Iran grants Syria $3.6 billion credit facility to buy oil products
Reuters
This week, Syrian authorities and Iran signed a deal to activate the credit facility to buy oil products.
U.S. economic growth at 1.7% in second quarter
BBC
The Commerce Department has said the U.S. economy grew at an annualized pace of 1.7% in the second quarter.
Rank ‘Em: The most solar-friendly states in the U.S.
James Montgomery / Renewable Energy World. com
A new report from the Environment America Research and Policy Center lists what it believes are the top 12 U.S. states for solar energy.
Scuffles erupt over Taiwan-China trade pact
Annie Huang / Associated Press
A new pact between Taiwan and China that allows mutual investment in service sectors led to Taiwanese protest demonstrations.
Ramin Asgard, Barbara Slavin
The election of Hassan Rowhani could mark an opening of resolution of some of Iran-U.S. disputes, and multilateral diplomacy will be necessary to seize this opportunity.
Gina McCarthy: Climate change poses economic threat
Erica Martinson / Politico
EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy called climate change a “fundamental economic challenge internationally.”
Shell moves to Nigerian offshore fields amid onshore woes
Elisha Bala-Gbogbo / Bloomberg
Following national unrest, Shell and Chevron Corp. are moving their operations from land-based locations to offshore fields.
Cyber Jihadists, State Department now in full-blown twitter war
Will McCants / Foreign Policy
The State Department’s Digital Outreach Team that counters al Qaeda propaganda is making the right enemies- al Qaeda.
Wheels up! Has Obama really pivoted to Asia?
Phillip Sanders and Katrina Fung / The Diplomat
Sanders and Fung consider whether the administration’s pivot is rhetoric or a true movement towards building stronger relations with Asia.
ASP Recent Publications
Fact Sheet- U.S.- EU Trade and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Justin Winikoff
The United States and European Union recently began negotiations on what would be, if completed, the largest trade agreement in world history. The TTIP intends to eliminate barriers to transatlantic trade, including tariffs, duties and burdensome regulations. This fact sheer provides a detailed history of U.S.- EU trade relations, and explains the goals, economic benefits and security imperatives of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership.
American Security Quarterly V2 Issue 3
Over the past quarter, ASP has continued to examine a host of issues and their implications for our national security. From American competitiveness to Nuclear Strategy to Public diplomacy, we have published a wide array of articles on what we feel are the most pressing matters in the security dialogue of our nation.
Fact Sheet- DoD Installation Energy
Andrew Holland, Nick Cunningham, Kaitlyn Huppmann, and William Joyce
Military installations are important for preparing, training and housing war fighters. These bases are the staging grounds for emergency response scenarios such as responding to natural disasters. They are therefore critical to national security. DoD is undertaking ambitious efforts to install renewable energy and energy storage at its military installations. This fact sheet details some of the military’s efforts to improve resiliency and redundancy on its bases through clean energy.
Ollie Engebretson
Yemen is currently in a historic period of political transition following the 2011 revolution and the end of former President Saleh’s regime. At the mid-point of its National Dialogue process, designed to forge a unified solution to the various issues beleaguering the country, Yemen still faces many challenges to achieving political stability and economic growth. Here are some basic facts about what the U.S. is doing in Yemen, organized into three broad categories of relevance.
On Our Flashpoint Blog
Event Recap – Yemen’s Political Transition and National Dialogue: Progress and Challenges
Ollie Engebretson
Ambassador Bodine paraphrased one of her Yemeni acquaintances in stating that by focusing on security concerns, Yemen will never move beyond those security concerns and address the core issues, like unemployment, that first brought Yemenis to the streets in 2011.
Justin Winikoff
This morning, the American Security Project hosted “The Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership: Implications for Global Security and Western-Chinese Relations”, a discussion regarding the proposed American-European trade agreement and the effect it may have on China.
Exporting Public Diplomacy to Egypt
Christian Mull
What are the barriers to U.S. public diplomacy in Egypt?
BPC Event on Geopolitics of Shale Gas
Nicholas Cunningham
On July 25th, the Bipartisan Policy Center hosted its second installment of its ongoing series on unconventional oil and gas development in the U.S.
Forecasting the Future: EIA’s International Energy Outlook to 2040
Warren Dym
On July 25th the Center for Strategic and International Studies hosted the administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), Adam Sieminski, on the occasion of the 2013 International Energy Outlook (IEO2013) release. The report contains forecasts of world energy demand by region and energy source, electricity generation by energy source and CO2 emissions by energy source to 2040, among other critical issues.
ASP in the News
The Climate Desk cited ASP recently in an article on the increasing frequency of superstorms in the future.
ASP CEO BGen Quoted in “Breaking Energy”
ASP’s CEO Brigadier General Stephen Cheney, USMC (Ret.) was quoted in an article in “Breaking Energy” about the connection between climate change and national security.
Adjunct Fellow Dan Grant Writes Op-Ed on TTIP for “The Hill”
ASP Adjunct Fellow Dan Grant recently published a blog for “The Hill” on the impact of the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP) on China.
