I keep getting asked re the NATO Summit a couple of questions:
a) can we/will we spend 2%
b) can we send 2k troops-ish to Latvia?

A) No. Not now. Even if this govt wanted to, it does not have enough mil personnel to spend money on (10% short at least). It also 1/x lacks the procurement experts to buy the stuff.
But if the govt keeps all of its promises, it will get closer--making progress on the ships, buying the planes, doing NORAD modernization, paying more to recruit/retain.

the fun part is CPC would cut the mil budget.

2/x

I am spending lunches reading Myth America, a volume edited by @KevinMKruse and @julianzelizer that busts many myths that the right wing have used to get support for their crapstatic policy stances. I thought I knew US history well, but I have been myth-led. 1/2 @KevinMKruse @julianzelizer Yeah, I can play the same game as Kevin, Julian and the great Robert Aspirin. His MythInc fantasy novels are a heap of fun.
Anyway, I had no idea about the deliberate effort by big business to warp our imagination about economic freedom via Hayek and then Friedman 2/3

As a reminder, anyone who says someone is woke in a bad way is really saying that they are tolerant of the historically excluded, concerned about how women are treated, and so on.

Which means that the accuser is pandering to racists, xenophobes, misogynists, and homophobes.

https://twitter.com/AshleyBurkeCBC/status/1569664983537000449

Woke has become shorthand by folks mostly on the right to say "hey, that person cares too much about diversity, inclusion, and equity."

Which raises the questions, of course, what is too much and who is it too much for?

This is the way things are supposed to work--the former President should not be above the law.

If I took classified docs home and then bragged about it, then, hells yeah, I would expect the feds to knock on my door.

https://twitter.com/RepStefanik/status/1557022640866459651

This thing last night reminds me of a key part of my 9/11 experience: we (two army officers and me) were headed to a meeting at State when the plane hit the Pentagon. We were desperate to go back mostly to see if our colleagues were ok but also to secure the docs we carried 1/2

I hate, hate, hate with a blinding passion any use of "His Generals"
Sorry, @peterbakernyt... I am sure the book is swell, but the generals never belonged to him. Just another Trump belief that gets reified by the media.

FFS. @peterbakernyt Of course, the book, I am guessing, will have lots of attempts by former military officers to resurrect their reputations. A reminder that John Kelly was awful in his own right as head of DHS and has chief of staff. 1/x

Fans of #BattleRhythm,
Our next episode will drop later today with guest host @ProfKimball

@svhlatky who is on holiday will be stepping down at the end of June after three years as she will be an Associate Dean at Queens.

She has been so terrific in so many ways 1/x @ProfKimball @svhlatky @svhlatky has pushed for quality tech and patience so that we sound decent and she has provided heaps of ideas for guests, for segments, for improving the podcast. She has slowed me down when I wanted to move too fast. #BattleRhythm's seven listeners have benefited so much 2/x

Capstone cookies delivered Our first panel is getting ready:Danielle Cherpako, Zahra Bahrami, and Prithipaul covering sanctions, Afghanistan, and climate. #CDSNCapstone2022

I started out as a scholar of the international relations of ethnic politics where one of the key drivers of stuff was outbidding--relatively homogeneous parties competing to be the best reps of a particular group, leading to ever more extreme policy stances.
1/x That lens proved most useful to understand why Trump succeeded within the GOP saideman.blogspot.com/2015/12/why-do…
He could claim to be the best white supremacist in 2016. Maybe most Republicans didn't want that, but the candidates feared losing that part of their base to him 2/x

I haven't been following Afghanistan as closely the past few years, but the events of the past few months are political, not military. It is not about training failures, but failure to build a government people have confidence in.

Building one is really damned hard to do. There are legit concerns about what was sacrificed and for what, what will happen to the Afghans, but expecting the US to stay there forever was unrealistic as well.

Would this collapse not have happened if the US left next year or the year after?

Even if the claim is true:
a) if Hamas is luring you into attacking the media, why fall into their trap?
b) I know proportionately is out the window, but damn
c) one does not win a counter-insurgency campaign by creating more martyrs and surrendering any legitimacy.

https://twitter.com/JimLaPorta/status/1393576370995871754

I get it--the Israelis think
a) most of the world is against us so screw it (which is a self-fulfilling prophecy
b) we aren't fighting a COIN campaign, but just have to hammer hard when we get hit.

How does that end? It never does.

I am late to today's #OttawaConference as I had class and now I can't seem to get in. Sorry to miss @sekreps and @SheenaGreitens. Hopefully I will be able to get into the event for @MercedesGlobal 's panel. @sekreps @SheenaGreitens @MercedesGlobal Glad to get access and see @sekreps argue against fighting the last war, that we should not apply old lessons. And be wary of giving private sector much of the responsibility to deal with tech threats.
#OttawaConference day 2 2/x

Last year at this time, I was at Billy Bishop Airport, glowing from the success of the first CDSN Capstone and then hearing every sniffle and cough in the small airport. the sense of impending doom had changed to the sound of a wave crashing in the beach.
1/x I called my wife and told her to stock up on food (wasn't thinking tp due to our costco stash) as it was unlikely that we were going to go to Hawaii to the ISA meeting in the weeks to come 2/x

In between sessions, I guest lectured in @WAndyKnight1 's global governance class to talk NATO stuff. The sharp student asked a lot of great questions. Nice to have them push me to think about stuff. @WAndyKnight1 Hyten talks about the need for relationships.... once again military folks sounding like Oprah, but the dark side is: better to fight on someone else's territory

#OttawaConference 29/x

I spending the next few days attending @CDAInstitute 's big Ottawa Conference on Security and Defence. A terrific program this year! I would love to see it in person but don't mind not having to dodge traffic to find parking near the Chateau Laurier. 1/x @CDAInstitute I will live tweet on and off, depending on my ability to focus (the joy of zoom). I am especially looking forward to @sekreps, @SheenaGreitens and the other Brookings hotshots. Among the other highlights will be Jean Charest, who is a better speaker than most, 2/x

Back in the day, when I was at Texas Tech, I taught the required course of American and Texas Public Policy.

I started by defining the two ends of the spectrums for a democracy:
nightwatchman state that only focuses on international threats or ... Sweden.

The point? 1/x That the US and, yes, Texas, would be someplace in between those extremes with lots of choices over different policies.

That markets work in very painful ways if not regulated. Sure, companies that make dangerous products will eventually go out of business as word gets out 2/x

This is a fun tweet but

the US will need to engage in a counter-insurgency campaign against white supremacy
.
.
.
just like it did in the 1990s.

https://twitter.com/MattGallagher0/status/1350141040343265284

When a counter insurgency is successful, people think of the insurgents as mere criminals and don't really think that hard about the government's ability to sustain itself.

Why does Trump hate all international cooperation? The Rosetta stone is this: " he doth project too much" /1 He thinks every deal he makes is an effort to cheat the other side AND he thinks everyone else is doing the same /2

One of the fundamental points of convergence among scholars of international relations is that uncertainty is usually bad.
Countries tend to do things that make things worse when they are uncertain 1/x That cooperation is hard in an uncertain world. Institutions were designed to reduce uncertainty.

Here is where Trump comes in: 2/x