Work in Progress / Tracking @StratDem — When a crisis threatens to escalate into disaster, the Strategic Demands team attempts to take a deeper look, a view with perspective. Here we reveal snapshots of our research as the US threatens a new war, another war…
Today, political news, global headlines, Twitter words of the US president: “We were cocked & loaded to retaliate last night on 3 different sights when I asked, how many will die. 150 people, sir, was the answer from a General. 10 minutes before the strike I stopped it…”
Story of the Day from Strategic Demands’ associate, GreenPolicy360: With the repeal of the Clean Power Plan, the Trump EPA has made it “painfully clear that they are incapable of rising to the challenge and tackling this crisis. They have shown a callous disregard for EPA’s mission, a pattern of climate science denial…”
Pepe Escobar’s geoeconomic political points connect. Whether called China’s Eurasia strategy, or the New Silk Road, or the Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), it’s a new global great game with a new multipolar supply chain. The U.S. move this week to ban Huawei raises the game’s stakes and escalates tensions internationally
China expansion, U.S. containment… Continuing the Strategic Demands’ Eurasia series, a few crucial ‘Great Game’ thoughts with Pepe Escobar via Asia Times. Moving pieces on an extremely complex – and dangerous – geopolitical chessboard
As the international nuclear arms control architecture collapses, the progenitors of nuclear weapons control meet up at their annual DC confab to talk of strategic issues and academically shake their heads witnessing a descent toward a nuclear precipice … Nukes in the new era of proliferation … The 2019 Carnegie Nuclear Policy Conference
Second Meeting Confirmed Donald Trump and Kim Jong-un to confer in Hanoi “My representatives have just left North Korea after a very productive meeting and an agreed upon time and date for the second Summit with Kim Jong-un. It will take place in Hanoi, Vietnam, on February 27 & 28” …
One day, January 16, 2019, as Google World News highlights China sword-rattling … rising risks, markets react to China-US trade war, Taiwan tensions escalate, North Korea nuclear talks off, South China Sea maneuvers grow as a new arms race reverberates with next generation nukes, hypersonic weapons….
As the U.S. energy policy continues to focus on fossil fuels, we at Strategic Demands take a look at the data and consider crude oil proved reserves. It is an appropriate moment to consider the longer term, e.g., the longevity of the U.S. fracking upsurge… and consequences
It’s on. After back and forth negotiations, a deadline passes and what is being described as a “trade war” commences. What sort of trade war? The market’s collective judgment so far? Day one, the global markets shrug. We consider the negotiating strategies, risks, costs, and ripple effects. Go…
“I think I’m very well prepared. I don’t think I have to prepare very much. It’s about attitude, it’s about willingness to get things done. So this isn’t a question of preparation, it’s a question of whether or not people want it to happen, and we’ll know that very quickly.”
What’s an appropriate response to news of an unexpected meeting in Beijing and newest moves by the US president threatening trade war with China? The first shots in the trade war are now fired, global markets are responding, and the visit of N. Korea’s leader to meet the Chinese president signal a new asymmetrical conflict […]
Tom Nichols Makes His Case. Strategic Demands’ editor responds… Former US Defense chief, William Perry, weighs in… Negotiating horizon? Time to prep? Two months. Negotiating prep to date? No visible prep. Korean Ambassador? No US Ambassador. Nuclear weapons experts? Arms Control team? Questionable at best. Winging it? Admittedly. Other options? War. Nuclear war. Dead-Hand Disaster.
The new Nuclear Posture Review signals a new nuclear arms race. Luck of the draw. “Do you feel lucky?” The question of generational, existential risk takes on new dimension as strategic arms experts ask deadly end game questions. Nuclear tensions are turning to nuclear threats, an international ramp up of nuclear weapons development, ‘usable’ nukes, […]
Citizens of the U.S. are not known for their knowledge of international relations — from the basics across to more detailed, complex geopolitics and diplomacy. Yet, it is time to recall what was once called “Ping-Pong Diplomacy” that set in motion an opening between the U.S. and China. The Olympics may be another opening
The U.S. nuclear arsenal should not be under the control of one person. No decision of one person should be able to initiate nuclear weapons conflict and potentially a humanity-ending nuclear war. Humanity is at a precipice, we need to draw back from the brink of disaster
As a military band plays Gershwin in the Rose Garden at the White House, the US president walks off stage after announcing he has decided to abandon the international climate agreement. A legacy is established, a message sent to the world, the US under the current president explicitly does not believe in a “global community”
