Key Reads

Xi Jinping of China Arriving in U.S. at Moment of Vulnerability
Chris Buckley, Jane Perlez / The New York Times
President Xi Jinping of China looked regal as he stood in a limousine moving past Tiananmen Square this month, wearing a traditional suit of the kind favored by Mao and waving at parade troops assembled at attention. But the luster of Mr. Xi’s imperial presidency has dulled lately.

Political Split Awaits Pope Francis on Eve of U.S. Visit
Peter Baker / The New York Times
Pope Francis will arrive at a military base outside the capital on Tuesday afternoon to open his first visit to the United States, and President Obama will be there to welcome him. It is a gesture the president has extended to virtually no other foreign visitor.

American Competitiveness

The New Bond Market: Bigger, Riskier and More Fragile Than Ever
Colin Barr / The Wall Street Journal
Stocks rise and fall, but bonds are starting to make people anxious no matter what they do. The U.S. bond market is amongst the biggest financial markets in the world, with $39.5 trillion outstanding at mid-2015, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association says.

China Seeks Out Unlikely Ally: U.S. Tech Firms
Christopher Mims / The Wall Street Journal
Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the U.S. starts Tuesday with meetings with tech executives in Seattle rather than government officials in Washington, but politics will still be front and center.

Volkswagen Shares Tumble as Emissions Test Scandal Spreads to Europe
William Boston / The Wall Street Journal
Shares in Volkswagen AG plummeted 20% on Monday as the car maker’s crisis over cheating on U.S. emissions tests spread to Europe, with the German government demanding the company provide proof that it hasn’t manipulated emission tests in its home market.

National Security & Strategy

Putin Seeks to Assuage Israel’s Fears of Syrian Aggression
Associated Press
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and sought to assuage Israel’s fears of potential Iranian and Syrian aggression.

Asymmetric Operations

Lebanese Protestors Face Off with Security Forces in Beirut
Sarah El Deeb / Associated Press
Hundreds of Lebanese protestors pushed through a security cordon as they marched toward parliament on Sunday, the latest in a series of demonstrations that began with a trash crisis but has since expanded to target the country’s political class.

Hamas Demands End to Egypt Border Crackdown
Associated Press
Gaza’s Hamas rulers are calling on Egypt to halt a project aimed at destroying the last remaining smuggling tunnels along the border.

Suspected Boko Haram Suicide Bomber Kills 54 in North-Eastern Nigeria
The Guardian
At least 54 people were killed and 90 wounded when several bombs exploded in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri.

2 Americans Among 6 Hostages Freed in Yemen After Months of Captivity
Matthew Rosenberg, Kareem Fahim / The New York Times
Two Americans held hostage for months by rebels in Yemen were freed on Sunday and quickly flown to safety in nearby Oman, which helped the United States secure the release of the men, American officials said.

75 US-Trained Rebels Enter Syria From Turkey
Defense News
Seventy-five Syrian rebels trained to fight jihadists under a beleaguered US program have crossed from Turkey into northern Syria, a US-backed rebel faction and a monitoring group said Sunday.

Climate Security

No Poverty, Hunger in 15 years? UN Sets Sweeping New Goals
Steven R. Hurst / Associated Press
A season of goal-setting begins this month as the United States launches a new 15-year plan to fight grinding world poverty, improve health and education and quell climate change.

Global Warming ‘Hiatus’ Never Happened, Researchers Say: Evidence Was a Statistical Error
Jim Algar / Tech Times
A global warming “hiatus,” a pause in the rate our planet is heating up, never happened, and the evidence for it lacked sound statistical backup, U.S. researchers say.

Energy Security

Oil Prices Climb as Production Capacity Falls
Georgi Kantchev, Nicole Friedman / The Wall Street Journal
Oil Prices rose on Monday on expectations that crude’s yearlong price rout will continue to lower U.S. production.

Lower For Longer? The Impact of “The New Oil Order”
The Washington Post
“The New Oil Order” is one of the most far-reaching market developments since the global financial crisis. The surge in U.S. oil production from investment in shale extraction has driven down prices to levels not seen since 2009 and spurred a fundamental reorganization of the global energy hierarchy.

Nuclear Security

Samples Taken At Iran’s Parchin Military Site: U.N. Nuclear Watchdog
Francois Murphy / Reuters
Environmental samples have been taken at a sensitive military site in Iran, the head of the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Monday, citing “significant progress” in its investigation of Tehran’s past activities.

On Our Flashpoint Blog

Admiral Fallon Testifies Before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs
Sam Hickey
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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