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Nuke Mission Accomplished, Kim Jong Un Shifts to Economy
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North Korea
announced it was suspending nuclear weapons and ballistic missile testing this past
weekend, ahead of Friday’s summit with South Korea, and ahead of a
planned summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in June.
Cipher Brief
expert Amb. Joseph DeTrani, former envoy to the Six Party
Talks, gave his take:
- “This
is very significant…KJU seemingly decided that he has proven to have
a formidable nuclear and missile arsenal and now he has to break out
of his self-imposed isolation and focus on a failed and fragile
economy.”
- “The
Moon Jae-in government in the Republic of Korea and its liberal
philosophy has facilitated this decision. President Donald Trump and
his willingness to directly meet with KJU also contributed to this
historic decision to unilaterally stop any further nuclear tests and
missile launches. This is great news.”
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CIA Releases Morell Memo Clearing Haspel on Destroyed
Tapes
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The CIA is
defending deputy director and Trump nominee Gina Haspel, ahead of her May
9th confirmation hearing, against charges she erred when she wrote a
cable to CIA employees, instructing them to destroy tapes of
waterboarding and other interrogation techniques used on post-9/11
detainees.
- The
agency on Friday released a declassified memo of former CIA Acting
Director Michael Morell’s internal investigation of Haspel, and her
then-boss Jose Rodriguez, who headed the agency’s clandestine
service.
- Morell’s
review concluded that the decision was taken by Rodriguez alone, and that Haspel was
acting “appropriately in her role as Mr. Rodriguez’s chief of staff,
including her efforts to press for and facilitate a resolution of
the matter, as well as in her drafting a cable that authorized the
destruction of the tapes.”
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China Pulls Pakistan Further into its Economic Orbit
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Photo:
Lintao Zhang/Getty Images
China’s “One Belt,
One Road” economic strategy has expanded into Pakistan,
where Chinese companies have launched numerous projects to build up
Pakistan’s infrastructure and energy sector as part of the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor (CPEC).
- CPEC
is a 15-year economic initiative spanning from 2015-2030, which focuses on
expanding Pakistan’s energy sector, enhancing Pakistan’s
infrastructure and establishing a direct land route connecting
China’s northwestern region of Xianjing to Pakistan’s southern
Gwadar Port on the Arabian Sea.
- China
has strategically employed economic tactics to leverage its influence
across South, Central and East Asia. Beijing may seize upon its
economic opportunism in Pakistan to install a long-term military
presence in the country and bring Islamabad closer into its fold,
which would alarm U.S. policymakers and present a new set of
challenges for an already tumultuous U.S.-Pakistan relationship.
- The
U.S. has responded to China’s expansionism by enhancing its
partnership with strategic allies in the region such as Australia,
Japan and India. While CPEC may offer new investment opportunities
for U.S. companies inside Pakistan, it may also circuitously bolster
U.S.-India ties as both nations look to offset a rising
China-Pakistan alliance.
Read today’s brief,
with expert commentary by:
- Dan Markey, Senior Research
Professor and Academic Director of the Global Policy Program, the Johns
Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
- Michael Kugelman
Deputy Director of the Asia Program and Senior Associate for South Asia
at the Wilson Center
- Senator Mushahid
Hussain Sayed, Chairman, Parliamentary Committee on China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor
- Ahsan Iqbal,
Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Interior, Planning, Development &
Reforms
- Tanvi Madan,
director of The India Project, Brookings Institution
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How to Run a Cyber War…Game
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At our second
annual Threat Conference earlier this month, Dmitri Alperovitch and Michael Sulmeyer ran cyber
exercises with conference attendees, asking them to step into the shoes
of U.S. national security decision-makers to resolve international crisis
situations.
For today’s Cyber
Advisor column, Alperovitch and Sulmeyer share some of
the ‘lessons learned’ on how to run an effective cyber war game:
- Be
clear on what you want to exercise: Last year, we wanted to
press our participants on how they would get ahead of the threats
that we asserted were looming. We provided a fact pattern that
created sufficient danger to warrant a serious national-security
discussion, but there were enough off-ramps that our teams could
recommend ways to keep tensions from boiling over. This year, we
changed focus and forced our participants to develop response
options after complex attacks had already occurred. Whatever your
focus may be, make it clear and repeat it often so that participants
have no doubt on what they are being tested.
- Be
creative with the role of the media: While decision-makers
search for the best recommendations for how to handle a national
security crisis, they also must contend with how whatever they do or
don’t do will be viewed in the media. Last year, we selected a few
participants to play the role of the mainstream U.S. media. This
year, we asked them to assume the role of a news outlet sponsored by
a foreign adversary.
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