News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs
1. RT Jumps Into Growing Fray Over "Critical Race Theory" In The US
2. Taiwan’s unity cracks under Chinese disinformation onslaught
3. Chinese Millennials Are ‘Chilling,’ and Beijing Isn’t Happy About It
4. The Intellectual Foundations of the Biden Revolution
5. Conspiracy theories are a mental health crisis
6. Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman, Brother of Crown Prince, to Visit Washington
7. Opinion: Countering violence extremism is the magic bullet in war on terror
8. Cyber Threats and Vulnerabilities to Conventional and Strategic Deterrence
9. The political power of memes
10. College students — even Republicans — skeptical of crackdown on critical race theory
11. The U.S. Army and 2022 Budget | SOF News
12. Exclusive: Special Operators sound off about SOCOM's Armed Overwatch Program
13. The War on History Is a War on Democracy
14. Force Integration in Resistance Operations: Dutch Jedburghs and U.S. Alamo Scouts
1. RT Jumps Into Growing Fray Over "Critical Race Theory" In The US
global-influence-ops.com · by Editor
Of course RT is doing this. But it does not need to do much as both those for and against CRT are doing a great job of supporting Russian objectives.
2. Taiwan’s unity cracks under Chinese disinformation onslaught
Financial Times · by Kathrin Hille · June 29, 2021
Taiwan needs its own variation of this statement from our 2017 NSS:"A democracy is only as resilient as its people. An informed and engaged citizenry is the fundamental requirement for a free and resilient nation. For generations, our society has protected free press, free speech, and free thought. Today, actors such as Russia are using information tools in an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of democracies. Adversaries target media, political processes, financial networks, and personal data. The American public and private sectors must recognize this and work together to defend our way of life. No external threat can be allowed to shake our shared commitment to our values, undermine our system of government, or divide our Nation."
3. Chinese Millennials Are ‘Chilling,’ and Beijing Isn’t Happy About It
The New York Times · by Elsie Chen · July 3, 2021
Sounds like some variations of Gene Sharp's nonviolent resistance techniques in "From Dictatorship to Democracy: A Conceptual Framework for Liberation." Or maybe some new techniques to add to the list.
If I were supporting a nascent resistance I would provide two documents to the movement: Gene Sharp's work and the OSS Simple Sabotage Manual. Sounds like the millennials may be borrowing that manual as well.
4. The Intellectual Foundations of the Biden Revolution
Foreign Policy · by Daniel Deudney, G. John Ikenberry · July 2, 2021
Excerpts: “A key assumption of the Biden program is quintessentially Rooseveltian: The achievement of basic national interests requires making difficult domestic reforms in response to shifting global challenges. Just as the United States in World War II quickly and dramatically ramped up production, the Biden program recognizes that responding to climate change requires far-reaching domestic innovations. The mobilization to defeat the Axis powers and then the Soviet Union left no aspect of American life untouched and unchanged. So too, effectively responding to the climate crisis will remake America. If this reconstruction serves liberal democratic values, the United States will be made stronger and more capable—and more liberal and democratic.
Realities dictate that the United States must both compete effectively and cooperate extensively. The Biden administration’s program therefore recognizes that ramping up the capacity to compete with China must occur alongside efforts to cooperatively work with China to jointly address the climate emergency and the threat of pandemics. Due in large measure to the influence of U.S. liberals and internationalists, the United States not only competed with the Soviet Union but also cooperated with it on arms control and smallpox eradication. Rooseveltian internationalism, not minimalist realism or belligerent Trumpian nationalism, offers the playbook for a U.S. foreign policy that effectively competes with the Chinese but also cooperates with them on shared global problems.
In making sense of 21st-century realities and guiding U.S. grand strategy, modern liberalism and internationalism as first shaped during the Roosevelt era have the intellectual and programmatic resources that no other tradition of U.S. foreign policy can provide. Unlike those of his rivals, Biden’s worldview and program build on the successes of earlier Rooseveltian liberal and internationalist projects. As in the past, the success of the United States of America in the world—and the success of the free-world project—depend on the extension and implementation of a progressive liberal agenda.
5. Conspiracy theories are a mental health crisis
Mashable · June 27, 2021
Perhaps a public service announcement for all those who believe in the wild conspiracy theories that have become mainstream these days.
6. Saudi Prince Khalid bin Salman, Brother of Crown Prince, to Visit Washington
WSJ · by Vivian Salama and Stephen Kalin
I knew Khalid at Georgetown. Although he had an aide, he was a very down to earth guy (for a prince I guess) and was really looking forward to two years of studying for his master's degree. He started out as a student until halfway through the semester when he walked into my office and said he had to return to Saudi Arabia and had to withdraw from the program. Two weeks later he returned as the Ambassador to the U.S.
