Subject: The Evening CSIS: Russia’s Withdrawal, Open Letter for DoD Reform, Won’t get fooled again redux & more
From: "Andrew Schwartz" <[email-masked]>
To: <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2016 00:38:03 -0000

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Welcome to  The Evening CSIS —my daily guide to key insights CSIS brings to the events of the day plus HIGHLY RECOMMENDED content from around the world. If you want to view this in your browser, click here [ http://CSIS.informz.net/InformzDataService/OnlineVersion/Individual?mailingInstanceId=5433451&subscriberId=1062005454 ] . To subscribe, please send me an email at [email-masked] [ mailto:[email-masked] ] .

 Russia's Withdrawal
 In a surprise move, Vladimir Putin today ordered the withdrawal of the “main part” of Russian forces in Syria, as the  New York Times ’ Andrew Higgins reports [ http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/15/world/middleeast/putin-syria-russia-withdrawal.html ] .

In addition, a new report released today by the Syrian American Medical Society claims that chemical weapons have been used at least 161 times through the end of 2015 and caused 1,491 deaths, as the AP reports [ http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/S/SYRIA_CHEMICAL_WEAPONS_ATTACKS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT ] .

 Dive Deeper:  The full Syrian American Medical Society report, A New Normal: Ongoing Chemical Weapons Attacks in Syria [ https://www.sams-usa.net/foundation/images/A%20New%20Normal_Ongoing%20Chemical%20Weapons%20Attacks%20in%20Syria.compressed.pdf ] , is available for download.

The Institute for the Study of War today released a new report series: “U.S. Grand Strategy: Destroying ISIS and Al Qaeda [ http://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/new-report-series-us-grand-strategy-destroying-isis-and-al-qaeda-0 ] .”

 Open Letter on Defense Reform
 Under the auspices of CSIS, former top US Defense officials and retired top-ranking military leaders today issued an open letter [ http://defense360.csis.org/open-letter-defense-reform ]  calling for defense and national security reform.

And, the results of CSIS’s “Defense Reform in the 21st Century” survey are in. You can view them here [ http://csis.org/files/attachments/160314_defense_reform_conference_survey_results.pdf ] .

 Disputed South China Sea
 Malaysian defense minister Hishammuddin Hussein said today he will meet his Australian counterpart next week to discuss China’s military buildup in the disputed South China Sea and hold talks with fellow claimants the Philippines and Vietnam, as Reuters reports [ http://www.reuters.com/article/us-southchinasea-malaysia-australia-idUSKCN0WG17R ] .

 Dive Deeper:  CSIS’s Rick Rossow and Sarah Watson today authored new commentary for the CSIS Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative (AMTI): “China Creates a Second Chance for the ‘Quad.’ [ http://amti.csis.org/4379-2 ] ”

 In that Number
 1 Million+
More than one million people took to Brazil's streets on Sunday to call for President Dilma Rousseff’s resignation. Source: Reuters [ http://www.reuters.com/article/us-brazil-rousseff-idUSKCN0WG2J4 ] .

 Critical Quote
 "The suicide car bomb which killed 37 people in Ankara yesterday was the third such attack in the Turkish capital in five months and underlines the severity of the challenges confronting Turkey. The country is struggling with the unenviable task of having to simultaneously deal with the terrorist threats from the PKK, which it has been fighting intermittently since 1984, as well as ISIS, along with the growing costs and strains emanating from the seemingly endless Syrian crisis immediately beyond its southern border."
—Bulent Aliriza, CSIS Turkey Project director, on Turkey’s view of the situation [ http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/bc070bdc-e942-11e5-bb79-2303682345c8.html#slide0 ]  in Syria.

 One to Watch 

 

 

( Photo Credit: Twitter. )

Cristina Maza (@CrisLeeMaza [ https://twitter.com/CrisLeeMaza ] ) reports [ http://www.csmonitor.com/About/People/Cristina-Maza ]  on energy and cybersecurity for the  Christian Science Monitor . For the latest energy and cybersecurity news, Cristina is one to watch.

 Optics
 Reuters has a photo roundup [ http://www.reuters.com/news/picture/war-games-in-south-korea?articleId=USRTX292LQ ]  from this weekend’s joint U.S.-ROK landing operation in South Korea.

 Highly Recommended
 Infographic: “What Germany’s state election results mean for its politics [ http://www.economist.com/blogs/graphicdetail/2016/03/daily-chart-8 ] ” via the  Economist  data team. [ http://thebea.st/1a6v4re ]  CSIS Today
 Today, CSIS hosted “Defense Reform in the 21st Century [ http://csis.org/event/defense-reform-21st-century ] ,” a half-day conference on restructuring the Department of Defense that explored possible changes to the 1986 Goldwater-Nichols Department of Defense Reorganization Act. CSIS also hosted a discussion [ http://csis.org/event/cybersecurity-report-2016-are-we-ready-latin-america-and-caribbean ]  on the state of cybersecurity in Latin America and rolled out the  Cybersecurity 2016  report.

 This Town Tomorrow
 Tomorrow, Brookings will host Filippo Grandi, high commissioner for refugees at the United Nations, for a discussion on refugee movements from Syria to Europe. Watch live or register here [ http://www.brookings.edu/events/2016/03/15-unhcr-syrian-refugees-in-europe?rssid=UpcomingEvents&utm_source=feedblitz&utm_medium=FeedBlitzRss&utm_campaign=FeedBlitzRss&utm_content=From+Homs+to+Hamburg%3a+Refugee+movements+from+Syria+to+Europe+and+beyond ] .

 CSIS on Demand
 CSIS hosted a discussion on China’s initiative to promote Internet sovereignty as a key governing concept of the global Internet. Watch the event on demand here [ https://csis.org/event/china-reality-check-chinas-internet-sovereignty-initiative-origins-and-consequences ] . If successful, this initiative could have consequences for not only the Internet, but also for a wide range of industries, the media, and information accessibility.

 Sounds
 Today CSIS’s Energy and National Security program released their latest podcast, “Priorities and Insights from the Obama Administration FY2017 Budget Proposal [ http://csis.org/multimedia/priorities-and-insights-obama-administration-fy2017-budget-proposal ] .” CSIS’s Sarah Ladislaw discussed the President’s most recent budget proposal with Ali Zaidi, associate director for natural resources, energy and science at the Office of Management and Budget.

 I Like It Like That 
 Eye-catching things in CSIS's orbit 

ICYMI, virtual reality is coming to local and national news. USA Today Network announced [ http://www.wsj.com/articles/gannett-plans-first-regularly-scheduled-news-show-in-virtual-reality-1457643939 ]  Thursday it will launch a regularly scheduled VR news show this spring.

 Smiles
 Encore. Last Friday we saw an apocalyptic clip of The Who performing their anthem “Won’t get fooled again.”

The song is so powerful that even stripped of all of its electricity and thunder, “Won’t get fooled again” is a stunningly incendiary tune.

Here’s Pete Townshend singing the song with a simple acoustic guitar at 1979’s “Secret Policeman’s Ball.” The Ball was a series of benefit shows to raise funds for Amnesty International. I’ve been in awe of this version [ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNjczDq5D4E ]  of “Won’t get fooled again” since I first heard it on the radio decades ago.

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