The Evening CSIS July 24 2015

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 click here and if you want to view this in your browser, click here.

Turkish Targets
Turkish fighter jets struck 3 ISIS targets inside Syria today in an effort to preempt a planned attack on Turkey. The strikes killed at least 35 ISIS members according to the Turkish publication, Daily Sabah.

Dive Deeper: In mid-June, CSIS’s Aram Nerguzian published a benchmark report: The Military Balance in a Shattered Levant: Conventional Forces, Asymmetric Warfare & the Struggle for Syria .

South China Sea Shuffle
In response to remarks made at CSIS’s 5th annual South China Sea Conference by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Russel on Tuesday, China today urged the US not to take sides on the South China Sea issue, reported China’s state-run Xinhua news.

In remarks today, China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said that the US is “not a party concerned to the South China Sea issue ” and that “the US side should live up to its pledge of not taking sides and refrain from actions that go against regional peace and stability.”

Dive Deeper: Assistant Secretary Russel’s remarks and video of CSIS’s 5th annual South China Sea Conference are available for download and on demand.

CSIS’s Mira Rapp-Hooper testified yesterday before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific on “America’s Security Role in the South China Sea.” Dr. Raap-Hooper’s statement before the subcommittee is available for download.

Plus, CSIS’s Greg Poling authored a new commentary: “The Dual Policy Challenge of the South China Sea.”

And, CSIS’s all things Asia blog, CogitAsia, recently published a useful infographic: “2015 South China Sea Developments: A Five Minute Guide.”

For the most comprehensive study of the South China Sea, CSIS has created a micro website, the Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI) that has all the latest satellite images and analysis of island building and land reclamation in the East and South China Sea. Explore these images and analysis by visiting the AMTI micro website’s “Island Tracker.”

More About China
The New York Times’s Gregor Aish, Josh Keller, and K.K. Rebecca Lai today published a fascinating interactive report: “The World According to China.”

Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Chris Johnson and Scott Kennedy had a new essay published today in Foreign Affairs: “China’s Un-Separation of Powers: The Blurred Lines of Party and Government.”

In that Number
694
The number of people the Iranian authorities are believed to have executed between January 1 and July 15, 2015.
Source: Amnesty International.

Critical Question
Asked: How can President Obama best engage and shape future US policy with Africa during his visit this week?

Answered: Richard Downie, deputy director of the CSIS Africa Program:

The Obama administration has tried to steer a path between sticking to its principles on democracy and human rights; pursuing traditional lines of effort such as conflict resolution, poverty alleviation, and health assistance; and grasping the opportunities presented by Africa’s steady economic growth. At the same time, the spread of terrorism in parts of the continent has elevated security concerns and heightened the desire to strengthen the capacities of African partner militaries. Naturally, balancing these priorities leads to imperfect outcomes and accusations of double standards, but such is the challenge of policymaking. Critics who call on the United States to devote itself to the straightforward pursuit of ethical principles in Africa fall into the trap of assuming that Africa is somehow a less complex place than other regions of the world, a continent where the United States does not have interests to safeguard. Just as the Obama administration has had to update its narrative on Africa to reflect the diversity of opportunities as well as the threats, the commercial prospects as well as the enduring conflicts, the single-interest constituencies that assume Africans care as much about conflict minerals and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights as they do should realize that—as important as these issues are—they must be weighed alongside a host of other concerns and interests. President Obama’s latest set of discussions—in Washington with Nigeria’s new president, Mohammadu Buhari, followed by visits to Kenya and Ethiopia—encapsulates many of the tensions inherent in U.S.-Africa policymaking while highlighting the redundancy of talking about a single policy toward Africa.

Read the full analysis here .

One to Watch

Bradley Peniston (@navybook) is deputy editor of Defense One. A national-security journalist for almost 20 years, he helped launch Military.com, served as managing editor of Defense News, and was editor of Armed Forces Journal. We at CSIS met with Brad and Defense One’s Ben Watson this week. Like Ben who writes the “D Brief,” Brad is one to watch. Photo courtesy of Defense One.

Optics

ICYMI: If you haven’t already visited CSIS’s new headquarters, be sure to check us out on the cover of Architecture DC, with a generous five-page spread entitled “Window on the World.” Enjoy our story and visit us anytime!

Highly Recommended
Fox News chief Washington correspondent James Rosen filed a story last night that fact-checked Secretary of State John Kerry’s testimony on Capitol Hill regarding the Iran nuclear agreement. It’s a must watch.

CSIS Today
Today CSIS hosted several stakeholders for a discussion on a new proposed rule by the Bureau of Industry and Security; the new rule would control the export of intrusion software platforms. You can watch the discussion here.

CSIS Monday
CSIS will host Steven Pifer, director of the Arms Control and Non-Proliferation Initiative at the Brookings Institution, for a discussion on the current controversy over the INF Treaty. He will be joined by CSIS’s Sharon Squassoni, among others. Watch the event live at 10:00 a.m.

And at 2:00 p.m., Ambassador William Courtney will join CSIS for a talk on the implications of Kazakhstan’s accession to the WTO. Watch the discussion live.

Additionally, CSIS will host three panels of officials for a talk on chemical safety and security, including concerns over the recent and ongoing use of dual-use chemicals such as that in the Syrian conflict. Watch the panel live at 2:00 p.m.

This Town Monday
As a stream of North African refugees continue to land on southern European shores, the Hudson Center will hold a conversation on contemporary European maritime-security issues. You can register for the 9:00 a.m. event here.

CSIS on Demand
For background on President Obama’s visit this week to Africa, catch Mark Bellamy, former US ambassador to Kenya, as he lays out the broad themes and objectives of the president’s visit.

Sounds
Former ambassador to Kenya Mark Bellamy assesses the president’s trip to the region and looks at the current state of US engagement with Africa on the CSIS Podcast.

I Like It Like That
The Associated Press has released 1 million minutes of old footage spanning 120 years, Foreign Policy’s Benjamin Soloway reports.

Smiles
I’m not changing my tune today. Yesterday’s song is too good. And I’m going to use it to prove a point. Yesterday’s “Smiles” offered a raucous and joyful clip of the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir performing “New Speedway Boogie” with a group of younger musicians.

Since shortly after the term and the music was invented, people have always pondered: “is rock and roll dead?”

“Rock n’ Roll is dead, they say,” the Who once sang in 1971.

These days, it doesn’t seem like there IS much life left in rock. The Seattle sound of the 1990s is widely regarded as rock’s last innovative period.

But don’t frown. Rock is not dead. As noted, Bob Weir is making sure that his genre of American roots rock is passed on to a current generation. He does this in his “playpen for musicians,” Tri Studios in California.

He teaches that the Dead’s old songs are treasures that current musicians can make their own and breathe new life into. Weir is providing a foundation for keeping the medium alive.

To show you what I mean, here’s a clip of the Grateful Dead playing “New Speedway Boogie” in 1970.

Now, watch this version of “New Speedway Boogie” by California singer Jackie Greene recorded 4 decades later with Weir in the “playpen."

Jackie Greene has a new record (if you can call it that) coming out in late August. Its foundation is rooted in the rock that was created by previous generations, but it’s his own material, has a fresh countenance and it’s great—you can hear a tease of it now on iTunes.

It may take a while to build rock music back up, and it may rise up in a less popular form. But one way or the other, rock is not dead. So smile.

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