WORLD ROUNDUPIs the Destruction of Gaza Making Israel Any Safer? | Beijing Pushes for AI Regulation | Technology Alone Won’t Break the Stalemate in Ukraine, and more
· US Military Operations Across Sahel at Risk After Niger Ends Cooperation
The U.S. and France had more than 2,500 military personnel in the region until recently
· Is the Destruction of Gaza Making Israel Any Safer?
More than five months in, Israel has neither a military strategy for eliminating Hamas nor a political strategy for living with Gaza.
· Houthi Red Sea Attacks Carry Hard Lessons for the West
Counting warships may no longer be the best guide for assessing a country’s ability to halt and control sea lanes.
· Technology Alone Won’t Break the Stalemate in Ukraine
Kyiv’s Western backers need to grasp that drones are no substitute for a capable fighting force.
· Beijing Pushes for AI Regulation
A campaign to control generative AI raises questions about the future of the industry in China.
US Military Operations Across Sahel at Risk After Niger Ends Cooperation (AP / VOA News)
The United States scrambled on Sunday to assess the future of its counterterrorism operations in the Sahel after Niger’s junta said it was ending its yearslong military cooperation with Washington following a visit by top U.S. officials.
The U.S. military has hundreds of troops stationed at a major airbase in northern Niger that deploys flights over the vast Sahel region — south of the Sahara Desert — where jihadi groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group operate.
Is the Destruction of Gaza Making Israel Any Safer? (Andrew Exum, The Atlantic)
Israeli forces are killing thousands of innocent civilians and badly damaging their country’s standing with its most important partners, including the United States. Israel has also no doubt severely degraded Hamas’s military capabilities, but the question needs to be asked: Is the country’s furious response to the Hamas invasion of October 7 making Israel any safer? At best, it’s still too soon to say—but on balance, what I see worries me.
In focusing on the question of Israeli security, I don’t mean to minimize the horrific human suffering this war has caused for Palestinians, many Israelis, and countless Lebanese. Indeed, that suffering, especially the destruction of Palestinian lives and infrastructure, could directly and negatively affect Israel’s security in the future. But the United States has made a commitment, going back at least 50 years, to safeguard Israeli security—a commitment that I, as a former U.S. policy maker, was once charged with upholding. And so it seems worth asking whether this war is actually advancing that goal or hurting it.
Houthi Red Sea Attacks Carry Hard Lessons for the West (Ramon Marks, National Interest)
The U.S. Navy has its hands full in the Red Sea. The Houthis continued to confound and choke maritime traffic through the strategic passageway despite repeated attacks by an array of United States naval powers aimed at eliminating the threat. Since January 2024, the Navy has struck Houthi targets repeatedly with missiles, drones, and F-18 Super Hornets. (Cont.)
