic neurological disorder called Huntington’s disease, Woody left behind over a thousand sets of complete song lyrics written between 1939 and 1967. Guthrie’s daughter Nora asked Wilco and the British singer Billy Bragg if they would like to put music to some of her father’s words.

I love the Wilco/Woody song “California Stars.” We’re lucky that Seattle’s essential radio station KEXP filmed Wilco performing the song last August in brilliant HD quality. What a smile.

Feedback

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