Subject: ICYMI #Aleppo #EU #ISIS
From: American Security Project <[email-masked]>
To: [email-masked]
Date: Thu, 25 Feb 2016 21:00:20 +0000
List-Id: 2768ea8e53da1b3ff17fb6a6fmc list <2768ea8e53da1b3ff17fb6a6f.76990.list-id.mcsv.net>

ASP ICYMI: #Aleppo #EU #ISIS
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ASP: In case you missed it ... (http://www.americansecurityproject.org/what-we-are-reading-17/)
25 February, 2016

Key Reads

Syrian Army Recaptures Town in Aleppo Province from IS Group (http://bigstory.ap.org/article/e5a190c09e724fabb994de5f547bddae/syrian-army-recaptures-town-aleppo-province-group)
Zeina Karam / Associated Press
Syrian government troops backed by Russian airstrikes recaptured a town in Aleppo province from Islamic State militants on Thursday in a key advance just two days ahead of a U.S. and Russia-engineered cease-fire that is set to take effect in Syria.

With E.U. Paralyzed, 10 Nations Try to Stem Migrant Flow (http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/25/world/europe/refugees-migrants-austria-greece.html?_r=0)
Alison Smale / The New York Times
Austria and nine Balkan states on Wednesday agreed on several measures to choke off the flow of refugees from Greece, effectively imposing their own response to the migrant crisis while the European Union has been paralyzed over what to do.

ISIS Is Losing Its Capital (http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/02/25/isis-is-losing-its-capital.html)
Nancy A. Youssef / Daily Beast
This week’s fighting in Syria has seen major changes for the self-proclaimed Islamic State’s grip there, leaving some in the Pentagon wondering if ISIS is trying to expand its territorial hold or is in its last throes.

American Competitiveness

Beijing Eclipses New York as Billionaire Capital (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/76e8a3f8-db8c-11e5-98fd-06d75973fe09.html#axzz41C4E8J46)
Yuan Yang / Financial Times
With 32 newly minted super-rich in the past year, China’s capital has become the billionaire capital of the world, the latest Hurun Global Rich List says, with a total of 100 to former list topper New York City’s 95.

Innovation in the U.S. Relies on Foreigners, New Study Shows (http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2016/02/24/innovation-in-the-u-s-relies-on-foreigners-new-study-shows/)
Georgia Wells / The Wall Street Journal
More than one-third of the U.S.-based innovators—scientists and engineers responsible for the advances that drive tech—were born outside the country, according to a recent survey of about 900 patent holders and award-winning scientists in the U.S. That represents a disproportionately high number of foreigners, since foreign-born people make up 13.5% of all U.S. residents, the study says.

Asymmetric Operations

U.N. Has High Hopes for Aid from Syria Truce But Airdrop Flops (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-aid-idUSKCN0VY1PF)
Tom Miles and Stephanie Nebehay / Reuters
Syria's opposition indicated on Wednesday it was ready for a truce in Syria. However, an air-drop of food to 200,000 people on Wednesday in the eastern town of Deir al-Zor, which is besieged by Islamic State, a jihadi group that the United Nations has no contact with, ran into problems.

Al-Shabab Killed 180 Kenyan Troops in El Adde: Somali President (http://www.newsweek.com/somali-president-al-shabaab-el-adde-430287)
Conor Gaffey / Newsweek
Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud says that at least 180 Kenyan troops died in an Al-Shabab attack on their base in Somalia in January.

Climate Security

Fossil Fuel Use Must Fall Twice as Fast as Thought to Contain Global Warming – Study (http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/feb/25/fossil-fuel-use-must-fall-twice-fast-thought-contain-global-warming)
Tim Radford / The Guardian
Climate scientists have bad news for governments, energy companies, motorists, passengers and citizens everywhere in the world: to contain global warming to the limits agreed by 195 nations in Paris last December, they will have to cut fossil fuel combustion at an even faster rate than anybody had predicted.

