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The Quincy Round-Up
Feb 29, 2020
February has been an extraordinarily busy time for the Quincy Institute, and as we close out the month, we want to take a moment to round-up the results of our efforts.
Through our first major public event, numerous pieces of analysis and commentary authored by Quincy staff and fellows, February has cemented QI’s status as a powerful and compelling new voice in foreign policy.
As we await word from Doha of the anticipated signing of the U.S.-Taliban agreement to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, we look forward to Quincy President Andrew Bacevich’s interviews on the subject on CNN’s GPS with Fareed Zakaria (Sunday) and on NPR’s nationally syndicated news talk show, 1A (Monday).
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Quincy Institute hosts inaugural conference
QI partnered with Foreign Policy magazine to host its inaugural conference, “A new vision for America and the world, ” this past week in Washington. The one-day forum, attended by more than 300, represented the first major conference devoted entirely to sussing out the debate between restraint and interventionist foreign policies.
Held at the U.S. Capitol, the event kicked off with a powerful and rare display of the potential for transpartisan cooperation on foreign policy, with Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) and Representative Andy Biggs (R-AZ) discussing the new bipartisan War Powers Caucus and the need to Congress to reassert itself on matters of war and peace. Discussions with Retired General, David Petraeus and Representative Ro Khanna of California yielded starkly contrasting visions for the role of American military interventions abroad.
The full video of the event is currently available on our website. Photos and videos of each of the forum’s sessions will be made available there next week.
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Eli Clifton breaks national news challenging acting-DNI's credentials
QI’s Eli Clifton broke national news this week that President Trump’s new acting Director of National Intelligence, Richard Grenell, had conducted undisclosed work on behalf of Hungary’s far-right government.
Clifton’s article in Responsible Statecraft was the first to report Grenell’s public relations work for Hungary, and his failure to disclose that work as required by the Foreign Agent Registration Act. This revelation adds to a growing list of concerns about the Trump loyalist’s fitness to head the nation’s intelligence operations. Clifton’s reporting was picked up by prominent outlets including CNN, the Washington Post, Mother Jones, and Defense One.
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In Foreign Affairs
The price of primacy: Why America shouldn’t dominate the world
By Stephen Wertheim, March/April 2020
The collapse of the Soviet Union revealed the bankruptcy of international communism. In time, the absence of a Cold War foe also exposed the bankruptcy of Washington’s global ambitions....From this foundation of security and goodwill, the United States could have exercised leadership on the already visible challenges ahead, including climate change and the concentration of ungoverned wealth. READ MORE
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In Harper's Magazine
The old normal: Why we can’t beat our addiction to war
By Andrew J. Bacevich, March 2020
Addressing the graduating cadets at West Point in May 1942, General George C. Marshall, then the Army chief of staff, reduced the nation’s purpose in the global war it had recently joined to a single emphatic sentence. “We are determined,” he remarked, “that before the sun sets on this terrible struggle, our flag will be recognized throughout the world as a symbol of freedom on the one hand and of overwhelming force on the other.” READ MORE
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In War on the Rocks
A tale of two skepticisms: Fighting and talking with the Taliban during the Obama years
By Barnett Rubin, February 20
When I saw the Washington Post reports on the so-called Afghanistan papers, claiming that “senior U.S. officials failed to tell the truth about the war in Afghanistan … making rosy pronouncements they knew to be false and hiding unmistakable evidence the war had become unwinnable,” it took me back to a conversation I had with then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton at the May 2012 NATO Summit in Chicago READ MORE
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In Foreign Policy
Oman’s smooth transition doesn’t mean its neighbors won’t stir up trouble
By Annelle Sheline, January 24
Many observers have commended the smooth and transparent process by which Haitham bin Tariq was designated sultan of Oman, following the death of Sultan Qaboos, which was announced on Jan. 10. Because Qaboos had not publicly named a successor, the ruling family opted to open a sealed envelope containing the name of the individual Qaboos preferred, rather than selecting the new sultan themselves. READ MORE
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QUICK READS
- Pompeo’s nostalgic, fraudulent promotion of ‘the West’ by Andrew J. Bacevich, Boston Globe, February 20
- In long-suffering Afghanistan, this is a peace deal worth trying by Barnett R. Rubin, Washington Post, February 16
- Why the ISIS ‘threat’ is as old as Cold War bunk by Steven Metz, The American Conservative, February 11
- To end forever war, End the dollar’s global dominance by David Adler and Daniel Bessner, The New Republic, January 28
PODCASTS
EVENTS
VIDEOS
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RESPONSIBLE STATECRAFT HIGHLIGHTS
- Responsible Statecraft interviewed Rep. Ilhan Omar about her recently introduced "Pathway to Peace" initiative and about how it can shift U.S. foreign policy away from a militaristic foreign policy.
- Also on RS this month, Paul Pillar debunked the notion propelled by hawks that the U.S. can deal with Iran as it did the Soviet Union.
- Robert Ross picked apart a new hawkish China report from the Center for New American Security, while the American Conservative's Kelley Beaucar Vlahos delved into a new report on foreign funding of U.S. think tanks.
- Rami Khouri explained why Arab governments were all over the place in response to Trump's so-called "peace plan" for Israel and Palestine.
- Laila Ujayli used Star Wars references to illustrate how the climate crisis and militarism aid and abet one another, while Assal Rad provided a personal account of her experience as an Iranian-American in the age of Trump.
- And finally, Savannah Wooten outlined how Trump's recent budget proposal is fuel for militarism, and Craig Kafura showed us how Millennials can save U.S. foreign policy.
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