The Vandenberg Coalition brings you weekly roundups of news media pieces displaying honest candor in the foreign policy space.
Vandenberg Open Letter to Conservatives in Congress | Ukraine’s War of Drones Runs into an Obstacle: China | Iran Hostage Deal Has Nuclear Implications | Taiwan’s Big Stakes in Washington’s Budget Battles | Weakness is Lethal: Why Putin Invaded Ukraine and How the War Must End | The U.S. Government Should Stockpile More Critical Minerals
New Series: Countering CCP Regional Influence
How China Uses Shipping for Surveillance and Control | The West Has a Massive Chinese Spy Problem | Avoid a Sequester and Fully Fund a Preeminent Military | With Russia Distracted in Ukraine, U.S. Reaches Out to Central Asia | U.S. and Israeli Policy Aligned Regarding Saudi Arabia | Strategic Cooperation in the Indo-Pacific: U.S. and Indian Perspectives | Armenia-Azerbaijan Conflict: What to Know About Nagorno-Karabakh
Rethinking Geopolitics: Geography as an Aid to Statecraft | The U.S. Must Help Curb Cartel Violence in Mexico | Why the U.S.-Mexico Relationship Could Get Even Worse | Iranian Drone Proliferation is Scaling Up and Turning More Lethal | A Renewed Axis: Growing Military Cooperation Between North Korea and Russia
Perseverance and Adaptation: Ukraine’s Counteroffensive at Three Months | By Skimping on the Budget for Competition with China, Washington Makes War More Likely | Rob Malley’s Legacy of Failure: Undermining American Interests in the Middle East | The China-India Border | Japan Fisheries Become China’s Newest Geopolitical Target
Iran Will Continue Taking Hostages if the Money Keeps Flowing | Biden’s Asia Diplomacy is Incomplete | Attacking Foreign Corruption Blunts China’s Malign Economic Influence | Winning the Influence War Against China | America’s Military-Industrial Base Needs a Revival | A Compound Problem: Dialing in U.S. Semiconductor Strategy
Ever Since the Afghanistan Withdrawal, Biden’s Foreign Policy Has Been One Big Mess | Iran-Russia Collaboration Makes a Mess of Biden’s Foreign Policy | The Aftermath of Biden’s Dishonorable Afghanistan Exit is Still Unfolding | You Go to War with the Industrial Base You Have, Not the Industrial Base You Want | In Tanzania, Beijing is Running a Training School for Authoritarianism | Why Taiwan’s Defense is in the American National Interest
The Disastrous Implications of the $6 Billion Iran Hostage Deal | Closing Washington’s China Gap with Middle East Partners | NATO’s Northern Flank Has Too Many Weak Spots | Since the Pelosi Visit, China Has Created a New Normal in the Taiwan Strait | India Embraces America’s Vision for Outer Space
Americans Are Not Embracing Isolationism | How the Ukraine Counteroffensive Can Still Succeed | If Ukraine Is Any Barometer of Expenditure Rates in Modern War, America is Gonna Lose Taiwan | Suit Against Tech Giant Shines Light on U.S. Complicity in Chinese Torture | The Wagner Group in Africa Serves Putin’s Global Ambitions
Washington Must React Realistically to the Coup in Niger | Niger’s Coup is a West African Disaster in the Making | America’s Military Trails Russia and China in Race for the Melting Arctic | Italy Intends to Leave China’s Belt and Road Initiative | What We Learned from the Korean War
America’s Reactive Foreign Policy | We Should Not Be Cavalier About Declining Public Confidence in the Military | The Long Shadow of Oppenheimer’s Trinity Test | Why You Should Care About the Afghanistan War Commission | Washington Lays Mines in Black Sea to Block Ukrainian Ports
The Myth of Neutrality | Iran’s Shadow War | How America Can Escape China’s Rare Earth Pincer | How One U.S. Government Agency is Helping China Win the Tech Race | Understanding the Implications of No Black Sea Grain Deal
On Foreign Policy, the New Populists are the Old Declinists | ‘NATO Lake’ Receives Major Boost | Two Options to Prevent the Next Invasion of Ukraine | Buying Power is the Invisible Shortfall of the 2024 Defense Budget Request | China, Latin America, and the New Space Race
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment | Biden, Modi Hail New Era for US-India Ties and Tout Deals | President Raisi Visits Latin America | The Global South is Forging a New Foreign Policy in the Face of War in Ukraine, China-U.S. Tensions: Active Nonalignment | U.S. Influence in the Pacific Requires Congressional Action | The Netanyahu Invitation and West Bank Settlement Expansion
