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What Were We Thinking? Selected Schar School Op-Eds (May 2021)

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From the Washington Post:

In2019, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt were among 37 countries that signed aletterto the U.N. Human Rights Council praising China’s “contribution to the international human rights cause” — with claims that China restored “safety and security” after facing “terrorism, separatism and extremism” in Xinjiang.

—PhD Student Jonathan Hoffman

From the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists:

Many people, including Steven Hawking and Elon Musk, have said they want to ban these sorts of weapons, saying they can’t distinguish between civilians and soldiers, while others say they’ll be critical in counteringfast-paced threatslike drone swarms and may actuallyreduce the riskto civilians because they will make fewer mistakes than human-guided weapons systems.

—Zak Kallenborn

From the Conversation:

My research careerhas been devoted to innovation policy, and I served on the White House staff under President Barack Obama. I’ve seen how smart public policies and savvy federal investments can help accelerate the innovation process.

—David Hart

From the Hill:

There’s only one way Republicans can be persuaded to abandon Trumpism. Democrats have to whip them in elections, beat them so badly that Republicans reach the point where they say, “We can’t go on like this.”

—Bill Schneider

From the Washington Post:

His most delicate dance, however, is with the legacy of Trump and a GOP voting base militantly loyal to him.

—Mark J. Rozell

From the Hill:

And that means that Joe Biden can stand up to Israel more than any president since Harry Truman.

—Jeremy Mayer

From the Wilson Center’s Mexico Institute:

This type of party is more useful to solve the problems of party leaders or founders than to solve fundamental social problems.

—Guadalupe Correa-Cabrera

From Asia Times:

President Joe Biden’s initially cautious and quiet response to Israel’s bombing campaign against Gaza is only the latest evidence of the erosion of American leverage over Israeli actions.

—Ellen Laipson

From Virginia Mercury:

For all of the talk now about the GOP still being under the spell of Donald Trump, unable to extricate itself from the failed ex-president and all the political baggage he carries in increasingly blue Virginia, the decision to use RCV signals perhaps an emerging realization by party leaders that it is time to look to the GOP’s future.

—Mark J. Rozell

From the Atlantic Council:

Although it wants to see the conflict come to an end, Moscow is not going to risk rupturing itsmultifaceted relationship with Israel—involving trade, deconfliction in Syria, and the warm Putin-Netanyahu relationship—for the sake of Hamas.

—Mark N. Katz

From Cyber Security Intelligence:

Now, I know the idea was to get the information out to everyone so they could patch and counter accordingly. However, as some of us feared, it also limned out an attack mode for the bad guys. And the bad guys are not stupid—they are students of our vulnerabilities, they are increasingly sophisticated to a front-line nation state degree, and by our sharing we are educating them.

—Ronald Marks

From the Hill:

But instead of criticizing him, they might want to learn a hard truth from the senator, who knows how to use his one vote to protect his constituents.

—Mark J. Rozell

From Just Security:

To reestablish itself as the partner of first resort in the Indo-Pacific, the United States should use its logistical, technological, and scientific skills to help these countries prepare for and prevent the climate security risks they fear. U.S. forces in the region already help to build the capacity of allies and partners to defend themselves against State threats.

—Erin Sikorsky and Caroline Baxter