Russia Launched Research Spacecraft for Antisatellite Nuclear Weapon | EU Wants Spies on University Campuses to Fight Chinese Tech Espionage | Democracy Needs an Economic NATO, and more

Russia Launched Research Spacecraft for Antisatellite Nuclear Weapon Two Years Ago, U.S. Officials Say  (Warren P. Strobel et al., Wall Street Journal)
Russia launched a satellite into space in February 2022 that is designed to test components for a potential antisatellite weapon that would carry a nuclear device. The satellite that was launched doesn’t carry a nuclear weapon, but U.S. officials say it is linked to an ongoing Russian nuclear anti-satellite program.

Russia Mysteriously Deletes Threat to Redraw Baltic Sea Border  (Eva Hartog, Politico)
Russia alarmed NATO allies by proposing to unilaterally redraw its border in the Baltic Sea, before withdrawing the bombshell text without offering an explanation.
The since-deleted draft decree authored by Russia’s defense ministry appeared on the government’s legal portal on Tuesday, and argued that the existing maritime border needed revising because it was established in 1985 on the basis of nautical charts now out of use.
The current border “does not allow the establishing of the external boundary of Russia’s internal waters and does not take into account the practice of establishing direct baselines by other states,” the decree read.

EU Wants Spies on University Campuses to Fight Chinese Tech Espionage  (Pieter Haeck, Politico)
European universities could soon have a direct line to intelligence agencies as the Continent seeks to shield sensitive tech research from foreign powers, especially China.
National governments want to safeguard Europe’s research in sensitive technology like microchips, quantum, biotech and artificial intelligence. Officials said they want to set up regular classified and non-classified briefings and appoint “liaison officers” to help universities fight foreign snooping, in a text dated May 14 and seen by POLITICO.
The text was signed off by ministers on Thursday.

The Blood Equation: Hamas’ Strategy to Radicalize Youth Through Emotional Narratives  (Suha Hassen, HSToday)
Since the mid-20th century, Islamic religious and pan-Arab discourses have played pivotal roles in the radicalization and recruitment of youth in the Middle East and among Muslims worldwide. Two primary narrative waves have influenced the region: one advocating for a unified Arab nation and another for an Islamic nation predominantly led by the Muslim Brotherhood. However, with the fall of dictatorships such as Saddam Hussein in Iraq and Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, and the rise of multiple jihadist groups, these discourses have waned. These narratives once promoted the idea of the Arab Islamic world as a unified nation, bound by geography, history, religion, and heritage. This decline has been exacerbated by the extreme terrorist behaviors and human rights violations committed by groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda, especially against Muslim civilians. Consequently, jihadist strategies for radicalization and recruitment have become less effective, making it more challenging to allure young people from the Middle East. This shift is partly due to the role of social media and increased access to knowledge, which have made these narratives less convincing. To address these new challenges, Hamas has adopted new tactics, relying on innovative blood visual narratives. This approach leverages images of casualties from the October 7 conflict, particularly women and children, to create a powerful emotional impact aimed at radicalizing new groups on a transnational scale. This article introduces two concepts: “condensation of blood” and “the blood equation.” ‘Condensation of blood’ refers to the accumulation of bloodshed attributed to the enemies of Islam, such as Israel and the U.S.‘The blood equation’ involves the sacrifice of civilians in Gaza, symbolizing the sacrifices of Eid al-Adha, as a powerful tool to shape the narrative of jihad, war, and the prophesied resurgence of the Islamic Ummah. 

US Removes Cuba from List of Countries Not Fully Cooperating on Counterterrorism Efforts  (Kylie Atwood, Patrick Oppmann and Abel Alvarado, CNN)
The US State Department took Cuba off the list of countries that are not fully cooperating with the US on counterterrorism efforts, a State Department official said Wednesday.
Multiple factors contributed to Cuba’s change of status. The US and Cuba resumed law enforcement cooperation in 2023, including on counterterrorism, the official said. Cuba also no longer found itself refusing to engage with Colombia on extradition requests for National Liberation Army (ELN) members because Colombia’s attorney general announced that arrest warrants would be suspended.
As a result of these changes, “the Department determined that Cuba’s continued certification as a ‘not fully cooperating country’ was no longer appropriate,” the official said.
The State Department still includes North Korea, Iran, Syria and Venezuela on the list of countries that are not cooperating on counterterrorism efforts.
While the Cuban government celebrated the State Department’s decision, it also called for the US to remove the country from another list that designates it as a sponsor of terrorism.

Democracy Needs an Economic NATO  (Dmitri Alperovitch, Foreign Policy)
China is learning, again and again, that bullying works, mastering the 21st-century toolkit of economic statecraft and warfare. As Bethany Allen, a journalist who has covered China for a decade, writes in her book, Beijing Rules: How China Weaponized Its Economy to Confront the World, “If we speak the language of markets … then China hasn’t just learned that language. It has learned to speak it louder than anyone else.” The Chinese Communist Party’s “authoritarian style of state capitalism,” Allen argues, means it “is willing to draw on its full arsenal of leverage, influence, charm, deception, and coercion.” And China has begun to deploy those tools all too frequently—leading to very real questions about whether anyone, companies or nation-states, can afford to be economically reliant on China.
The United States needs to do better—for ourselves and our allies. Strong allies are not going to help only out of self-interest, they’re going to do it because they want to follow their values and principles—and we have to make it easier for countries who want to help us counter China. We need to create an umbrella that shields countries, companies, and individuals when they take on China’s attempts at hegemonic thought and action.