Energy Security

Goldman Sachs: The Energy Collapse Isn't Even Close to the Subprime Crisis (http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-02-25/goldman-sachs-the-energy-collapse-isn-t-even-close-to-the-subprime-crisis)
Julie Verhage / Bloomberg
According to credit analysts at Goldman Sachs Group, there are four key reasons that similarities between the 2007 housing bust and the recent collapse in oil prices don't go very far. These include the low amount of debt outstanding, the drop in oil prices wasn’t totally unforeseen, and leverage in the energy market isn’t as high, and banks having healthier balance sheet.

National Security & Strategy

Apple CEO Tim Cook Says iPhone-Cracking Software ‘Equivalent of Cancer’ (http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/exclusive-apple-ceo-tim-cook-iphone-cracking-software/story?id=37173343)
Enjoli Francis / ABC News
Apple CEO Tim Cook told "World News Tonight" anchor David Muir that what the U.S. government was asking of the tech giant -- to essentially create software enabling the FBI to unlock an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino, California, shooters -- amounted to the "software equivalent of cancer."

Iran’s Moderates Seek to Capitalize on Nuclear Deal for Election Gains (http://www.wsj.com/articles/irans-moderates-seek-to-capitalize-on-nuclear-deal-for-election-gains-1456350947)
Aresu Eqbali and Asa Fitch / The Wall Street Journal
Iranian ultraconservatives are fighting to define Iran’s ties with the West along the lines of the song ahead of Friday’s general election for parliament and the Assembly of Experts, a clerical body. But the vote also presents an opportunity for relative moderates led by President Hassan Rouhani to cement political gains from last year’s nuclear deal with world powers.

Nuclear Security

U.S., China Agree on Draft North Korea Sanctions Resolution at U.N.: Envoys (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-nuclear-un-idUSKCN0VX2T5)
Louis Charbonneau and Michelle Nichols / Reuters
The United States and China have agreed on a draft resolution that would expand U.N. Security Council sanctions against North Korea over its latest nuclear test and hope to put it to a vote in the coming days, council diplomats said on Wednesday.

On Our Flashpoint Blog

Four National and Global Economic Trends That Will Mark This Century (http://www.americansecurityproject.org/four-national-and-global-economic-trends-that-will-mark-this-century/)
Elias Stahl
From a declining labor force to higher government spending around the world, these four trends will dictate the global economy for decades to come.

Crouching Panda, Hidden Potential: Public Diplomacy in China (http://www.americansecurityproject.org/crouching-panda-hidden-potential-a-lesson-in-china/)
Nicole Bohannon
What do cultural diplomacy and Kung Fu Panda 3 have in common? Creative collaboration that could be the difference between a flop and a blockbuster.

Cheney and Holland in WSJ: America’s Chance to Help Break Russia’s Energy Dominance (https://www.americansecurityproject.org/cheney-and-holland-in-wsj-americas-chance-to-help-break-russias-energy-dominance/)
Andrew Vaccaro
ASP CEO and BGen Stephen Cheney and senior fellow for energy and climate Andrew Holland recently published an article in The Wall Street Journal on how increased U.S. exports of LNG can help break Russian energy dominance in Europe.

Energy Security in the U.S. Army (http://www.americansecurityproject.org/energy-security-in-the-u-s-army/)
Andrew Vaccaro
Although the U.S. Army is making progress in energy efficiency and meeting renewable energy marks, there is still a need for increased resiliency for their installations by way of on-site power generation and micro-grids. It is time to increase funding for resilience projects on military bases and ensure greater energy security for our troops.

Environmental Business Journal Interviews ASP CEO Stephen Cheney (https://www.americansecurityproject.org/environmental-business-journal-interviews-asp-ceo-stephen-cheney/)
C. Alexander Doyle
ASP CEO BGen Stephen Cheney was recently interviewed by the Environmental Business Journal regarding the connections between climate change and international security.

About the American Security Project: The American Security Project is a non-profit, non-partisan public policy and research organization dedicated to fostering knowledge and understanding of a range of national security issues, promoting debate about the appropriate use of American power, and cultivating strategic responses to 21st century challenges.

For more information, visit www.americansecurityproject.org (http://www.americansecurityproject.org/) . [email-masked] (mailto:[email-masked])

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