BCFR Speaker Christopher Layne in Foreign Affairs "Coming Storms: The Return of Great Power War"

excerpt:

“Since the closing days of the Cold War, U.S. policymakers, pundits, international relations scholars, and policy analysts have argued that great-power war is a relic of a bygone age. In 1986, the historian John Lewis Gaddis termed the post–World War II era a “Long Peace” because the Soviet Union and the United States had not come to blows. A few years later, the political scientist John Mueller suggested that changing norms had made great-power conflict obsolete. By 2011, the psychologist Steven Pinker was arguing that the Long Peace had morphed into a “New Peace,” marked by a generalized decrease of violence in human affairs. “



BCFR Speaker Laura Rosenberger on LawFare Podcast

Last October, co-directors of GMF’s Alliance for Securing Democracy, Laura Rosenberger and Zack Cooper, spoke to the BCFR regarding authoritarian interference in democracies. This week, Laura spoke on the LawFare Podcast with Benjamin Wittes. Click here to listen.

From The Lawfare Blog:
”Laura Rosenberger is the director of the Alliance for Securing Democracy and a senior fellow at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. She was foreign policy advisor for the Hillary Clinton campaign four years ago, where she had to respond to Russian information operations against the campaign in real time. She has been working on combating foreign interference in U.S. domestic politics ever since, and she is the author of two recent significant articles—one in Foreign Affairs and one on Lawfare—both on the subject of foreign influence operations and interference in U.S. politics. She joined Benjamin Wittes to discuss the strategic purpose of these operations, whether we have to fear more operations during or after the election, and if U.S. voters should have confidence in their system.”

Opinion | “Fight for freedom – Stand with Hong Kong” and America

Excerpt from op-ed by AL State Rep. Tim Wadsworth:

Recently, I attended a program sponsored by the Birmingham Committee on Foreign Relations, which is affiliated with the America Committee on Foreign Relations in Washington D.C. The committee is nonpartisan and therefore does not take sides in debates. The committee has guests on both sides of the political aisle who express opinions in a civil manner. Two individuals were the guests, one connected with the Bush administration and one with the Clinton campaign. Their freedom to express different opinions without attacks was refreshing. The question-and-answer session was content- oriented without improper tones from the audience.

Alabama, Business and Brexit (WBHM interviews BCFR speaker Andrew Staunton)

Alabama, Business and Brexit (WBHM interviews BCFR speaker Andrew Staunton)

Alabama, Business and Brexit

Posted 10-2-2019 by Andrew Yeager, Host/Reporter, WBHM

There’s a lot of unrest around politics in Washington right now, and it’s the same in the United Kingdom as the clock is ticking on a Brexit deal. The UK is scheduled to leave the European Union on October 31st, which has put Prime Minister Boris Johnson and parliament in a state of turmoil. Andrew Staunton is the UK’s representative in the American South. As the British Consul General in Atlanta, he oversees relations in six states, including Alabama. On a recent trip to Birmingham he sat down with WBHM’s Andrew Yeager.

Interview Highlights

Alabama business that may see impacts from Brexit:

“In the short term, those industries are the ones that are just in time deliveries, where there are key parts the supply chain that could be affected because the United Kingdom is part of the single market within the European Union as things stand at the moment. So there are no customs procedures or tariffs. But we’ve not been idle while negotiating. The British government’s investing I think £6.3 billion, about $8 billion in contingency plans.”

Opportunities for British investment in Alabama:

“We don’t have a BMW. We don’t have a Mercedes. But the UK automotive industry is leading the world in the cutting edge, the bleeding edge technology, that’s going into all those cars of the future. They’re all thinking about electrification of vehicles. They’re all thinking about autonomous vehicles. UK scientist, UK innovators are at the forefront of that … How do we ensure that our British companies that are so successful in supporting BMW in the United Kingdom and supporting Hyundai in the United Kingdom can come here and support what’s happening in Alabama.”

Thoughts on the political chaos around Brexit:

“One of the things I often hear is people say, ‘Oh, I’ve been tuning into BBC Parliament channel and it’s fascinating.’ And I think as a British citizen it might be fascinating to watch, but it’s less fascinating to endure … Every time you switch on a radio or television program in the United Kingdom it’s dominated by Brexit and there’s so much more happening in our country. And what we need to do is find a way forward in Brexit that allows us to have as best a relationship as possible with the European Union, but to remain that country that we’ve always been: open to business, open for individuals, open for talent and open for debate.”