Remembering D-Day and Tiananmen Square
This week, we mark two very different milestones: the 75th anniversary of D-Day, June 6, 1944, the allied invasion of Nazi-controlled Europe; and the 30th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square Massacre on June 4, 1989. How these days are marked and remembered tells us a lot about the difference between democracy and autocracy. Earlier this week, a friend pointed out that D-Day is perhaps the most celebrated, fictionalized, and talked … Read More
The First Campaign Narrative of 2020
The 2020 campaign is fully under-way. Democrats and even a few Republicans have announced campaigns and exploratory committees, and campaign narratives are beginning to emerge. Campaign narratives are central to how candidates engage with the public. They provide a framework for understanding developments because the public, once having internalized a narrative, can sort facts and new developments on their own. The narratives that emerge around campaigns are driven by the … Read More
Chilean Teachers Arrive In Newport for Professional Development
July 8th was a perfect morning. The air was crisp; the sky was crystal blue, and the birds were singing. My husband and I raced around the house finishing last minute preparations. He mowed the lawn; I set the brunch table. Summer had shown up – just in time for the Chilean teachers’ arrival. For the past three summers, it has been my honor to work with groups of teachers … Read More
What is the GDPR and What Does it Mean for Small Businesses?
Picks of the Week Originally published on White Hawk. The digital age has ushered new ways to think about privacy issues and any business that uses information and communications technologies (ICTs) and the internet to process, store, communicate, and share data can no longer ignore the risk of data breaches, privacy violations, hacking and other cybersecurity concerns. Indeed, cyber risks affect all industries and markets and can represent an existential … Read More
Continuing Security in the Climate Era
Redefining Security | Foreign Affairs The Top 15 Countries for Military Expenditure in 2016 | Forbes U.S. Military Puts “Great Power Competition” at Heart of Strategy | Reuters Pentagon Asks for Major Budget Increase Amid Threats from Russia, China and North Korea | CNN Amidst the threats from North Korea, China, and Russia, the Pentagon is proposing an increase in its military spending power for 2019. If approved, the … Read More
A 19th Century Hammer versus a 21st Century Nail
Picks of the Week: “Don’t blame China, Mr. President. Blame the robots” | The Washington Post “Trump Tariffs won’t bring back steel mills” | The Baltimore Sun “How Many American Jobs Could be Lost Thanks to Trump’s Steel and Aluminum Tariffs” | Fortune Faced with a profound transformation in the workforce just 18 years into the twenty-first century, the President of the United States has adopted a decidedly nineteenth century tool to meet … Read More
Authoritarian Powers in the Age of America First
PICKS OF THE WEEK “The Authoritarian Challenge: China, Russia and the Threat to the Liberal International Order” | Aaron L. Friedberg “Making China Great Again” | The New Yorker “The Rise and Rise of Viktor Orban” | The Financial Times “A Sober Trump Reassures the Davos Elite” | The New York Times In the immediate aftermath of the Cold War, Western policy elites—basking in the glow of their perceived success—came to believe that the … Read More
We Knew Russia Attacked American Democracy Before Election Day 2016
Picks of the Week “Trump-FBI feud over classified memo erupts into open conflict” | Washington Post “Dutch agencies provide crucial intel about Russia’s interference in U.S.-elections” | deVolksrant “Senator Urges Fellow Republicans to Heed Warnings on Releasing Secret Memo” | The New York Times For weeks, one of the trending hashtags pushed by a network of known Russian bots has been #ReleaseTheMemo. The memo in question is a summary … Read More
Tillerson’s Travails
“Rex Tillerson, Visiting Europe, Gets Cold Shoulder” | The New York Times “Tillerson Seeks to Reassure Worried Europe Over Trump” | Reuters “Tillerson Visits Brussels Amid Doubts About his Future, and His Boss” | Politico Europe “The Worst Secretary of State in Living Memory” | The Atlantic “Replacing Tillerson with Pompeo Would Supplant a Moderate with a Hawk” | The New York Times When Rex Tillerson was chosen as … Read More
Diversity and Peace vs Purity and Violence
‘White Europe’: 60,000 nationalists march on Poland’s independence day | The Guardian White nationalists call for ethnic purity at Polish demonstration | Politico Poland defends massive far-right protest that called for a ‘White Europe’ | Washington Post Poland celebrated its 99th Independence Day last weekend—and a parallel celebration of far-right extremists—almost 60,000 of them calling for “pure blood” and a “white Europe”—marched through the streets. The celebration attracted white supremacists … Read More