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Greetings,

I wanted to make sure that you saw Quincy Institute Non-resident Fellow Sam Moyn and Deputy Director of Policy and Research Stephen Wertheim’s op-ed on the front page of the Washington Post “Outlook” section this week.

The analysis —”The Infinity War” ([link removed]) — cites the release of the Afghanistan Papers earlier in the week, which revealed that U.S. policymakers doubted almost from the start that the now two-decade-long war could ever succeed, as yet another — albeit tragic — data point in the post-Cold War trajectory of U.S. military engagement abroad.

The authors go on to assess why, and by what means, war has become normal and peace has become the exception. Stephen then took the conversation a step further in a video ([link removed]) , in which he discusses what can be done — what we at Quincy must work to do — to reverse this dangerous trend.

In a week when the impeachment investigation otherwise dominated the news headlines in cycle after cycle, Moyn and Wertheim’s thoughtful piece made the Post’s list of most-read opinion pieces.

And they weren’t the only ones to break through. Quincy authors’ analyses dominated the news coverage of the Afghanistan Papers:
* “If Ukraine Is Impeachable, What’s Afghanistan?” ([link removed]) by Andrew Bacevich, The Atlantic, December 10, 2019
* “Where Is the Outrage Over the War in Afghanistan?” ([link removed]) , by Jeet Heer, The Nation, December 13, 2019
* “Weekend” ([link removed]) , BBC, December 14, 2019. Includes an interview with Quincy Research Associate, Adam Wunische, which begins at 32:00.
* “Veteran Responds To Washington Post's Afghanistan Papers: The War Has 'Largely Been A Failure'” ([link removed]) , by Robin Young, WBUR-Boston, December 11, 2019.
* “How America Thought Britain Bungled the Afghanistan War,” ([link removed]) by Josh Glancy, The Sunday Times (UK), December 15, 2019.

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In other Quincy news, Politico magazine ([link removed]) speculated that QI president, Andrew Bacevich, might make for a great Secretary of Defense in a Sanders administration. Perhaps the reporter had been listening to Bacevich’s intervi ([link removed]) ew ([link removed]) on the “None of the Above Podcast.” Bacevich quickly shot down Politico’s supposition before charging a would-be President Sanders with first ”curtail[ing] our military misadventures in the Middle East.”

On Responsible Statecraft last week, Adam wrote about the real lesson ([link removed]) from the Afghanistan Papers. James Russell of the Naval Postgraduate School argued that military brass have largely gotten a pass ([link removed]) in perpetuating the war in Afghanistan, while Paul Pillar says ([link removed]) it's not just liars in government who are responsible for our misguided wars.

Meanwhile, Foundation for Middle East Peace President Lara Friedman breaks down ([link removed]) the history behind Trump's recent executive order on antisemitism and what it means for the 1st Amendment.

And that’s all the Quincy Institute news fit to print this week. We’ll keep you posted.

Sincerely

Trita Parsi
Executive Vice President
Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft

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