Weekly Round-Up

Quincy in the news

November 22, 2020

UPCOMING WEBINARS

With the most powerful military on earth,
why can’t we decisively win wars?

Tuesday, December 9, 2020
2:00 pm Eastern

 
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Given all of the resources put into warmaking, why does the US have such a poor track record at winning wars? Critics attribute this to many things — bad foreign policy, weak strategy, and an over-reliance on “future combat” systems and other programs geared towards pleasing defense industry interests and Pentagon technocrats. Beyond that, the military has an inflexible culture that rewards loyalty over out of the box thinking, leading often to bad decisions and the inability to recalibrate when things go wrong.

Join Defense Priorities fellow Ret. Col. Danny Davis, Center for Defense Information's Mandy Smithberger, and Quincy Institute’s Mark Perry as we discuss what immediate and longer term steps can be taken to turn things around as the US nears its 20th year in Afghanistan, and all eyes are on China as the next “military challenge.” Quincy Institute's Kelley Vlahos will moderate.

FEATURED

It’s time to withdraw from Afghanistan
By Non-Resident Fellow Rajan Menon & William Ruger
Washington Post, 11/17/20

Arguably, the most important foreign policy pledge President Trump made during the 2016 campaign was to end the “forever wars” in Iraq and Afghanistan. That promise appealed to broad swaths of Democrats and Republicans, though certainly not to the leaders of either party, who generally embraced the prevailing view that the US military’s departure from Afghanistan and Iraq would have calamitous consequences. Today, nearly three-fourths of the public favor ending both campaigns — including a similar proportion of veterans and military families.

READ HERE

Trump isn't all wrong on Somalia
By Elizabeth Shackelford, Non-Resident Fellow
Inkstick, 11/16/20

With Donald Trump’s relevance to our foreign policy future diminishing by the day, his recent demands to get US soldiers out of Somalia and accelerate the drawdown in Afghanistan will likely just be dismissed. Both efforts appeared to be little more than an eleventh-hour campaign stunt, after all. But the incoming Biden administration should not ignore a genuine American interest in bringing our troops home from war. With the upcoming transition in January 2021, the Biden administration will face the best opportunity the United States has had in a generation for a foreign policy reboot. A meaningful shift from an unaccountable military-driven foreign policy back to civilian and diplomatic leadership and oversight could release America from a cycle of expensive, counterproductive, and endless small wars.

READ HERE

Should America still police the world?
By Daniel Immerwahr/ Quoted: Deputy Director of Research & Policy Stephen Wertheim & Non-Resident Fellow Patrick Porter
The New Yorker, 11/18/20

In 1939, shortly before the German invasion of Poland, a British emissary, Lord Lothian, visited the White House with an unusual request. The United Kingdom was unable to protect the world from the Nazis, Lothian told President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. “Anglo-Saxon civilization” would thus need a new guardian. The scepter was falling from British hands, Lothian explained, and the United States must “snatch it up.” Though informally made, it was an extraordinary entreaty. London was willing to step aside and let Washington lead the world.

READ HERE

Trump demands Afghan withdrawal and Washington panics. But it’s time to leave, now
By President Andrew Bacevich & Research Fellow Adam Weinstein
Responsible Statecraft, 11/17/20

With metronomic regularity, Washington discovers Afghanistan and then forgets it, a pattern that has continued for over three decades since the Soviet invasion of that country in 1979. Rarely has US policy there reflected a realistic appraisal of actual American interests. That pattern continues to the present day as the Trump administration, with one foot out the door, is expected to order the drawdown of troops from Afghanistan, as well as Iraq and Somalia, before he leaves office in January.

READ HERE

How to Stop America's 'Endless Wars'
By Zach Weissmueller/ Interviewed: Executive Vice President Trita Parsi & Research Fellow Annelle Sheline 
ReasonTV, 11/20/20

WATCH HERE

The right signals to Iran
Interview with Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President
CNN, 11/17/20

WATCH HERE

Pompeo’s West Bank trip
Interview with Trita Parsi, Executive Vice President
Deutsche Welle, 11/19/20

WATCH HERE

WEBCAST: The slander of 'isolationism'
With Deputy Director of Research and Policy Stephen Wertheim & Non-Resident Fellow Nils Gilman
Cohosted by Berggruen Institute and Quincy Institute, 11/19/20

WATCH HERE
WEBCAST: America the unexceptional: The foreign policy the American people want
With Deputy Director of Research and Policy Stephen Wertheim, the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah, & the Chicago Council on Global Affairs' Dina Smeltz; moderated by CATO's Trevor Thrall
Quincy Institute, 11/18/20

WATCH HERE

Subscribe to the Beinart Notebook, a weekly digest of writing about American politics and foreign policy, with an occasional focus on Israel-Palestine. In this new edition, The Notebook explores why progressives have succeeded in transforming Joe Biden’s domestic agenda—but not his international one. 

SUBSCRIBE HERE
 

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