
7 April 2018
Game of Loans: How China Bought Hambantota

India-Iran Cooperation at Chabahar Port: Choppy Waters
India’s efforts to help develop Iran’s Chabahar Port reflect Indian ambitions as a driver of infrastructure development and improved regional connectivity, particularly with Afghanistan. Chabahar Port is meant to serve as an essential node to a multi-modal transportation network for the movement of goods and passengers between Iran, Afghanistan, and India. During the final phase of its development, the port is expected to be capable of handling 20 million tons of trade annually. Only 72 kilometers from the Chinese-backed, Pakistani port of Gwadar , the project is seen as a strategic play to limit the influence China seeks to gain and wield through its Belt and Road Initiative. Chabahar also allows the bypassing of a Pakistani bottleneck in terms of India-Afghanistan connectivity.
Long Before Cambridge Analytica, There Was KGB
by Aravindan Neelakandan
Today, there is a massive outrage against the alleged misappropriation of big data from a social networking site by Cambridge Analytica and political parties seeking the services of such transnational big data crunchers to manipulate the electorate. However, decades before Cambridge Analytica, Soviet intelligence agency, the KGB (Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti translated in English as Committee for State Security), had a free run in India.
An Indian Marshall Plan to thwart China’s Asia ambitions?
By RAVI KANT
The world is facing a complex international scenario with the threat of conflict on the Korean peninsula, a possible global trade war and growing tension in the Middle East. Economic interdependence, mutual distrust and unreliable security guarantees encourage ostensible allies to hedge against one another to protect their interests. The big question is the rise of China both economically and militarily and its growing assertiveness in the South China Sea, South Asia, Eurasia and Africa. China is clearly undermining regional security by engaging in coercive activity in the South China Sea and challenging the International Tribunal ruling https://goo.gl/nMNozT. South China Sea sovereignty and the huge rise in China’s military budget are deeply troubling concerns for Asian countries. It’s clear that China is seeking global domination.
Foreign Policy Think Tanks in India: New Actors, Divergent Profiles

Foreign policy think tanks created in India after 2009 are more active and visible in the public sphere than their predecessors. This is partly because they have more funding and increased access to information due to a more supportive government and a more open Ministry of External Affairs (MEA).
How to fix competition in a market owned by Google, Facebook, Amazon and other digital platforms
Anupam Manur

Inside the Minds of Afghanistan’s Commandos
By Franz J. Marty

Kyaukpyu: Connecting China to the Indian Ocean

CHINA SAYS U.S. WANTS WORLD FOR ITSELF AND THAT'S WHY IT CAN'T ACCEPT BEIJING'S ROLE IN AFRICA
BY TOM O'CONNOR
China has defended its expanding role in Africa after lawmakers in Washington announced they would open an investigation into Beijing's push for economic and military influence in a number of countries there. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Devin Nunes, a GOP representative from California, said on Fox News's Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo that China was "a big problem" and that he and fellow Republican lawmakers were "running an investigation on many aspects of China," including allegations of intellectual property theft, currency manipulation and its "military footprint" in Africa. The following day, the Chinese Foreign Ministry denied charges of malpractice and called for cooperation rather than competition with the U.S.
The looming threat of Chinese imperialism
China’s new surveillance state puts Facebook’s privacy problems in the shade
By John Pomfret

Commentary: How Beijing is winning in the South China Sea
Peter Apps
Earlier this month, the USS Carl Vinson became the first American aircraft carrier to visitVietnam since the Vietnam War ended in 1975. Coming alongside the news that a record 23 nations from Southeast Asia and beyond would be joining biennial naval exercises in the eastern Indian Ocean, it was a potent reminder of just how eager the nations surrounding the South China Sea are to embrace powerful allies to fend off a rising China.A sailor walks among aircraft aboard the USS Carl Vinson after it docked in Danang, Vietnam. March 5, 2018. REUTERS/Kham
The Catholic Church and China: Where Religion and Geopolitics Meet

How China’s grand strategy for the Mekong impacts the river, and the countries downstream.
By Tom Fawthrop

Fewer Checks, More Balancing: How Xi Jinping’s Consolidation of Power Changes the Risk of War

50 years after the Battle of Karameh, Jordan faces new uncertainty

The Battle of Karameh’s mixed legacy
How Iran Used the Hezbollah Model to Dominate Iraq and Syria
By Ranj Alaaldin

Why Central Banks Could Mint Their Own Digital Currency
From the Marshall Islands to Russia, it seems everyone's on board with the year's hottest trend: digital currency. Following the boom and (partial) bust of various private cryptocurrencies over the last six months, several central banks are now seriously considering introducing their own national digital currencies in the near future. These currencies won't just be bit players in a field dominated by the likes of bitcoin; instead, the central banks' entry into the crypto game could have a significant effect on individual customers, commercial lenders and the international monetary system itself.
Mattis: Russia Has Chosen To Be a "Strategic Competitor"
Dave Majumdar
Was the Arab Spring a black-swan event?
Elena Ianchovichina
To the Lebanese-American author Nassim Taleb almost all major discoveries and historical events are “black swans.” These very rare, extremely impactful events initially come as a surprise, but once they occur, they are often inappropriately rationalized with the benefit of hindsight. For Taleb, historical events such as World War I and September 11 are some examples of black swans. In his view, these outliers explain almost everything that followed as they changed the course of history.
Judy Asks: Does Europe Have a Russia Policy?
JUDY DEMPSEY
Federiga BindiSenior fellow at the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University, Jean Monnet chair at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, and D. German distinguished visiting char at Appalachian State University No and yes. Ever since the end of World War II, European countries have been squeezed between the West (the United States) and the East (the Soviet Union, then Russia). Any foreign policy decision had to take into consideration—at least to some extent—either or both of these countries’ preferences. For Central and Eastern Europeans, the Soviet Union pretty much dictated any foreign (and domestic) policy decision. For Western Europe, the picture was more nuanced. Countries like Germany and Italy tried to find a difficult balance between Atlantic obligations and Eastern reality.
Patriot Missiles Are Made in America and Fail Everywhere
BY JEFFREY LEWIS

