The Evening: Ukraine, Omicron, New Speedway Boogie, and More

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Good Evening,

It's Monday, January 24th.

U.S. Troops on High Alert

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has put 8,500 American troops on “high alert” for possible deployment to Eastern Europe, as NATO and the United States braced for a possible invasion of Ukraine, as the NYT reports

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NATO Bolsters Aid to Ukraine

NATO allies are bolstering the alliance’s eastern flank in response to Russia’s military buildup around Ukraine, as the European Union set out plans for loans and grants for Kyiv worth more than $1.3 billion, as the WSJ reports

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Antibodies That Block Omicron Persist 4 Months After Pfizer Booster

Virus-fighting antibodies capable of blocking the omicron variant persist four months after a third shot of Pfizer according to a new study, as the Washington Post reports

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Executive Education

Register for CSIS's "Navigating U.S. Foreign Assistance

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" course to participate in an in-depth, hands-on study of the latest trends and techniques today’s international development and humanitarian leaders need to maximize their impact.

Call for Applications: Strategy and Statecraft Fellowship

CSIS is launching the inaugural year of its Strategy and Statecraft Fellowship

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, an exclusive, world-class program of approximately 15 leaders. Fellows will grapple with the challenges of developing strategy and conducting effective statecraft, focusing on one of the most pressing challenges facing the United States: how to best compete with China.

Video Shorts

Check out CSIS’s new series of video shorts: “Data Unpacked,” Testify,” “What's Happening,” “Preview,” and “High Resolution.” And don’t forget to subscribe to the CSIS YouTube Channel

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!

In That Number

8,500

The Pentagon puts 8,500 troops on ‘high alert’ for possible deployment to Eastern Europe, as NATO and the United States brace for a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Source: NYT

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Critical Quote

“It’s dangerous to assume that Omicron will be the last variant or that we are in the endgame. On the contrary, globally, the conditions are ideal for more variants to emerge.”

— Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, head of the WHO

iDeas Lab

CSIS satellite imagery analysis

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shows that the Russian military has several options to advance into Ukraine through northern, central, and southern invasion routes.

The Andreas C. Dracopoulos iDeas Lab at CSIS enhances our research with the latest in cutting-edge web technologies, design, and multimedia.

Optics

(Photo credit: Sean Gallup/Getty Images.) A woman holding a hand-drawn sign urging Ukrainian membership in the EU and NATO attends a patriotic rally on Unity day on January 22, 2022 in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Recommended Reading

"Unanswered questions in the Ukrainian crisis

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" by CSIS's Benjamin Jensen.

This Town Tomorrow

At 2:00 p.m.

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, join the CSIS Project on Prosperity and Development for a webcast discussion of UN Sustainable Development Goal #17, which aims to revitalize global partnership for sustainable development.

Earlier, at 10:00 a.m.

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, the Wilson Center webcasts an event featuring members of the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Living Marine Resources to discuss how new marine protected areas can be established in the Southern Ocean.

And, at 1:00 p.m.

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, the Institute of International and European Affairs (IIEA) hosts a virtual panel on how to best navigate Europe’s digital transition.

Video

In her new report—Move Over JARVIS, Meet OSCAR—CSIS's Emily Harding hypothesizes an open-source, cloud-based, AI-enabled reporting capability that could save an IC analyst as much as 45 working days a year by some estimates. For a brief video overview of her report, watch here

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Podcasts

This week, The Asia Chessboard hosts Hal Brands to discuss how lessons from the Cold War can inform current U.S. strategy and provide insights about U.S.-China long-term competition.

Listen on Spotify

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and Apple Podcasts

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Smiles

“Now I don't know, but I been told

If the horse don't pull you got to carry the load

I don't know whose back's that strong

Maybe find out before too long”

The Grateful Dead’s “New Speedway Boogie” is a legendary number penned by Robert Hunter and Jerry Garcia in response to the tragic murder of Meredith Hunter at the hands of a Hell’s Angel at the Altamont Speedway concert in December of 1969.

Many view Altamont as the end of the '60s counterculture movement. But the Dead didn’t see it that way and have carried the spirit of that movement forward through the decades. As young men, Hunter and Garcia were inspired by beatnick author Jack Kerouac, his novel, On the Road, and the sense of American adventure that it underscored.

For me, “New Speedway Boogie” captures a feeling of American adventure, especially as it applies to the West. “Speedway” is a cowboy song to me in the best sense of the genre. This version of the song

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, as covered by the Los Angeles band The Record Company, evokes that feeling.

I invite you to email me at [email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

and follow me on Twitter @handrewschwartz

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The Evening is my daily guide to key insights CSIS brings to the events of the day. It is composed with the External Relations team: Kendal Gee, Paige Montfort, and Christopher Healey.

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Connect w/ H. Andrew Schwartz



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