Las Vegas water chief seeks disaster aid for Colorado River drought
Henry Brean / Las Vegas Review-Journal
The Colorado River is locked in the grips of a slow-moving natural disaster, and Southern Nevada Water Authority chief Pat Mulroy thinks the time has come for some federal disaster aid.
Yemen Says It Foiled Al-Qaeda Plot to Seize Energy Plants
Mohammed Hatem and Glen Carey / Bloomberg
Yemen’s government said it uncovered an al-Qaeda plot to seize port facilities in the volatile southeastern province of Hadramut after the U.S. and Britain urged their nationals to leave the country.
Pakistan Quetta suicide bomber kills at least 28 people
BBC
A suicide bombing at a funeral for a policeman in south-western Pakistan has killed at least 28 people including a senior police officer, police say.
Tesla Shares Get a Charge Out of Another Surprise Profit
Steve Schaefer / Forbes
In May, the electric carmaker reported a surprise quarterly profit that stunned investors anticipating another loss. That news sent shares on a steep climb that has since swelled to a year-to-date gain better than 300%.
John Sfakianakis / Foreign Policy
Reading the newspapers these days, you’d think that the much-hyped impending American energy boom is about to make Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC irrelevant. But such projections — based, at least in part, on the rapid discovery and development of unconventional hydrocarbon resources in the United States — are far from ironclad.
Syria Conflict: Officials deny Assad motorcade attacked
BBC
Syria’s information minister has denied rebel claims that they attacked President Bashar al-Assad’s convoy.
Unexpected strength in China trade data eases some gloom
Koh Gui Qing / Reuters
Surprisingly firm rebounds in China’s exports and imports in July offered some hope that the world’s second-largest economy might be stabilizing after more than two years of slowing growth, although an imminent rebound still looks unlikely.
Diplomatic Rift With Putin Grows as Obama Cancels
Carol E. Lee and Alan Cullison / Wall Street Journal
President Barack Obama’s decision to pull out of a one-on-one meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow next month punctuates a steady decline in relations and represents an unusually sharp rebuke for an administration pledged to engaging adversaries.
ASP Recent Publications
Perspective- U.S. Public Diplomacy towards Iran
Livia Pontes Fialho and Matthew Wallin
This report explores several types of public c diplomacy aimed towards Iran, and looks in to some of the challenges and potential of these programs as part of an overall strategy for addressing U.S. national security interests.
Fact Sheet- U.S.-E.U. Trade and the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership
Justin Winikoff
The U.S. and E.U. recently began negotiations on what would be, if completed, the largest trade agreement in world history.
On Our Flashpoint Blog
Loss of Louisiana Wetlands Increases Vulnerability to Climate Change
Nicholas Cunningham
Louisiana has experience its fair share of severe storms, but the loss of wetlands means the Gulf Coast is losing one of its key insurance policies against climate change.
Bay of Bengal- A Hotspot for Climate Insecurity
Andrew Holland
On the Bay of Bengal’s coast these problems of a changing climate combine with already existing social problems like religious strife, poverty, political uncertainty, high population density and rapid urbanization to create a very dangerous cocktail of already security threats.
Easing Jordan’s burden requires a targeted aid strategy
Ollie Engebretson
As the debate over supplying aid to the Syrian opposition continues, Jordan, the welcoming neighbor to the south, moves further and further towards socio-economic crisis.
The BBG gets three new members
Christian Mull
The Senate has recently confirmed three new members to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), the U.S. government’s international broadcasting arm.
Linking climate change and conflict- new report stirs old debate
Andrew Holland
For national security planners and professionals, we don’t need a scientific consensus directly linking past changes in climate or temperature to violent conflict. When national security planners look at threats to our security, they know that you cannot act with certainty: once you have 100% certainty, it is too late to act. The truth is that so long as there’s a persuasive chance that climate change will cause conflict, prudent actions to mitigate that threat are in order.
Gauging the possibility for change in Iran’s nuclear stance
Chris Smith
While the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ali Khameni is ultimately responsible for the foreign policy of Iran, Rouhani will play an important foreign policy role as he is responsible for nominating individuals to fill important government positions.
ASP in the News
ASP’s Andrew Holland cited in Washington Post
Brad Plummer of the Washington Post’s WonkBlog wrote an interesting article on the ongoing academic research on the link between climate change and violence, and linked to a blog post written by ASP’s Andrew Holland.
Paul Rockower in the Huffington Post: The Public Diplomacy of Free France During WWII
ASP Adjunct Fellow Paul Rockower’s piece on Free France’s public diplomacy during WWII has subsequently appeared in the Huffington Post.
BGen Stephen Cheney publishes op-ed in Stars and Strips
ASP’s CEO wrote a piece in stars and Strips urging policy makers to fill high ranking diplomatic positions at the State department.