Why the U.S. Government Is No Longer Capable of Ensuring National Security
Russell W. Glenn Ian M. Sullivan
What the Hell Is Happening in Gaza?
By Chas Danner

The FSB: A Formidable Player in Russia’s Information Security Domain
By: Sergey Sukhankin
The long-running legal conflict between the Federal Security Service (FSB) and Telegram Messenger Limited, a cloud-based instant messaging service created by Pavel Durov, finally seemed to come to an end on March 20. That day, the Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media (Roskomnadzor) demanded that Telegram provide the FSB with fully de-coded information pertaining to private correspondence of the messenger’s clients (Rosbalt, March 20). Specifically, all information (including all the codes and specific instructions) pertaining to incoming, outgoing and/or processed electronic messages must be handed over to the FSB within 30 days. If Telegram fails to comply by this deadline, Russian Internet service providers (ISP) will be charged with blocking online access to the instant messenger. This decision followed provisions engrained in Article 10.1 of the Federal Law “On Information, Information Technologies and Protection of Information,” adopted in 2006 (Consultant.ru, July 27, 2006).
If We Want To Get To Real Time AI, We’ve Got To Build Another iPhone Industry. Five Times Over.

How to Modernize Data Processing, Exploitation and Dissemination Methods

Everything you need to know about a new EU data law that could shake up big US tech
Arjun Kharpal
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will come into force on May 25. It will affect companies located in the European Union but also those that have operations and customers there too. The key principle of GDPR is giving consumers control of their data. There are fines of up to 4 percent of total global turnover if rules in the GDPR are breached. You may have heard of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). But most likely you haven't because it sounds boring, but it's really important and CNBC has a guide to help you understand it.
The Theft or Abuse of Your Personal Information by Governments, Facebook and Others Is Now the New Norm. What Lessons Have We Learned?
Paul R. Pillar
The sudden attention to the exploitation, including for political purposes, of information on millions of Facebook users in ways that ought to make those users uncomfortable—and to how Facebook does not seem to have cared about such abuses—has been tardy and myopic even though the attention is fully justified. It took the story about Cambridge Analytica’s mining of Facebook data to get that attention, even though the probability of such unwelcome exploitation of personal information has existed since the dawn of social media.
Triggering the New Forever War, in Cyberspace

United States Cyber Command’s New Vision: What It Entails and Why It Matters
By Richard J. Harknett
The United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) has released effectively a new command strategy (formally called a “Command Vision,” although it addresses ends, ways and means), anchored on the recognition that the cyberspace domain has changed in fundamental ways since the Command was established in 2009. Drawing on its experience over the past eight years, the Command offers a new approach that aligns with the strategic realities within which it must successfully operate. The “Achieve and Maintain Cyberspace Superiority: A Command Vision for US Cyber Command” marks a significant evolution in cyber operations and strategic thinking, portending an opportunity to bring about greater security and stability to the interconnected global digital environment.
NSC Readies Major Overhaul in US Arms Exports
By PAUL MCLEARY

7 Big Pentagon Numbers in the $1.3 Trillion Spending Deal
By Michael Rainey
‘The Art of War’: As relevant now as when it was written
by Peter Harris
The Art of War has rightly become one of the world’s most influential books on military strategy. Written well over two thousand years ago in China, but not translated into English until the beginning of the twentieth century, it is now studied in military academies around the globe. Indeed, its relevance has been reconfirmed in the twenty-first century. For Sun Tzu, and for any strategist, of course, the best strategy is the one that delivers victory without fighting. “Troops that bring the enemy to heel without fighting at all - that is ideal,” he advised. Those who soldiered during the Cold War - or any war, for that matter - can certainly attest to the wisdom of Sun Tzu’s observation; however, those who remained in uniform beyond 9/11 would caution that, unfortunately, it is not always possible to prevail against one’s enemies without resort to arms.
US Army’s Futures Command sets groundwork for battlefield transformation
By: Jen Judson
In his keynote address to the AUSA Global Force Symposium, Army Secretary Mark Esper explains why the service considers modernization to be so important. It’s the beginning of a new era in Army acquisition in which soldiers might not have to wait 10 years or longer to see a new weapon or capability in the field, but instead could get modern, new systems in their hands within just a few short years. That’s at least what service leaders tasked to come up with new road maps for the Army’s top modernization priorities are thinking is possible. The newly vigorous pace is fueled by the frustration created by years of painful acquisition blunders, sluggish bureaucratic processes and wasted dollars, all on top of the fact that near-peer adversaries like Russia haven’t waited to develop weapons systems that would create serious dilemmas for the U.S. Army and its Middle East-tuned equipment if it had to face off in a conflict.
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