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Paraguay: A Promising Government Navigating a Perilous Path
Paraguay: A Promising Government Navigating a Perilous Path The greatest gift that Cartes can give the country and President Peña is to empower Peña to take the real and symbolic steps to frontally tackle corruption. https://globalamericans.org/paraguay-a-promising-government-navigating-a-perilous-path/ Brazil and the Southern Cone, Economics, Trade & Development, U.S.-Latin America Relations Background image from Agencia de Informacion Paraguaya (AIP) from article (https://globalamericans.org/paraguay-a-promising-government-navigating-a-perilous-path/)
May 1, 2024 - The greatest gift that Cartes can give the country and President Peña is to empower Peña to take the real and symbolic steps to frontally tackle corruption. Paraguay, a land-locked country at the heart of South America, is...
Now It’s Up to Europe to Take the Lead in Ukraine
Continental security can no longer be outsourced to the U.S., which may soon have other wars to fight. By John R. Deni and Lisa A. Aronsson Ukrainians are breathing a sigh of relief. Within days, desperately needed ammunition and military equipment should begin flowing to Kyiv’s beleaguered forces. But even the $60 billion approved by Congress won’t be enough to enable a Ukrainian victory. If Ukraine loses, the West will be faced with a much more dangerous Russia and a highly unstable security environment, one that could demand far more in Western blood and treasure. With Washington’s latest tranche of funding, Ukraine should survive through 2024. But while Europeans have done a lot, they need to pick up the slack and do more for Ukraine militarily. https://www.wsj.com/articles/now-its-up-to-europe-to-take-the-lead-in-ukraine-russia-war-13a7daff Background image by Mathias Reding from Pexels (https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-on-protest-against-war-in-ukraine-11421247/)
April 25, 2024 - Continental security can no longer be outsourced to the U.S., which may soon have other wars to fight.By John R. Deni and Lisa A. AronssonUkrainians are breathing a sigh of relief. Within days, desperately needed ammunition...
Risk, Rumors, and Reprisals: The Imagined Side of Professional Writing
Risk, Rumors, and Reprisals: The Imagined Side of Professional Writing https://www.hardingproject.com/p/risk-rumors-and-reprisals-the-imagined With the Army’s renewed emphasis on professional writing, a disturbing narrative will likely resurface that publishing is dangerous to an author’s career. While many have articulated the benefits of joining the professional discourse, myself included, prospective authors may imagine backlash from a poorly received article. To take a public stance and challenge the status quo is terrifying; it is the status quo for a reason, after all. Consequently, a rumor, fueled by anecdotal stories, permeates across the force that authors who go against established norms will face career-altering reprisals. While this risk is blown out of proportion, there are gray areas authors should consider before diving into controversial topics. Background image from article (https://www.hardingproject.com/p/risk-rumors-and-reprisals-the-imagined) and expanded using Photoshop Generative AI by US Army War College Press
April 12, 2024 - With the Army’s renewed emphasis on professional writing, a disturbing narrative will likely resurface that publishing is dangerous to an author’s career. While many have articulated the benefits of joining the professional...
75 years in, NATO Remains As Vital As Ever to American Life
As NATO marks 75 years since its founding, there are serious questions among some Americans who doubt the value of the trans-Atlantic alliance. They argue that it’s anachronistic, full of burden-sharing slackers and insufficiently focused on America’s main adversary, China. These critiques are to some degree understandable. NATO’s age obscures the reasons why the United States broke with historical tradition in 1949 and entangled itself in an alliance with other countries. As a result, today some Americans, and even some Europeans, take NATO for granted. Background image via article by by Beata Zawrzel (https://thehill.com/opinion/national-security/4572959-75-years-in-nato-remains-as-vital-as-ever-to-american-life/)
April 4, 2024 - As NATO marks 75 years since its founding, there are serious questions among some Americans who doubt the value of the trans-Atlantic alliance. They argue that it’s anachronistic, full of burden-sharing slackers and...
At 75, NATO Is Still Worth the Price
Despite achieving notable successes over its seventy-five years of existence, NATO today faces a major challenge. A change in the United States’ commitment could spell the demise of the alliance. The North Atlantic Alliance should justifiably mark the seventy-fifth year since its founding, but this may not be the time to pop champagne corks. NATO has been labeled “the most successful alliance in history,” and depending on how one defines success, this label is fairly accurate. However, the alliance faces a fundamental challenge today, one that might mean the operative phrase in that superlative is “in history.” Europe, Russia, United States, EU, security and defense, SSI Worldwide Image from https://carnegieeurope.eu/strategiceurope/92121
April 4, 2024 - Despite achieving notable successes over its seventy-five years of existence, NATO today faces a major challenge. A change in the United States’ commitment could spell the demise of the alliance.The North Atlantic Alliance...
