News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.
1. FinCEN Files: All you need to know about the documents leak
2. Explainer: Why is Taiwan-China tension rising and what are the risks?
3. H.R. McMaster on America's enemies and what he saw in the White House
4. Taiwan military says it has right to counter attack amid China threats
5. China air force video appears to show simulated attack on U.S. base on Guam
6. Cyber Competition and Nonstate Actors in a Data-Rich World
7. Japan's new prime minister Suga, Trump hold first talks by phone
8. U.N. General Assembly to Convene Remotely, With World Watching Trump, Rouhani
9. Analysis: A 'Tired' Taliban talking point | FDD's Long War Journal
10. Thornberry on overseas priorities, funding and advice to his successor
11. Teddy Roosevelt captain says he knowingly risked career with virus warning
12. FBI sounds alarm on rampant personal-data theft by China-backed hackers
13. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and an Alabama Air Force officer changed America for women in 1973
14. U.S. Below War Threshold Options Against China
15. How Can America Live With The Rise Of China?
16. Iran regime 'so hated, another revolt' may come after wrestler execution
17. Assange was offered presidential pardon to help 'resolve' Russia role in DNC hack, court told
18. What the Old Establishment Can Teach the New Tech Elite
19. What Trump Is Missing About American History
20. The Benefits of Brevity
21. This Green Beret had his leg shot off on a 'cursed' mission, but that didn't stop him from becoming an elite sniper
22. The Unbalanced Spear (SOF and broader civilian oversight critique)
1. FinCEN Files: All you need to know about the documents leak
BBC · September 20, 2020
Excerpts:
“The FinCEN files are more than 2,500 documents, most of which were files that banks sent to the US authorities between 2000 and 2017. They raise concerns about what their clients might be doing.
These documents are some of the international banking system's most closely guarded secrets.
Banks use them to report suspicious behaviour but they are not proof of wrongdoing or crime.
They were leaked to Buzzfeed News and shared with a group that brings together investigative journalists from around the world, which distributed them to 108 news organisations in 88 countries, including the BBC's Panorama programme.”
2. Explainer: Why is Taiwan-China tension rising and what are the risks?
Reuters · by Ben Blanchard · September 21, 2020
3. H.R. McMaster on America's enemies and what he saw in the White House
I recommend you spend the 13 minutes it takes to watch this segment. Or you can read the transcript below. There is a lot to parse, consider, and discuss. I am very much looking forward to reading this book this week.
4. Taiwan military says it has right to counter attack amid China threats
Reuters · by Yimou Lee · September 21, 2020
The right of self defense cannot be denied. But can Taiwan defend itself? Probably not without allied help.
5. China air force video appears to show simulated attack on U.S. base on Guam
Reuters · by Yew Lun Tian · September 21, 2020
China's three warfares: psychological warfare, legal warfare, and media warfare.
6. Cyber Competition and Nonstate Actors in a Data-Rich World
warontherocks.com · by Nina Kollars · September 21, 2020
Author's key point: Cyberspace is not owned, operated, or ruled by states
Conclusion:
Privileging states is an exercise in both analysis and tool creation. Political science, in particular International Relations theories (big I, big R), tend to privilege the state as its primary unit not only because they are frequently the primary agents of interaction but also because there is applicable policy value in thinking about how states can conduct themselves among one another. Yet cyberspace, no matter how many times we scream “whole of government,” is not owned, operated, or ruled by states. States are not sovereign on the internet, at least when it comes to intelligence competitions. Privileging states in thinking about cyber is folly. It distracts us from resolving hard policy issues by reducing social media’s dysfunctional influence to Russian meddling or major systemic vulnerabilities in data management to Chinese intellectual property theft. It leads to incomplete and hypermilitarized policy solutions that are costly, potentially escalatory, and fundamentally unhelpful to pressing back against the swollen gnat swarm of data-driven devices. Our windshields are peppered with the evidence. Now, somebody turn on the wipers, and let’s get to work.
7. Japan's new prime minister Suga, Trump hold first talks by phone
Reuters · by Chris Gallagher and Kiyoshi Takenaka · September 20, 2020
A read out from the Japanese side.
