Key Reads
Refugees stuck in no man’s land between Croatia and Serbia
Patrick Kingsley / The Guardian
Refugees hoping to reach the safety of the EU faced a fresh obstacle on Tuesday morning after Croatian police blocked off part of the country’s border with Serbia, which had in recent days become the main entry point to the EU for thousands of people walking north from Greece.
EU backs refugee-sharing plan in teeth of eastern opposition
Francesco Guarascio and Alastair MacDonald / Reuters
A plan to share out refugees across the European Union was rejected outright by the Czech Republic on Tuesday and criticized by a United Nations agency for not going far enough.
China’s president to meet tech titans, visit Boeing in start to U.S visit
Alwyn Scott / Reuters
Chinese President Xi Jinping will meet U.S. tech titans and tour Boeing Co’s (BA.N) biggest factory and Microsoft Corp’s (MSFT.O) sprawling campus near Seattle this week as he kicks off a U.S. visit that also includes a black-tie state dinner at the White House hosted by President Barack Obama.
Devoted to Simplicity, Pope Francis Created Knotty Logistics with Visit
Andy Newan and Vivian Yee / New York Times
In New York, Roman Catholic official have walked Pop Francis’s expected path through the National September 11 Memorial and timed it at five to seven minutes.
American Competitiveness
Pope’s visit brings hope for Dems, trepidation for GOP
Racheal Bade and Lauren French / Politico
Roman Catholic lawmakers from both parties say they’re ecstatic about Pope Francis’ historic address to Congress on Thursday. But beneath the surface, their feelings about the first-ever papal appearance on Capitol Hill couldn’t be more different: Democrats are quietly gloating, Republicans are plainly nervous.
Oil falls 2 percent as concern over demand bites
Amanda Cooper / Reuters
Crude oil prices fell as much as 2 percent on Tuesday on uncertainty over whether global demand will be enough to erode a sky-high surplus, ahead of a weekly survey of U.S. inventory levels.
Stock slide on commodities’ tumble, dollar up
Michael Connor / Reuters
Falling commodities prices and worries about China’s economy pulled stocks sharply lower on Tuesday, while bond yields declined and the dollar rose to a near two-week high on bets U.S. officials will soon hike interest rates.
Wall Street slumps amid fall in commodity prices
Tanya Agrawal / Reuters
Wall Street fell more than 1.5 percent on Tuesday morning amid a decline in commodity prices and continuing uncertainty about when the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates.
National Security & Strategy
With fight against the Islamic State in Iraq stalled, U.S. looks to Syria for gains
Missy Ryan and Greg Jaffe / Washington Post
With the offensive to reclaim territory from the Islamic State largely stalled in Iraq, the Obama administration is laying plans for a more aggressive military campaign in Syria, where U.S.-backed Kurdish forces have made surprising gains in recent months.
Asymmetric Operations
Russian Expands Fleet in Syria with Jets that can Attack targets on ground
Eric Schmitt and Neil MacFarquhar / New York Times
Russia has sharply increased the number of combat aircraft at an air base near Latakia, Syria, giving its forces a new ability to strike targets on the ground in the war-stricken country.
Bruce Riedel / U.S. news
Saudi Arabia and its coalition partners are preparing for a major offensive to take Yemen’s capital from the Zaydi Houthi rebels this fall. If the battle becomes a house-to-house urban clash, it will have disastrous humanitarian consequences.
Climate Security
Senate Democrats to unveil Climate change Bill
Coral Davenport / New York Times
Senate Democratic leaders on Tuesday plan to unveil a measure intended to signal their support of President Obama’s aggressive climate change agenda to 2016 voters and to the rest of the world.
Scientists Calculate Staggering Economic Impact of a Warming, Melting Arctic
Jim Algar / Tech Times
Greenhouse gases released as global warming thaws permafrost in Arctic regions could increase the economic toll of climate change by trillions of dollars, scientists say.
Energy Security
Exclusive: In clash with pope’s climate call, U.S. Church leases drilling rights
Richard Valdmanis / Reuters
Casting the fight against climate change as an urgent moral duty, Pope Francis in June urged the world to phase out highly-polluting fossil fuels.
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
Ngoc H. Le
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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