John, 

Between Nancy Pelosi touching down in Taiwan (followed by intense military drills by China) and a successful strike wiping out an Al-Qaeda leader, it’s been an important month on the foreign policy front. 

Catch up on all the foreign policy headlines from the past month below –– and sign our petition to join Mike’s effort to ban TikTok in the US.

America has a "Long way to go" in the Fight Against Terrorism

Bottom Line: “The world is safer with Al-Zawahiri gone. But I fear we are back to September 10th again in Afghanistan. Because this proves that we have a country controlled by the Taliban providing safe haven to Al-Qaeda.”

Rep. Gallagher Takes Action Against CCP-Linked TikTok

Bottom Line: “Rep. Mike Gallagher is renewing calls to ban social media app TikTok following a report from Forbes that indicated nearly 300 current TikTok and ByteDance employees were current or former employees of Chinese state media companies.”

Rep. Gallagher Defending Taiwan

Bottom Line: “Even more than high-level visits, what Taiwan needs is decisive action to improve the conventional military balance in the Indo-Pacific. This starts with defense assistance for Taiwan. Congress must provide meaningful assistance to help Taiwan acquire critical asymmetric military capabilities, whether in the form of my Arm Taiwan Act or through Foreign Military Financing.”

Rep. Gallagher on Falling Military Recruitment 

Bottom Line: “We are on the cusp of a military recruiting crisis,” Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) told POLITICO, citing COVID, obesity among would-be recruits, competition from the healthy civilian labor market, and an overall low interest in serving. “When Republicans take control of Congress in a few months, averting the recruiting crisis will be a top priority of the Military Personnel Subcommittee.”

Thank you for reading this month’s edition of the Foreign Policy Newsletter –– we’ll be in touch soon as we monitor developing stories from around the globe.

–– Gallagher Foreign Policy HQ