The Evening CSIS September 25 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.

Cyber Steps
President Obama and President Xi Jinping of China announced today that they had reached a “common understanding” on steps to curb cyber spying and agreed that neither government would conduct economic espionage in cyberspace, as the New York Times’s Julie Hirschfeld Davis, David E. Sanger, and Jane Perlez report.

And, on the “understanding,” as the Washington Post’s Ellen Nakashima and Steven Mufson report, “The Chinese wanted a happy outcome to the summit,” according to CSIS’s James A. Lewis.

Additional coverage comes from the New York Times’s Edward Wong: “Xi Jinping’s Inner Circle Offers Cold Shoulder to Western Officials.”

Dive Deeper: Today, we asked CSIS’s James A. Lewis to describe what the US and China agreed to in terms of cyberspace. Lewis does that in this 90-second video.

Plus, CSIS’s Strategic Technologies Program has compiled a list of Significant Cyber Incidents since 2006 in a useful interactive timeline.

Climate Steps
The US and China also announced steps today in their efforts to combat climate change, as the Wall Street Journal’s Coleen McCain Nelson and William Mauldin report.

Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Sarah Ladislaw and Michelle Patron today authored a new Critical Questions (CSIS’s signature series asked & answered short papers): “Key Takeaways from Today’s U.S.-China Climate Announcement.”

Truce
A UN-backed truce has been reached for two key Syrian battleground areas that will see the transfer of thousands of Shiite and Sunni civilians and fighters from one area to another. The deal will end months of fighting between Sunni insurgents and pro-government forces, including fighters from Lebanon’s Shiite militia group Hezbollah, and the besieging of civilians, as the Associated Press reports.

Dive Deeper: CSIS’s Shannon Green today authored a new commentary: “Changing the Narrative: Countering Violent Extremist Propaganda.”

Surrendered
In the biggest surrender yet, about 200 members of the Boko Haram Islamist militant group have given themselves up, the Nigerian army says and as the BBC reports.

However, as Reuters reports, Boko Haram also today raided a village in southern Niger, massacring at least 15 civilians.

Dive Deeper: CFR’s Backgrounder on Boko Haram is a useful resource for understanding the terrorist group.

In that Number
8,000

The daily number of refugees Europe receives from Iraq and Syria.
Source: Reuters via Amin Awad, regional refugee coordinator for the UN refugee agency.

Critical Quote
“It taught him a lot about what not to do. Don’t let these alternative power sources develop under you. Keep everyone a little off balance.”
—CSIS Freeman Chair in China Studies Chris Johnson explains that President Xi’s leadership style has been influenced by his predecessor’s own power struggle.

One to Watch

Arthur MacMillan ( @arthurmacmillan) is AFP’s Tehran deputy bureau chief. For an on-the-ground perspective on Iran, he’s one to watch.

Optics

President Obama and President Xi Jinping in today’s welcoming ceremony for the Chinese president’s first state visit. Photo credit: CSIS’s Christopher Johnson, senior adviser and Freeman Chair in China Studies.

Highly Recommended
Via the Wall Street Journal’s China Realtime blog, “Secrets of the Gulfstream: The 14 Deported U.S. Prisoners that China Won’t Acknowledge.”

CSIS Today
Today, CSIS hosted Admiral Michelle Howard, vice chief of naval operations, for a discussion on the challenges faced by the US Navy in the cyber domain. Later, the CSIS Energy Program hosted Dr. Fereidun Fesharaki for a discussion on the global natural gas markets. And finally, panelists discussed Russia’s rising influence in the Middle East. Catch the recap here.

CSIS Monday
Join us Monday at 8:30 a.m. as the CSIS Global Health Policy Center hosts a half-day conference on “Meeting the Challenges of Global Polio Eradication.” Policymakers and health experts from around the world will discuss current and future eradication challenges, with a keynote by Dr. Tom Frieden, CDC director.

This Town Monday
Rarely has the situation in the Middle East been as complex and tumultuous as now; on Monday, the Wilson Center will host former Israeli ambassador Michael Oren at 4:00 p.m. for a discussion on Israel in a dynamic and changing region. You can register for the event or watch live here.

CSIS on Demand
Dr. Zbigniew Brzezinski, former national security adviser, recently sat down with Dr. Jon Alterman, Zbigniew Brzezinski Chair in Global Security and Geostrategy, for a conversation on the state of the world in the era of global politics and global risks. Drawing on a storied career in public service, Dr. Brzezinski combines his unique historical perspective with fresh insights into the challenges and opportunities facing policymakers in 2015. Catch the first in an extraordinary three-part series of video interviews, " Brzezinski on the World."

Sounds
For the latest on Asia, listen as the latest CogitAsia podcast takes a broader look at the Asia Pacific’s economic and security architecture. Dr. Evan Medeiros, former senior director for Asia affairs at the National Security Council, provided his perspective on the region’s order and institutional architecture.

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

Esquire magazine has launched Esquire Classic, a complete digital archive dating back to the magazine’s founding in 1933. The archives include all 1,000 issues and more than 50,000 articles, including the great magazine works of authors such as Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Norman Mailer.

Smiles
Encore. Yesterday we referenced the excellent Bob Weir documentary “The Other One: The Long, Strange Trip of Bob Weir,” now available on Netflix.

For me, the film underscored something beyond Weir’s considerable past successes. It underscored that the former Grateful Dead rhythm guitarist is no mere relic—that he continues to ignite the creative fuse of today’s rock stars, like John Mayer.

Whereas many other transcendent rockers from the 1960s have passed or faded into irrelevancy, Weir somehow, incredibly, seems determined to continue to stay current and breathe new life into rock and roll.

“The Other One” is of course a famous Grateful Dead song featuring Weir on vocals, but the documentary’s name is really speaking to the fact that Weir was always the “other one” to the Dead’s central figure, Jerry Garcia. Weir was Garcia’s “little brother” and relished that role.

Garcia was a musician that had no equal (just ask Bob Dylan, he’ll tell you.) But on most nights, at least for a part of the Dead’s show, Weir would take center stage and Garcia would assume the role of the sideman. Generations of fans have smiled and enjoyed watching this interchange.

Here , in Oakland, on New Year’s Eve 1981, is what the Weir-Garcia exchange looked and sounded like.

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