Small Wars Journal

02/11/2020 News & Commentary – National Security

Thu, 02/11/2021 - 9:44am

News & commentary by Dave Maxwell. Edited and published by Daniel Riggs.

1. Biden announces new Pentagon China task force

2. Biden also announced a new Pentagon-led review of military strategy towards China.

3. Bill would cut over 100,000 DoD jobs

4. U.S.-Cuba: Secrets of the 'Havana Syndrome'

5. White House Announces Senior Official Is Leading Inquiry Into SolarWinds Hacking

6. A majority of the people arrested for Capitol riot had a history of financial trouble

7. Trump’s Worst 2 Military Mistakes for Biden to Fix

8. In first call with China’s Xi, Biden stresses U.S. commitment to allies and human rights

9. US and Japan are 'making progress' on military support agreement, State Department says

10. US hints at modifications of FONOPs under Biden

11. Water-Supply Hack Should Be a Wake-Up Call, Experts Say

12. How the Pacific Islands Forum Fell Apart

13. We Must Reorient US Cyber Strategy Around the Only Safe Assumption

14. New Pentagon chief commits support for PH in South China Sea

15. Want to Redefine Readiness? Here’s Where to Start

16. The WHO Investigation Shows Beijing Still Pulls the Strings

 

1. Biden announces new Pentagon China task force

Defense News · by Aaron Mehta · February 10, 2021

Excerpt:

“It will be made up of “up to” 15 civilian and uniformed officials, will be led by Ely Ratner, a former deputy national security adviser to Biden who joined the department as Austin’s special assistant on China.”

 

2. Biden also announced a new Pentagon-led review of military strategy towards China.

defenseone.com · by Katie Bo Williams

Biden: ‘I Will Never Politicize’ US Troops

Biden also announced a new Pentagon-led review of military strategy towards China.

 

3. Bill would cut over 100,000 DoD jobs

federaltimes.com · by Jessie Bur · February 10, 2021

Excerpts:

“The legislation seeks to give the secretary of defense the mandate and the tools necessary to implement cost saving measures without being overly prescriptive,” a spokesperson for Calvert told Federal Times, adding that it, “if made permanent, would affect the contracts and IT support needed within the department required to meet the full $125 billion. This force shaping measure would allow the secretary of defense the discretion to implement many of the measures included in the report, as well as weight performance more heavily to ensure we keep the best and brightest of our civilian workforce.”

The bill is unlikely to gain White House support, as President Joe Biden has promised both before and after his inauguration to protect federal workers from the kinds of removals proposed under the Trump administration and to encourage more qualified personnel to start government jobs.

 

4. U.S.-Cuba: Secrets of the 'Havana Syndrome'

nsarchive.gwu.edu · February 8, 2021

 

5. White House Announces Senior Official Is Leading Inquiry Into SolarWinds Hacking

The New York Times · by Julian E. Barnes and David E. Sanger · February 10, 2021

Excerpts:

“After briefings on the issue, Mr. Warner and Mr. Rubio wrote that “the threat our country still faces from this incident needs clear leadership to develop and guide a unified strategy for recovery, in particular a leader who has the authority to coordinate the response, set priorities, and direct resources to where they are needed.”

Ms. Neuberger’s efforts are focused on directing agencies hit by the Russian intrusion to patch and repair their networks, examine the government’s response to the episode and work with the private sector. She is also overseeing a study of the longer-term implications of the attack on the “supply chain” of software, Ms. Horne said.

The White House has also charged the Office of the Director of National Intelligence to conduct an assessment of the SolarWinds hacking, work that is continuing.

Mr. Warner has pledged to hold public hearings on the intrusion to help better understand what happened.

 

6. A majority of the people arrested for Capitol riot had a history of financial trouble

The Washington Post· by Todd Frankel · February 10, 2021

Hmmm... an interesting use of statistics to support the desired narrative.

 

7. Trump’s Worst 2 Military Mistakes for Biden to Fix

Foreign Policy · by Bradley Bowman · February 10, 2021

From the Director of our Center for Military and Political Power at FDD.

 

8.  In first call with China’s Xi, Biden stresses U.S. commitment to allies and human rights

The Washington Post· by Anne Gearan · February 11, 2021

Excerpts:

“A White House statement on Biden’s first conversation with Xi since taking office said Biden “affirmed his priorities of protecting the American people’s security, prosperity, health, and way of life, and preserving a free and open Indo-Pacific,” and did not mention tariffs or trade policy.

“President Biden underscored his fundamental concerns about Beijing’s coercive and unfair economic practices, crackdown in Hong Kong, human rights abuses in Xinjiang, and increasingly assertive actions in the region, including toward Taiwan,” the White House statement said.

Biden tweeted late Wednesday that he had told Xi the United States would also work with China when doing so suits American interests.”

 

9. US and Japan are 'making progress' on military support agreement, State Department says

Stars and Stripes · by Seth Robson · February 11, 2021

Excerpts:

“Trump had demanded Japan pay $8 billion a year for hosting U.S. troops in the country, former national security adviser John Bolton wrote in his memoir, “The Room Where It Happened,” published in June.

Reports of progress in negotiations are good news for bilateral ties, Kingston said Thursday.”

 

10.  US hints at modifications of FONOPs under Biden

asiatimes.com · by  Mark Valencia · February 11, 2021

Excerpts:

“But Vietnam and Taiwan do not claim baselines enclosing the entire group. So the FONOP must have been purposely designed to penetrate and challenge not only the Chinese baselines but also the regime in the 12-nautical-mile territorial sea around high-tide features.