To Prepare for War at Sea Over Taiwan, Look to the Land War in Ukraine | Time to Wean Ourselves from Chinese Semiconductors | China’s Real Military Budget is Far Bigger Than it Looks | Saudi Arabia, China Undermine U.S. Influence in the Middle East | How the U.S. is Pushing China Out of the Internet’s Plumbing
Russia’s Improved Weaponry and Tactics Challenge Ukraine Offensive | History Repeats Itself: Cuba, China, and the New Cold War | U.S. Must Expose China’s Hidden Hand in America’s Deadly Fentanyl Crisis | Spend More on Defense? Let’s Focus on Spending Better | America’s Power Competition Goes Awry in Lula’s Brazil
Early Stages of Ukraine’s Counteroffensive Appear to be Underway | Key Ukrainian Dam Blown Up, Kyiv Blames Russia | The Enemy Next Door | Thinking About Post-War Ukraine | What if Putin Loses the War in Ukraine? | Don’t Delay Ukraine’s Path to NATO Membership | Ukraine’s Survival is Vital to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan
Memorial Day is More than Just the Start of Summer | China’s Latest Cyberattack is an Active Threat to Critical U.S. Infrastructure | Decoupling is Already Happening—Under the Sea | Decoding China’s Escalation of the Chip War | Hizbullah and Russia’s Nascent Alliance
Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment | Putin’s Accidental Restoration of NATO | Why Xi is Ghosting Biden | ‘In a Lot of the World, the Clock has Hit Midnight’ | Why is the Chinese Communist Party Educating Children in American Classrooms? | What a Debt Default Would Mean for National Security
The Case for American Global Leadership | If China Targeted Canada’s Elections, America Must Act | Insulate, Curtail, Compete: Sketching a U.S. Grand Strategy in Latin America and the Caribbean | How Title 42’s Expiry Will Upend the Immigration System | The Pentagon Needs a Real Budget, Not Stop-Gap Solutions
Reframing the U.S. Policy Debate on a ‘Long War’ in Ukraine | David vs. Goliath: Southeast Asia Can Resist China’s Gray Zone Aggression in the South China Sea…with Help | Xi Jinping Can’t Handle an Ageing China | Sudan’s Double Crises | How Sanctions Can Help Bring Home American Hostages | What Will Happen if China Blocks Black Sea Grain Ships?
Great Powers Don’t Default | The Incomplete Evacuation of Sudan | Island Nations Key to Maintaining U.S. Position as a Pacific Power | U.S. Must Prepare for Chinese Sabotage | ‘Bleeding to Death’: The Russian Military Looks Stuck in Ukraine
Companies Thought They Could Ignore Geopolitics. Not Anymore. | Jordan’s Threat to the Middle East Order | Ukraine Shows the Need for Speed | Why the U.S. is Losing the Race for the Arctic | China’s Proxy War Against Faith
Defunding the Deadly Fentanyl Drug Trade | Back to the Future in U.S.-Mexico Relations | U.S. Defense Industry Plans First Trip to Taiwan in Four Years | The Imperative to See Food Security as Integral to Maritime Strategy | Prepare for Iran’s Nuclear Breakout | The State Department Should Provide Congress the Dissent Channel Cable on the Afghanistan Withdrawal
Paying the Defense Bill: Financing American and Chinese Great Power Competition | Russia’s New National Security Concept | Biden’s Weakness on Russia’s Hostage-Taking Puts Americans Abroad at Risk | Macron Has Made a Fool of Himself in China | Taiwan Needs More than Weapons to Thwart China’s Ambitions
The Future of the U.S.-China Nuclear Arms Race | All Talk, No Action on China | Biden Needs to Broaden Semiconductor Sanctions on China | An Arsenal of Democracies Can Best the China-Russia-Iran Axis | ‘Sinking Our Future’: Budget Cuts Funds to U.S. Navy as China Ramps Up Shipbuilding | Bitcoin and Geopolitical Rivalry
Congress United Against Chinese Atrocities | U.S. Needs an Assertive Eurasia Strategy | In a New Cold War, Diplomacy Matters More Than Might | Xi and Putin Meeting Signals the Return of the China-Russia Axis and the Start of a Second Cold War | How Iran Won the Iraq War
How the War in Iraq Changed the World | The Saudi-Iran Deal Reflects a New Global Reality | Defeat Putin, Defeat Xi | Little Giants, Single Champions: China’s Blueprint for Asymmetric Industrial Advantage | America Needs to Grow its Capacity to Produce Weapons
