WORLD ROUNDUPCan China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive? | The War in Ukraine Could End Sooner Than Expected | The U.S.-Japan Alliance, and more
·· A Cautionary Tale: What Iran and Cuba Can Teach Us About Designating Russia a State Sponsor of Terrorism
Designating Russiaa State Sponsor of Terrorism would undercut Biden’s negotiating leverage with Putin
·· How the War in Ukraine Could End Sooner Than Expected
Policymakers should consider not only possibilities of a long war but also how it might end sooner
·· German Prosecutors Indict 5 People for Treason, Forming ‘Terrorist Organization’ Aimed at Sparking a Civil War
Extremists plotted to topple the government, bring back the Kaiser, and redraw Germany’s borders
·· Meta: Azov Regiment No Longer Meets Criteria for Dangerous Organization on Facebook, Instagram
The Azov Regiment fighting against Russian invaders is different from the extremist Azov Movement
·· China’s New Anti-Uyghur Campaign
How the world can stop Beijing’s brutal oppression
·· The U.S.-Japan Alliance: Facing a New Era of Extreme Danger
Japan is emerging as an equal partner
·· Mao’s Strategy Inspires Afghan Guerrillas and Chinese Planners
Ideas like “people’s war” infuse official thinking in China
·· Can China Pull Off Its Charm Offensive?
Why Beijing’s foreign-policy reset will—or won’t—work out
A Cautionary Tale: What Iran and Cuba Can Teach Us About Designating Russia a State Sponsor of Terrorism (Saraphin Dhanani, Lawfare)
Two episodes, in particular, highlight the unintended consequences of SST designations: the cases of Alisa Flatow and her family’s suit against the Islamic Republic of Iranand the case of the Brothers to the Rescue and their families’ suit against Cuba.
In both of these cases, in which Iran and Cuba had no intention of compensating victims of state or state-sponsored violence, the U.S. government ended up on the hook to find a way to make successful litigants whole. In both cases, the government turned to the stockpile of the defendant countries’ frozen assets.
An SST designation, as these stories suggest, would likely lead to the same outcome in Russia’s case—a doling out of Russia’s frozen assets to U.S. litigants in a fashion that would undercut Biden’s negotiating leverage with Putin, not to mention any efforts to use these assets for Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction. Such a compensation system would satisfy select judgments involving U.S. litigants at the expense of the Ukrainian people.
How the War in Ukraine Could End Sooner Than Expected (Peter A. Wilson and William Courtney, The Hill)
Policymakers might be prudent, however, to consider not only possibilities of a long war but also how it might end sooner.
German Prosecutors Indict 5 People for Treason, Forming ‘Terrorist Organization’ Aimed at Sparking a Civil War (Fox News)
Federal prosecutors in Germany said Monday that they have indicted five people for treason and forming a “terrorist organization” that aimed to topple the government and spark a civil war. Prosecutors said the suspects, four men and one woman, had made “concrete preparations” to cause a large-scale blackout in the country and use the ensuing chaos to establish an alternative government. They also allegedly planned to kidnap the country’s health minister, Karl Lauterbach, who has faced extreme vitriol from opponents of the government’s pandemic restrictions. The group is accused of being driven by the ‘Reich Citizens’ ideology propagated by one of its members, who was identified only as Elisabeth R. due to German privacy rules.