This means it was aimed at all three and not just China and perhaps was trying to demonstrate that the FONOP was about upholding principle and not just targeting China – like most of those under former president Donald Trump.

Biden’s Indo-Pacific policy coordinator Kurt Campbell had offered some hope of a change, and these are small rays of hope that it may be in the works. Shortly before his appointment he wrote in Foreign Affairs regarding the US-China conundrum that ”the present situation could be reversed” but that it “will be challenging and require diplomatic finesse, commercial innovation, and institutional creativity … [and] serious re-engagement….“

However, the destabilizing fundamental contradictions remain. China’s declared closing baselines around the Paracel features violate the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea that China – unlike the US – has ratified.”

 

11. Water-Supply Hack Should Be a Wake-Up Call, Experts Say

defenseone.com · by Mariam Baksh

Was some organization conducting "cyber reconnaissance" by probing defenses to determine what kind of attack could be successful?

Excerpts:

“This time an amateur move of a rogue mouse cursor gave the preparators away, but we are seeing a sharp rise in sophisticated, stealthy attackers that slip under the radar unnoticed, what will happen the next time there is no flashing red light?” said Justin Fier, director of cyber intelligence and analytics for the firm Darktrace. He said governments around the world will be taking a closer look at their defenses for lessons, but so will malicious actors.

Whatever the identity of the hacker, Todt said the incident should propel CISA to take a more proactive role with water utilities and all critical infrastructure sectors.

“Defending our critical networks is a challenge exemplified by SolarWinds and now punctuated by this water utility crisis,” she said.

 

12.  How the Pacific Islands Forum Fell Apart

thediplomat.com · by Cleo Paskal · February 10, 2021

From my FDD colleague, Cleo Paskal.

Excerpts:

“Attention should also be paid to countries still within the PIF – rather than letting Canberra and Wellington forge on with their ill-advised, damaging, and eventually doomed “integration.” For example, Tuvalu is the only country remaining in the PIF that recognizes Taiwan. Given the influence China seems to think it has via the PIF, outreach to Tuvalu is crucial (including direct flights, trade, education, and health assistance) to help it hold the line. If New Zealand is advising Australia to “show respect” to Beijing, one can only imagine what it’ll tell Tuvalu. Perhaps Tuvalu would be interested in a U.S. COFA?

Real, stable security is aggregate – put together with patience, understanding, and trust, building block by building block. If the goal is a stable, secure, cohesive Oceania, Australia, New Zealand, and likely France just blew it apart. Now it’s up to the region and its partners to do the hard work to figure out how to put the pieces back together again, for their sake and for ours – and before Beijing does it in its own image.”

 

13. We Must Reorient US Cyber Strategy Around the Only Safe Assumption

defenseone.com · by Dmitri Alperovitch

Assume the bad guys are already (and always) in the network and do these five things:

  1. Appoint CISA as the government’s chief information security officer.
  2. Measure agencies’ ability to respond quickly to cyber threats.
  3. Pass a comprehensive breach notification law.
  4. Increase security standards for vendors supplying high-risk software via government acquisition processes.
  5. Require cryptocurrency exchanges to remember who uses them.

We Must Reorient US Cyber Strategy Around the Only Safe Assumption

We should assume adversaries are already in our networks — and Congress should take these five steps to mitigate the damage.

 

14. New Pentagon chief commits support for PH in South China Sea

globalnation.inquirer.net · by Frances Mangosing · February 10, 2021

The Philippine view of the readout on the call between the SECDEF and the DEFMIN.

 

15. Want to Redefine Readiness? Here’s Where to Start

defenseone.com · by Seamus Daniels

Yep. Congress has a vote.

Excerpts:

“DoD doesn’t get the only say, however. Congress has long guarded legacy equipment that the Department has sought to eliminate, out of concern for near-term threats both to America and to constituents’ interests. The 2021 National Defense Authorization Act, for example, restricts the military’s ability to retire aircraft. If DoD expects the Hill to buy into a more holistic conception of readiness, it must show that it is managing and mitigating risks to short-term readiness as it directs resources towards modernization. To do this, the services must be willing to share data and plans with the committees that oversee them. One place to start is by revising budget documentation for operation and maintenance funds that are the most analogous to investments in readiness. DoD should provide the Hill with more detailed documentation for O&M accounts, enough to allow policymakers to see funding by type of unit, not just at an aggregated level. For greater transparency, the Department could also publish the five-year projections for O&M funds, which are currently in the classified portion of its budget submission―as it does for procurement and research, development, test and evaluation programs―to show its public commitment to managing present threats and the near-term readiness of the force.

Embracing a long-term view of readiness will put DoD on the right trajectory for competition with China and Russia. Convincing all parts of the U.S. defense enterprise may present challenges, but if the Department can adequately demonstrate and communicate how it will mitigate risks from competitors today, it will be better placed fiscally and strategically to prepare for the threats of tomorrow.”

 

16.  The WHO Investigation Shows Beijing Still Pulls the Strings

Foreign Policy · by James Palmer · February 10, 2021

No surprise.

 

---------------

 

“If only it were all so simple! If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?”

- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago 1918–1956

 

"Europe today has again become a vast battlefield of ideologies in which words have replaced armaments as the active elements of attack and defense." An evergreen statement. This was true over seven decades ago when it was written, and it is true today. - This statement opened a report by the special Smith-Mundt committee investigating the needs of the United States Information Service in Europe after traveling through Europe in Sep-Oct '47...'

 - Thanks to Matt Armstrong

 

 "Democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man."

- Ronald Reagan

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