They Make a Desert and Call it Peace | Biden’s Military Budget: Better Never Than Late | The Age of American Naval Dominance is Over | How Beijing Boxed America Out of the South China Sea | China’s Three Roads to Controlling Taiwan | The Black Sea
GOP Gears Up for Afghanistan Probe | A United States-Pakistan Rapprochement? | Four Nuclear States Can Ruin Your Whole Strategy | Russia-China-South Africa Naval Exercises & Indian Ocean Geopolitics | Will Russia’s Global Influence Continue to Decline? | Waking Up to the Threat of the Chinese Communist Party: A Call to Action from Congress
How Biden Missed a Chance to Use the State of the Union to Illuminate a Foreign Policy | Israel Must Prepare to Save the World from a Nuclear Iran | Confrontation with Russia and U.S. Grand Strategy | What Pentagon Leaders Say They Have Learned One Year On from the Battle in Ukraine | Lessons from Germany’s Visit to South America’s Lithium Triangle | Philippines Eyes South China Sea Patrols with U.S., Australia
Biden’s Failure to Lead on Ukraine | Of Strategy And Schnitzel: Munich Security Confence 2023 | Faces of Ukraine’s Dead Haunt the West | Reflecting on One Year of War: Is America the Arsenal of Democracy | Continuing U.S. and Allied Support to Ukraine | Russia’s Shadow Fleet of Tankers to Beat Western Sanctions | Russia’s War in Ukraine: Myths and Legends
We Still Don’t Know the Truth About COVID | The New Warsaw Pact | How Moscow Bought a New Sphere of Influence on the Cheap | Russia’s New START Breach Means U.S. Nuclear Weapons Modernization is a Must | China’s Spy Balloon Could Be America’s Awakening
Biden Bungles China Spy Balloon Challenge | America and China: Whose Timeline is it Anyway? | Global Energy Scarcity and the South China Sea | Minefield of Dreams: Finding the Critical Minerals Needed to Get to Net Zero | Who are the Real ‘Realists’ on Ukraine? | Tanking Up: Understanding the Materiel—and Moral—Implications of the New Armor Heading to Ukraine
Ukraine, Japan, and the Korean War’s 21st Century Parallel | Japan Shifts to a War Footing | Let Ukraine Defeat the Russian-Iranian War Machine | Russia’s Quest for Polar Power | Defense and Inflation: Roosevelt to 2023
Vandenberg Coalition Open Letter on the Origins of COVID-19 | Mexican Cartels’ War on Americans | Australia’s Contribution to AUKUS Should Be a Next Generation Conventional Submarine | How to Bankrupt Russia and Protect Our Supply Chains | U.S. Convincing U.K. to Approve F-16 Fighters to Argentina Amid Reports of Chinese Military Base in South America | Containing Isolationism
The Vandenberg Coalition celebrates the New Year by looking back on twelve of our favorite foreign policy & national security stories of 2022.
Biden’s Venezuela Policy: Something for Nothing | Republicans Press Biden Official for Answers on TikTok Security Concerns | CCP Weapons of Mass Persuasion | Americans Are Losing Trust in the Military | Japan’s New Security Strategy: Rising to the Challenge | ‘Can We Actually Build It?’ Defense Industry Leaders Look Ahead to Uncertain 2023
U.S. Support for Ukraine: The Reagan Doctrine in Action | The Merchant of Death Can Now Return to Business | Putin’s Eternal World | Disentangling the Digital Battlefield: How the Internet has Changed War | Mexican Cartels Have Turned to Fentanyl
2023: A Year of Living Dangerously | America, China, and the Spirit of Enterprise | No, Iran Didn’t Ban Morality Police—It Duped Press and Biden Administration | Cardinal Zen’s Trial: More Oppression Than Meets the Eye | The Long-term Risks of a Premature Ceasefire in Ukraine | ‘We Haven’t Got This Figured Out Just Yet’: Pentagon, Industry Struggle to Arm Ukraine
Within Our Borders: The CCP’s Silent Domestic Invasion | China is No. 1 Domestic National Security Threat and Biden Administration Won’t Admit It | How China is Trying to Turn the U.S. Against Itself | China’s Ally in Stealing Western IP: the United States | Espionage with Chinese Characteristics | U.S. Bans Gear from China’s Huawei and ZTE Over Security Risk | Incoming House Committee Chairs Accuse TikTok of Lying to Congress | The Drug That’s Killing Young Americans
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