Categories: Daniel Serwer

Stevenson’s army, November 11

– NYT has interactive graphic on the Gaza tunnels.

– WOTR writer revisits his article on Israel’s urban warfare

– Prof Hal Brands analyzes Chinese strategies for Taiwan

Politico discusses the Trump plan for Gaza:

LET IT BURN: Trump has a plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: just let it burn.

“You have a war that’s going on and you’re probably going to have to let this play out … because a lot of people are dying,” he also told Univision reporter ENRIQUE ACEVEDO last night. “There is no hatred like the Palestinian hatred of Israel and Jewish people. And probably the other way around also, I don’t know. You know, it’s not as obvious, but probably that’s it too. So sometimes you have to let things play out and you have to see where it ends.”

“Eventually there’s peace, because you’re going to have a winner and a loser,” Trump continued.

It’s as pure a distillation of EDWARD LUTTWAK’s “let it burn” theory as there exists. In his seminal 1999 Foreign Affairs article “Give War a Chance,” Luttwak wrote “an unpleasant truth often overlooked is that although war is a great evil, it does have a great virtue: it can resolve political conflicts and lead to peace … fighting must continue until a resolution is reached.”

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I republish here, with occasional videos of my choice. To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).

Daniel Serwer

Share
Published by
Daniel Serwer

Recent Posts

One key to Gaza’s future is inside Israel

Israel can't erase the past. But it can reverse counterproductive policies.

9 hours ago

What to do about the Association

Serbia should give in order to get. That is what they 2013 agreement requires.

4 days ago

Could the message be any clearer?

That is the hope the West needs to extinguish. It will be difficult to do…

1 week ago

Farewell to failure

That is the practical direction in which prospects for success lie. Farewell to failure requires…

2 weeks ago

The Gaza war will likely continue

The Gaza war isn't over and may continue for a long time still.

2 weeks ago

See no evil is not good policy

Doing something about Serbia's malfeasance requires heavy political lifting. Why take that on if no…

2 weeks ago