Weekly Round-Up

Quincy Institute in the news

April 19, 2020
Living on a pandemic planet
By Rajan Menon, Non-Resident Fellow
TomDispatch, 4/14/20


Everything worries us in these desperate coronaviral days of ours. If, however, one thing should have set off alarms everywhere (and didn’t), it was the moment in mid-March when, having dismissed the Covid-19 virus as the Democrats’ “new hoax” or the equivalent of the "common flu" a disease likely to be gone by April, Donald Trump suddenly declared himself a “wartime president.” Let’s face it, given the history of America’s wars in this century, however grand the title may have sounded to him, the rest of us should have considered it the kiss of death. In twenty-first-century Washington, where wars are never won but go on forever (the worst possible future in coronavirus terms), could there be a more dangerous image to invoke?
Chinese naval strategists see the value in sea mines. The U.S. Navy should take note.
By Lyle Goldstein, Non-Resident Fellow
National Interest, 4/11/20


Russia has long been a leader in naval mine warfare. This method of combat proved its worth in the Russo-Japanese War, and approximately 40,000 mines were deployed by Russian fleets in each of the World Wars. During the Cold War, the Soviets similarly viewed sea mines as an essential asymmetric tool to cope with the superior U.S. Navy. In Beijing, this particular aspect of Russian naval doctrine has attracted more than a little attention. That is logical given that China, like Russia, has a lengthy coastline to defend with extensive shallow bathymetry in proximate waters.
The Senator of State
By Alex Ward/ Quoted: Stephen Wertheim, Deputy Director of Research and Policy
Vox, 4/16/20

For Chris Murphy, the Democratic senator from Connecticut, everywhere he goes is a reminder that his star is on the rise.

On a gray, rainy February evening in Hartford, he spoke for two hours with constituents about why he’d just voted to remove President Donald Trump from office in the Senate impeachment trial. What should have been a stuffy political event turned into a cathartic, almost religious experience for the 100 attendees aggrieved by Washington politics.

Kim Jong-un's coronavirus mystery: Aggression gives hint to truth of North Korea's infection
By Gus Taylor/ Quoted: Jessica Lee, Senior Research Fellow--East Asia
Washington Times, 4/14/20

A fresh barrage of missile launches by North Korea on Tuesday marked the latest in a wave of provocations from Pyongyang, which set a monthly record for launches in March amid mounting uncertainty and unease over the impact the deadly coronavirus pandemic is having on the isolated nation.

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