** Weekly Round-Up
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** Quincy in the news
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** September 20, 2020
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QUINCY NEWS
The Quincy Institute welcomes new talent
WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft (QI) announced four additions to its team that will provide scholarship to challenge the emerging militarized competition with China, lead efforts to responsibly withdraw from Afghanistan and bring a powerful new conservative voice into the organization. The new hires bring the total number of permanent QI staff to 19, marking a 60+ percent staffing increase in the less than a year since the organization was launched.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
** FEATURED
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Thinking through a Trump October surprise: Could Iran be a wildcard?
By Senior Research Analyst Steven Simon and Daniel Kurtzer
New York Daily News, 9/20/20
The allure of a surprise foreign policy development in the months before an election is a feature of political campaigns.The Trump administration has a limited number of choices regarding an “October surprise.” Relations with allies are so fraught that it is unlikely any of them will step up to provide Trump with an electoral boost. Relations with adversaries are actually better, but they too are likely to sit on the sidelines, hedging their bets.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
The endless fantasy of American power
By Andrew Bacevich, President
Foreign Affairs, 9/18/20
In this year’s presidential election campaign, candidates have largely sidestepped the role of armed force as an instrument of U.S. policy. The United States remains the world’s preeminent and most active military power, but Republicans and Democrats find other things to talk about.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
The military’s role in a contested election
By Andrew Bacevich, President
The Nation, 9/17/20
There are at least two ways that the outcome of this November’s presidential election could threaten the existing political order. Both risk drawing the armed forces of the United States into partisan politics, with the Constitution itself thereby put in jeopardy. Americans are long accustomed to assuming that the US military is indelibly and irreversibly apolitical. Events in the coming months may well test that assumption.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
Is Mike Pompeo preparing an October Surprise?
By Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President
Responsible Statecraft, 9/16/20
With less than seven weeks left until the U.S. presidential elections, the faction within the Trump administration aligned with Secretary of State Mike Pompeo seems to be preparing the ground for an October Surprise — a confrontation with Iran that will be cast as both defensive and lawful. The first direct clash may take place as early as this coming Monday.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
A new look at Iran’s complicated relationship with the Taliban
By Barnett Rubin, Senior Non-Resident Fellow
War on the Rocks, 9/16/20
Eight years ago, I took part in a meeting among people from several different countries — Iran, various European countries, Afghanistan, Turkey, and the United States. I was a part-time consultant to the U.S. government at the time, and most of the group had been or — at least — were close to government officials. These are known as “track-two meetings.” During one of the sessions, a European participant charged Iran with supplying military aid to the Taliban. A retired Iranian diplomat responded indignantly. “How could Iran supply aid to its sworn enemies?” he asked. I responded that Iranians were not such simple-minded people that they could have only one enemy or one policy at a time.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Executive Vice President Trita Parsi is interviewed by Hill TV's Krystal Ball and Saagar Enjeti about how Trump's Arab 'peace deal' is really a Gulf arms deal, 9/16/20
WATCH NOW ([link removed][UNIQID])
The U.S. “War on Terror” has created at least 37 million refugees
By Daniel Bessner, Non-Resident Fellow
Jacobin, 9/15/20
A new study finds that America’s “war on terror” has displaced at least 37 million people around the globe. The US left has a responsibility to push an internationalism that aids the victims of American imperialism — and acts in solidarity with workers no matter their country of origin.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
Why Trump’s top retired military brass endorsement may alienate the rank-and-file
By Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Senior Advisor and Contributing Editor
Responsible Statecraft, 9/15/20
The recent media firestorm around President Trump for disparaging comments he allegedly made about American war dead have called into question his grip on support from the military, and has forced him to pull his reelection campaign back into familiar red meat territory when it comes to war and national security.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
The China conundrum: Deterrence as dominance
By Andrew Bacevich, President
The American Prospect, 9/15/30
Michèle Flournoy could well become defense secretary should Joe Biden win the presidency in November. For that reason alone, her recent essay in Foreign Affairs, “How to Prevent a War in Asia,” deserves careful reading.
READ HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
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Distinguished Non-Resident Fellow Joe Cirincione interviewed by MSNBC's Hallie Jackson about President Trump's claim to Bob Woodward that he had overseen the creation of a new U.S. nuclear weapons system, 9/11/20
WATCH HERE ([link removed][UNIQID])
** MORE. MORE. MORE.
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* Trump administration insists UN sanctions on Iran are restored. No, they're not, says United Nations ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Kim Hjelmgaard & Deirdre Shesgreen / Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, USA Today, 9/19/20
* Will anything change with North Korea under a President Biden? ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Daniel DePetris/ Quoted: Senior Research Fellow Jessica Lee, The Guardian, 9/19/20
* U.S. to break with UN security council and reimpose Iran snapback sanctions ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Julian Borger/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, The Guardian, 9/19/20
* Mitch McConnell is about to doom one of Trump’s attempts to ‘end endless war' ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Akbar Shahid Ahmed/ Cited; Quincy Institute, Huffington Post, 9/18/20
* Progress, not peace: Breaking down the Trump-brokered deals between Israel, Arab states ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Adela Suliman/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, NBCNews.com, 9/18/20
* October surprise: Is the Trump administration pushing for war with Iran ahead of election day? ([link removed][UNIQID]) Executive Vice President Trita Parsi in conversation with Contributing Editor Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, Quincy Institute, 9/18/20
* Progress, not peace: Breaking down the Trump-brokered deals between Israel, Arab states ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Adela Suliman/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, NBC News, 9/18/20
* Iran mocks Trump's 'snap back of sanctions' ([link removed][UNIQID]) ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Gus Taylor/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, Washington Times, 9/17/20
* Israel ties that bind: What is the U.S. giving Gulf Arab states? ([link removed][UNIQID]) By Creede Newton/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, Al Jazeera, 9/14/20
* How likely is Iran’s response to U.S. seizure of its tankers? ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Stasa Salacanin/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, Inside Arabia, 9/15/20
* Study: As many as 59 million displaced by America’s War on Terror ([link removed][UNIQID]) by Barbara Boland/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, The American Conservative, 9/16/20
* Trump’s latest Middle East diplomatic deal: Triumph or travesty? ([link removed][UNIQID]) By Spencer Bokat-Lindell/ Quoted: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi, The New York Times, 9/17/20
* PODCAST: Remembering 9/11, Who gets credit/blame for the economy? Wild week for Mideast policy ([link removed][UNIQID]) with Justin Robert Young/ Interviewed: Research Fellow Annelle Sheline, Politics!Politics!Politics!, 9/11/20
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