Weary of Myopic TV News Coverage of International Affairs? Welcome i24NEWS with Less Politics and More Reportage

Check out i24NEWS on Optimum TV or on the web at i24NEWS.tv.   Broadcasting in English, Arabic and French, this television news station covers global affairs with an emphasis on events across the Middle East.  I've noticed it covers stories unreported by other outlets and it's analysis segments DEBRIEF with Nurit Ben, and STRICTLY SECURITY with Barbara Opall-Rome, feature  experts with refreshingly frank, easy-to-understand and timely insights. 

 

 

 



The Phone Call Heard 'Round the World: What of the Talk between Presidents Trump and Tsai?

I admit, my first reaction to the news of a break in forty years of American policy was as much to the time span of forty years as to the event itself.  Could this be the beginning of a shift of Biblical proportions?  Hmmm ... I next analogized the happening to a superpower chess match.  While our eyes have been on North Korea as a pawn of China and Russia, could the United States have just moved it's Queen on China's Bishop?  Enough.  It was time to call an expert, so I reached out to Gordon G. Chang, author of The Coming Collapse of China and devoted analyst of Asian security matters.  He has been generous and pivotal in this space and, most recently, speaking to a live audience at our Election Night 2016 Security Summit.  He replied with his characteristic precision and alacrity:

 

"It is possible the phone conversation Friday with Tsai Ing-wen was Trump's opening bid in a complex bargaining with Beijing and that he has no long-term intention to strengthen relations with Taipei, but the Trump advisor who put the call together, Stephen Yates, is a strong proponent of Taiwan.  It is almost certain, therefore, that Yates was trying to steer American policy in Taipei's direction.

What we do know is that the President-elect has broken with almost four decades of Washington policy toward China, and this creates a dynamic that could take on a life of it's own.

See this, my National Interest piece on the topic:   http://nationalinterest.org/feature/why-donald-trumps-taiwan-call-changes-everything-18605."

 

 





2016 Election Night Calm ... Four Experts Kept Us Focused on Key Security Matters Facing the 45th American President

 

Four experts in different aspects of national and international security did not know, and could not know, who would be elected as the next American President as they spoke to an audience comprised of law enforcement, IT and HR professionals, business-owners and CEOs, U.S. Army veterans, educators, social workers and scholars, all assembled to hear macro-analyses of the dynamics and challenges presented by the global economy, Islamic State, nuclear proliferation and Russian foreign policy.  They convened in Westport, Connecticut, on Tuesday, November 8^th for an Election Night 2016 Security Summit, 80 Minutes Around the World: Security Briefings for the 45^th POTUS.   Focused on the issues and avoiding politics, each offered a ten-minute briefing to POTUS-Elect 45 and conducted a 5-minute Q&A.

Economist Constance Hunter was the first to the podium flagging trade policy, industrial policy and taxation as three key components of economic security.  Asia-watcher Gordon Chang then took the floor to map out the intricate relationship between China, Iran and North Korea in his talk called, The New Nuclear Nexus. 



Dr. Austin Long, an authority on insurgency and irregular warfare, rose to present The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: Crucible for the Next American President. Dr. Stephen J. Blank capped off the program with an eye-opening and sobering synopsis of Russia’s War on America.  

During this program there was no election coverage and we operated under The Chatham House Rule.  Both worked to facilitate a candid and synergistic exchange of views and perspectives between the experts themselves and between the experts and the audience.  To organize a similar program, or for ideas on speakers and other formats more suitable for your department, meeting or campus, contact Lisa Bernard via email or telephone (203) 293-4741 or at www.Facebook.com/PodiumTime. #ElectionNightSecuritySummit    #ElectionNightSecurityBriefings  SecuritySpeak@PodiumTime

 

 

With News of the Iraqi Effort to Take Back Mosul from the Islamic State ...

 

I asked Dr. Austin Long, authority on international security matters and particularly urban operations in counterinsurgency, to put this in perspective for us.  He replied:  "The long awaited offensive to retake Mosul is a welcome sign of progress in the war on the Islamic State but should not be heralded as the beginning of the end. The loss of Mosul will hurt the group but not fatally.  We should always remember that retaking Fallujah in 2004 was seen as a major sign of progress but two years later Al Qaeda in Iraq, the Islamic State's predecessor, was stronger than ever."

Hear Dr. Long on Monday, November 7, 2016, at 7:00 p.m. at Sacred Heart University in Fairfield, CT.  He delivers, The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria: Crucible for the Next American President.  For details: LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net or www.Facebook.com/PodiumTime.

ISIS: Crisis or Crucible?

Last week’s shift in White House policy regarding ISIS in Afghanistan occasioned me to interview Dr. Austin G. Long, a specialist in counterinsurgency and irregular warfare.  We met up at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies.  Dr. Long was an analyst and adviser to the U.S. military in Iraq from 2007 to 2008 and to the Combined Forces Special Operations Component Command in Kabul, Afghanistan in 2011 and to NATO Special Operations Component Command/Special Operations Joint Task Force in 2013.   I had four questions for him.

BERNARD:  Austin, American and British news agencies report that thanks to international air strikes ISIS has lost as much as forty per cent of the territory it held in Iraq and twenty per cent of the ground it commandeered in Syria.  How meaningful are these numbers and how do they translate into actual degradation of ISIS?

 

BERNARD:  As I mentioned in my set-up, just this week The White House gave the Pentagon a green light to target ISIS in Afghanistan, suggesting – based on the President’s State of the Union message—that there is a threat coming from ISIS in Afghanistan – a threat to us here in the homeland.  What kind of threat does “ISIL–K” pose to the United States? 

 

BERNARD:  Syria, Libya, Afghanistan … failed states where ISIS has exploited the situation.  Where next do you see a “failed state” ISIS might seize? 

 

BERNARD:  There’s a spectrum of thinking here in the U.S. – all sincere, it seems to me – on how to rid the world of ISIS:  destroy it militarily, counter it ideologically, starve it financially.  Given what you know about how ISIS’s motivation and nature, what’s your sense of what would get the job done?

 

BERNARD:  Austin, I thank you for your time and sharing of your insights in such a concise manner.  I’ve been in the audience when you’ve made full-length presentations and moderated panels and this format, I see, is yet another forum in which we can learn so much from you.  It is a pleasure to represent you at Lisa Bernard’s SecuritySpeak and I note that those who wish to host you for talks and briefings can contact me directly by calling (203) 293-4741 or emailing  LisaBernard@SecuritySpeak.net and view your full profile at www.SecuritySpeak.net.