Greetings,

In a moment where the bad news for those many of us committed to bringing an end to endless wars seems to come at us ever faster and more furiously, we think it is all the more important to keep you up to date on the work that Quincy Institute is doing to challenge and to ultimately change this dangerous dynamic. As my grandmother often told me, “I can’t give you hope. All I can give you is a to-do list.” 

In that vein, I commend to you a “to-read” list of recent analysis and commentary by Quincy staff and non-resident fellows.  

Politico published an encouraging story this weekend about how an emboldened anti-war movement in the United States successfully faced down recent efforts to escalate to war with Iran. We were gratified to see QI’s role recognized as being central to the new infrastructure being built in this country to fight American interventions abroad. The reporter asserts that QI’S  “mere existence” is “emblematic of how much faster, more organized and more popular the anti-war – or ‘war-skeptic’ – movement is today compared to the early 2000s, especially as the U.S. prepared to invade Iraq.”

QI’s Steven Simon deftly navigates the shifting terrain of U.S. MidEast policy following the assassination of Qassem Soleimani in an aptly headlined piece in the New York Review of Books, “The Middle East: Trump Blunders In.” 

Meanwhile, in Foreign Policy, QI non-resident fellow Thomas Meaney argues that the emergence of leftist momentum in the United States necessitates that we differentiate between “social democracy” and “democratic socialism” in order to understand how each might reshape U.S. foreign policy should Elizabeth Warren or Bernie Sanders, respectively, win the presidency.

Also in Foreign Policy, QI’s Trita Parsi makes the case that the Middle East might, in fact, be more stable without U.S. military intervention or the perpetual threat thereof. Fareed Zakaria picked up on Trita’s thesis, hosting Trita and a representative from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies on his Sunday CNN show, GPS.

In the New York Times’ Sunday Review, QI non-resident fellow, Jessica Stern, offers a personal narrative about the time she let convicted war criminal and former president of Republika Srpska, practice energy healing on her. The essay is adapted from her forthcoming book “My War Criminal: Personal Encounters with an Architect of Genocide.” Jessica is just one of a number of QI’s non-resident fellows who are in the process of publishing books, we look forward to featuring in future emails and on our platform, ResponsibleStatecraft.com.

And because you can never be in the paper of record too many times in one day, a glowing review of QI President Andrew Bacevich’s latest book, "The Age of Illusions", also appeared in the New York Times this past Sunday.  

And to end on a fun and practicable note about what drives political conversation in this day and age: A day later, Dave Weigel tweeted that Democratic presidential candidate Senator Elizabeth Warren told the moderators in a forum this weekend that they ought to read Andrew’s book to understand her foreign policy thinking.

PS: Don’t forget to check out the latest from our platform, ResponsibleStatecraft.com, updated daily:

• Read Paul Pillar's latest in which he links recent attacks on the Quincy Institute by Sen. Tom Cotton to a new McCarthyism. 

• Scholar Emily Blout dug into what was really behind President Trump's decision to kill Qassem Soleimani, while Sohaela Amiri of the Center on Public Diplomacy at the University of Southern California examined how cities can work around national governments and conduct their own kind of diplomacy.

• And S. Nathan Park outlined how rising tensions in the Middle East affect South Korea.

PPS Take a look at our most recent QI-produced videos:

•  The Power to Declare War
• Is the Middle East More Stable Without the U.S. Military?