Key Reads

U.S. to Begin Military Talks With Russia on Syria

Michael R. Gordon / New York Times

Secretary of State John Kerry said on Friday that the United States was prepared to engage in military-to-military talks with Russia concerning Syria.

Obama ramps up attacks as Congress inches toward shutdown
Steven Mufson and Kelsey Snell / Washington Post
The president is accusing fractious congressional Republicans of pushing the country toward a government shutdown that would damage the U.S. economy.

Croatia Buckles Under Strain of Migrant Influx

Joseph Orovic and Dan Bilefsky / New York Times

Europe’s inability to establish any kind of coordinated response to the migration crisis on the Continent set off a war of words on Friday.

American Competitiveness

American Airlines forced to ground US flights after computer glitch
Alex Hern / The Guardian

American Airlines was forced to ground large parts of its fleet on Thursday night, after a computer malfunction led to a widespread outage. Flights from Chicago O’Hare, Dallas-Fort Worth and Miami were all halted while the company struggled to deal with the issue.

Fed Rate Decision Keeps Monetary Debate Raging
Greg Ip / Wall Street Journal
The monetary doves have won the battle, but not the war. Not yet. In deciding to stand pat on interest rates, the Federal Reserve cited many of the reasons that some vocal opponents of tighter credit—the “doves”—have advanced for keeping rates near zero.

Markets unsettled by Federal Reserve decision
Graeme Wearden / The Guardian

European stock markets fell sharply on Friday after the US Federal Reserve backed away from raising interest rates, and blamed the weaker global economic outlook.

National Security & Strategy

Colombia and Venezuela presidents to discuss ‘most worrying’ border dispute

Sybilla Brodzinsky / The Guardian

A Venezuelan fighter jet crashes amid heightened frontier tensions that have seen 1,500 Colombians deported and 20,000 to leave of their own accord

The coup in Burkina Faso follows the usual script
The Economist
In a small African country, soldiers seize the president they are meant to be protecting and dissolve the government. More take control of the TV and radio stations.

Asymmetric Operations

U.S. Administration Rethinks Syria Strategy
Carol E. Lee and Dion Nissenbaum / Wall Street Journal

The Obama administration is considering scrapping its effort to create a large-scale Syrian force to fight Islamic State as it searches for alternatives to prevent the American-led effort from collapsing, officials said.

UN says 1.4m children have fled Boko Haram extremists

Reuters

The number of children forced to flee Boko Haram’s Islamic insurgency in Nigeria and neighbouring countries has reached 1.4 million, according to the UN children agency, Unicef.

Gunmen attack Pakistan air force base in Peshawar

BBC

Militants have killed at least 17 people after attacking an air force base in the northern city of Peshawar. The gunmen, dressed in police uniforms, stormed the Badaber air base on Friday morning, Maj Gen Asim Bajwa said.

Climate Security

EU ministers unite on climate mandate ahead of Paris summit
Barbara Lewis / Reuters
EU ministers on Friday finalised what they said was a tough negotiating position for U.N. climate talks later this year after overcoming objections from coal-reliant Poland.

Energy Security

Drilling for Arctic oil is not viable yet, says IEA chief
Fiona Harvey / The Guardian
Drilling for oil in the Arctic is not yet commercially viable and may not be for a long time to come, the chief of the world’s energy watchdog has warned, casting doubt on the controversial practice even as it is being enthusiastically adopted by governments and businesses.

Nuclear Security

After Congress Fails to Disapprove, Administration Starts Moving on Iran Deal
Felicia Schwartz / Wall Street Journal
As time ran out Thursday for Congress to block the Iran nuclear deal, the Obama administration began moving assertively to put it into effect, appointing an official to oversee its implementation and starting the process of lifting punitive economic sanctions against Iran.

Iran urges Gulf Arabs to accept post-nuclear deal thaw
AFP

Iran urged its Gulf Arab neighbours Thursday to reconcile themselves to the international rapprochement that led to its July nuclear agreement with world powers and to halt their hostile propaganda.

Experts urge release of details of IAEA inspection at Iran site
Reuters

Several nuclear security experts are urging the United Nations nuclear watchdog and world powers to release details of how a sensitive Iranian military site will be inspected as part of a landmark nuclear deal reached in July.

On Our Flashpoint Blog

Admiral Fallon Testifies Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Sam Hickley
On September 09, ASP Board Member Admiral William Fallon testified on the Implications of a Nuclear Agreement with Iran before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. He was joined in testifying before members of Congress by General Charles Wald, Vice Admiral John Bird, and Leon Wieseltier who is the Isaiah Berlin Senior Fellow in Culture and Policy at the Brookings Institute

Brigadier General Stephen A. Cheney interviewed on Climate Change
Brigadier General Stephen Cheney, USMC (Ret.) CEO of the American Security Project talked about climate change in an exclusive Climate TV interview for The Climate Group

Understanding the Importance of Iraqi Unity
Asha Castleberry
My return home from the Middle East confronted me with a major U.S. foreign policy debate: how to counter the Islamic State of Iraq (ISIL), also known as “Daesh.” In DC, policy critics are overwhelmingly fixated on the Obama Administration’s alleged lack of strategy, but actions in Iraq by Iraqis will be the deciding factor in this fight

Syrian Refugee Crisis Threatens the Security and Stability of the Middle East
Anil Powers
The civil war in Syria is in its fourth year with no clear end in sight.  While battles rage on between the forces of the Assad regime and rebel groups, civilians leave their homes and flee the country.  With millions having already fled Syria and still more to follow, a major refugee crisis exists that threatens the security and stability of the entire Middle East.

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