7. Opinion: Countering violence extremism is the magic bullet in war on terror
tuko.co.ke · by Naomi Wandede · June 30, 2021
A view from Kenya. But I do not think there are any magic bullets in CT or any other national security issue.
8. Cyber Threats and Vulnerabilities to Conventional and Strategic Deterrence
ndupress.ndu.edu · by Mark Montgomery and Erica Borghard
Excerpts: “Given the extraordinarily high consequence of a successful adversary cyber-enabled information operation against nuclear command and control decision making processes, DOD should consider developing a comprehensive training and educational requirement for relevant personnel to identify and report potential activity. DOD must additionally consider incorporating these considerations into preexisting table-top exercises and scenarios around nuclear force employment while incorporating lessons learned into future training.67 Implementing these recommendations would enhance existing DOD efforts and have a decisive impact on enhancing the security and resilience of the entire DOD enterprise and the critical weapons systems and functions that buttress U.S. deterrence and warfighting capabilities.
Much of the focus within academic and practitioner communities in the area of cyber deterrence has been on within-domain deterrence, and even studies of cross-domain deterrence have been largely concerned with the employment of noncyber instruments of power to deter cyberattacks. This has led to a critical gap in strategic thinking—namely, the cross-domain implications of cyber vulnerabilities and adversary cyber operations in day-to-day competition for deterrence and warfighting above the level of armed conflict. Failure to proactively and systematically address cyber threats and vulnerabilities to critical weapons systems, and to the DOD enterprise, has deleterious implications for the U.S. ability to deter war, or fight and win if deterrence fails. Implementing the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s recommendations would go a long way toward restoring confidence in the security and resilience of the U.S. military capabilities that are the foundation of the Nation’s deterrent.
9. The political power of memes
See the video here.
A 1:51 minute video that provides a very useful discussion of the modern "psychological operations leaflet."
10. College students — even Republicans — skeptical of crackdown on critical race theory
Axios · by Neal Rothschild
The anti-CRT crowd will have a field day with these statistics. They will want to double down (which of course will only make it worse for their cause). And the pro-CRT crowd will likely misinterpret this as well and those who push extreme variations of CRT theory will also create blowback.
Both sides will blame this on effective indoctrination which must either continue or be countered depending on where you stand and sit.
But what about the ability of college students to think critically for themselves? Does anyone think they are not capable of doing so and therefore must be indoctrinated with one extreme ideology or another?
11. The U.S. Army and 2022 Budget | SOF News
sof.news · by SOF News · July 1, 2021
The SOF excerpt: “SOF. Representative Murphy (FL), a member of the House Subcommittee on Intelligence and Special Operations, asked how the Army’s special operations forces (ARSOF) are adapting to and improving training for the refocus from CT/COIN to GPC. The Secretary response stressed that the shift from CT/COIN to GPC has been ongoing and continues. She said that ARSOF is still needed in a GPC environment and that training scenarios are changing to incorporate the changes outlined in the Irregular Warfare Annex to the National Defense Strategy. General McConville stated that SOF has done an incredible job the past 20 years. He stated that CT/COIN is not going away, however he said SOF is very agile and can perform both the CT/COIN missions as well as the future fight with near-peer adversaries. McConville stated that SOF is uniquely suited to working with allies and partners in the combatant regions they are aligned to – and that SOF will continue to help partners build their CT capability. The Secretary briefly discussed the ‘resistance capability‘ that US Special Forces can enhance in the Baltic nations.
12. Exclusive: Special Operators sound off about SOCOM's Armed Overwatch Program
sandboxx.us · by Stavros Atlamazoglou · July 1, 2021
13. The War on History Is a War on Democracy
The New York Times · by Timothy Snyder · June 29, 2021
It will be interesting to see how divisive this article will be.
I too have a problem with banning ideas and thoughts regardless of how much I disagree with them. In that sense I am a strict Constitutionalist when it comes to the 1st Amendment and the entire Bill of Rights.
And it is our Amendment process that has allowed us to correct mistakes and keep us on the path to a more perfect union.
14. Force Integration in Resistance Operations: Dutch Jedburghs and U.S. Alamo Scouts
ndupress.ndu.edu · by Kevin Stringer
Some weekend history reading.
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"I never allow myself to have an opinion on anything that I don’t know the other side’s argument better than they do."
- Charlie Munger
"One of the most important reasons for studying history is that virtually every stupid idea that is in vogue today has been tried before and provides disastrous before, time and again".
- Thomas Sowell
"Age does not bring wisdom. Often it merely changes simple stupidity into arrogant conceit. Its only advantage, so far as I have been able to see, is that it spans change. A young person sees the world as a still picture, immutable. An old person has had his nose rubbed in changes and more changes and still more changes so many times that he knows it is a moving picture, forever changing. he may not like it – probably doesn't; I don't – but he knows it's so, and knowing it is the first step in coping with it."
- Robert Heinlein - Time Enough for Love