Research Handbook on NATO "Collective Defense"
Research Handbook on NATO Collective defense is back at center stage for NATO. This is primarily due to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, its illegal annexation of Crimea, and the subsequent and more brutal second invasion of 2022, all of which prompted NATO to fundamentally reassess how it provided security to its members states. Since then, the alliance has had to relearn lost skills, refill the ranks, and reinvest in materiel necessary for territorial defense in a way that it has not since the late 1980s. This chapter puts NATO’s return to collective defense in historical context, examining how the alliance pursued security during the Cold War and the post-Cold War period through the mid-2010s. The chapter also briefly outlines some of the most significant challenges NATO has confronted since 2014 in adapting to the ‘cold peace’. The key question facing NATO today is whether the allies have the wherewithal to fully reembrace collective defense while simultaneously remaining committed to crisis management and cooperative security. https://www.e-elgar.com/shop/usd/research-handbook-on-nato-9781839103384.html Background image from NATO on Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/nato/40006342665
March 28, 2024 - Collective defense is back at center stage for NATO. This is primarily due to Russia’s 2014 invasion of Ukraine, its illegal annexation of Crimea, and the subsequent and more brutal second invasion of 2022, all of which...
Argentina Political and Economic Challenges
Argentina Political and Economic Challenges | R. Evan Ellis From February 24 through March 2, I traveled to Argentina to speak with government, business and academic experts regarding the situation in the country, including 27 interactions involving some 300 people. Argentina is at a pivotal moment, as its new libertarian President Javier Milei seeks to turn around the country’s unfolding economic collapse through a series of “shock therapy” measures, while struggling to govern with a politically inexperienced minority party and allies with sometimes divergent incentives, against vested interests for whom the Milei project’s success is an existential threat to their privilege and political future. https://gordoninstitute.fiu.edu/news-events/the-policy-spotlight/2024/argentina-political-and-economic-challenges.html
March 12, 2024 - From February 24 through March 2, I traveled to Argentina to speak with government, business and academic experts regarding the situation in the country, including 27 interactions involving some 300 people. Argentina is at a...
Is China Cornering the Green Energy Transition in Latin America?
A key element of China’s economic advance over the past four decades has been the government’s promotion of its companies’ acquisition of capabilities and market share in sectors seen as strategically important to the country. In recent years, that emphasis has increasingly focused on digital technologies and green energy. The advance of the People’s Republic of China- (PRC) based firms in telecommunications and other digital sectors has received significant coverage in the press and attention by U.S. policymakers. The equally important advance of PRC-based companies in green energy, however, has received less attention. In the past decade, in Latin America and elsewhere, PRC-based companies have progressed considerably in sectors critical to the green energy transition, including hydroelectric, solar, wind energy, electric vehicles, electricity storage and transmission, as well as strategic minerals critical to those sectors such as lithium and rare earth elements. In the last quarter of 2023, BYD surpassed Tesla for the first time in sales of electric vehicles globally. The PRC has also increasingly included cooperation on green energy in its diplomacy with the region, such as in President Xi Jinping’s April 2023 meeting with Brazil’s Luis Ignacio da Silva. The strengthening position in these sectors by China-based state-owned enterprises (SOEs) positions the PRC to reap both enormous profits and strategic leverage, as governments across the globe transition from fossil fuels to green energy. https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/is-china-cornering-the-green-energy-transition-in-latin-america/ Background image from Dialgo (https://dialogo-americas.com/articles/is-china-cornering-the-green-energy-transition-in-latin-america/)
March 6, 2024 - A key element of China’s economic advance over the past four decades has been the government’s promotion of its companies’ acquisition of capabilities and market share in sectors seen as strategically important to the...
EXPLAINER: What Is Article 5 and How Does it Shape NATO’s Ukraine Response?
Sweden, a neutral country for two centuries, is joining NATO in a move experts say will have a significant impact on global politics. The Swedish island of Gotland, located 120 miles southeast of Stockholm and slightly smaller than Rhode Island, is home to around 60,000 people, a thriving local farm scene and one of the world’s northernmost vineyards. In the face of the continued threat from Russian President Vladimir Putin, it’s also become one of the world’s most important geopolitical hotspots: For years American and European analysts have warned that the island in the middle of the Baltic Sea would likely play a key role in a broader Russian attack against Europe, with Russia potentially attempting to occupy Gotland to facilitate a larger regional invasion. In March 2022 – just days after Putin invaded Ukraine – Russian fighter jets emphasized the threat by buzzing Gotland airspace. ... “We’ve likely seen no comparable boost to the strength of Western security,” John R. Deni, a professor at the U.S. Army War College and the author of a book on NATO’s Article 5, wrote in a Wall Street Journal op-ed following Finland’s accession, “since West Germany joined the alliance in 1955.” https://teams.microsoft.com/l/message/48:notes/1709671085790?context=%7B%22contextType%22%3A%22chat%22%7D
March 5, 2024 - Sweden, a neutral country for two centuries, is joining NATO in a moveexperts say will have a significant impact on global politics.The Swedish Island of Gotland, located 120 miles southeast of Stockholm and slightly smaller...
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