8. U.N. General Assembly to Convene Remotely, With World Watching Trump, Rouhani
WSJ · by Michael R. Gordon, Laurence Norman and Courtney McBride
9. Analysis: A 'Tired' Taliban talking point | FDD's Long War Journal
longwarjournal.org · by Bill Roggio · September 20, 2020
Quite a critique: "Trump is not alone in repeating the fable that the Taliban is tired. As history has shown, the only tired thing is the narrative, as the Taliban has shown itself to be resilient in the face of long odds, and has shrugged off the multitude of assessments that it is exhausted."
10. Thornberry on overseas priorities, funding and advice to his successor
Defense News · by Joe Gould · September 17, 2020
Chairman Thornberry will be missed.
11. Teddy Roosevelt captain says he knowingly risked career with virus warning
navytimes.com · by The Associated Press · September 20, 2020
Again, I think this will be studied in leadership classes in PME institutions for some years to come.
12. FBI sounds alarm on rampant personal-data theft by China-backed hackers
washingtontimes.com · by Bill Gertz
He who controls the data.... wins?
Be the firstest with the mostest?
13. Ruth Bader Ginsburg and an Alabama Air Force officer changed America for women in 1973
Alabama.com · by Anna Claire Vollers | avollers@al.com · September 20, 2020
It is hard to imagine we could have been this discriminatory. I know I am applying current norms to 47 years ago but who could have made an argument that this officer was not entitled to equal housing allowance and medical benefits because she was a woman and her husband was a student and not the "breadwinner."
14. U.S. Below War Threshold Options Against China
divergentoptions.org · by James P. Micciche · September 21, 2020
15. How Can America Live With The Rise Of China?
The National Interest · by Bonnie Kristian · September 20, 2020
Better questions and better assumptions.
Here is an interesting conclusion: "But the prudence and commitment to productive negotiation and de-escalation Tsai encouraged would behoove us as well. The Chinese military is not yet a peer competitor, yet it is the second-strongest national force in the world. Needless provocation is more dangerous by the day. We have a big stick—but so does Beijing. We must learn to walk softly."
16. Iran regime 'so hated, another revolt' may come after wrestler execution
Jerusalem Post· by Benjamin Weinthal · September 20, 2020
What a terribly tragic situation in another truly evil regime.
17. Assange was offered presidential pardon to help 'resolve' Russia role in DNC hack, court told
More fodder.
18. What the Old Establishment Can Teach the New Tech Elite
WSJ · by John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge
Spoiler alert. One word: Service.
A powerful conclusion: "Unless the ethic of public service is once again reignited, the American world order will ossify, just as other empires did before it. That is the message today’s Eloi should take from English churchyards."
19. What Trump Is Missing About American History
Politico· by Leslie M. Harris and Karin Wulf · September 19, 2020
I am troubled by the proposal for a federal government mandate for patriotic education.
These two professors provide some important analysis and insights and one of the best essays I have read on this subject.
20. The Benefits of Brevity
groundedcuriosity.com · by Emma Watson · September 19, 2020
I will be brief: Worth a read!
21. This Green Beret had his leg shot off on a 'cursed' mission, but that didn't stop him from becoming an elite sniper
Business Insider · by Ryan Pickrell
22. The Unbalanced Spear (SOF and broader civilian oversight critique)
lawfareblog.com · by Shannon Culbertson and Alice Hunt Friend · September 20, 2020
SOF role demoted? I have a different read of the NSS and the NDS than these two authors. SOF plays an important role in Great Power Competitions.
The authors take me to task for my recent proposal. But there are kudos for Mike Vickers. The problem is he cannot be cloned. (as far as I know).
The authors use SOF to lament the larger problem with civilian oversight of the military in general.
But I agree with part of this assessment: "But structural changes to civilian oversight of special operations will not solve the problem. The issue is not one of quantity but of quality, and not of structure but of stature. Special operations isn’t adrift because of bureaucracy. It is adrift because civilian leadership at the Pentagon has less political influence—inside the Pentagon, with the White House and with Congress—than the military organizations it is intended to oversee." I do think structural changes are needed.
Conclusion: The hobbling of civilian oversight of special operations forces is likely a pronounced example of weakened civilian oversight of the military in general. There is much in recent history and the organizational culture of the special operations community that has accelerated this trend and made it visible to observers. But if the Pentagon cannot be relevant to special operations forces, then the problems with civilian power over military strategy will not end with SOCOM.
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