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Aug 20, 2014

Brazil Mourns the Death of Presidential Candidate Eduardo Campos

By Carlos Guzman

Wednesday, the 13th of August, became a day of sudden and unexpected mourning for Brazil as a small private jet plane carrying presidential candidate Eduardo Campos crashed in the coastal city of Santos killing everyone on board. Campos’ death dramatically changes the Brazilian election’s dynamic. Though polls had him in third place with President Dilma […]

Brazil

Defense Industrialist

Aug 19, 2014

On the Arrogance of Should-Cost

By James Hasik

Better outcomes in military procurement still await a better-educated workforce. In April 2010, then-Under Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter promulgated the first version of his Better Buying Power concept, which mandated (amongst other things) “should-cost” reviews for major procurements. The strategy aims to determine what a weapon should cost, if the government and the contractors […]

NATO Security & Defense

Defense Industrialist

Aug 19, 2014

What Uber Can Teach the Pentagon

By James Hasik

The appointment of SVP Emil Michael to the Defense Business Board is a good start.   Last week, the Defense Department announced that fully eight new members would be joining its Defense Business Board, the panel that advises the Pentagon on, well, business. We might hope that the Defense would pay more attention to its Business Board, […]

NATO Security & Defense

Regional Security Initiative

Aug 18, 2014

Middle East 2020: Shaped by or shaper of global trends?

By The Atlantic Council

In his latest report, Middle East 2020: Shaped By or Shaper of Global Trends,Mathew Burrows, director of the Strategic Foresight Initiative in the Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security, addresses the possible medium- and long-term consequences of the ongoing developments in the region and the various factors driving the monumental changes.

Middle East

Defense Industrialist

Aug 15, 2014

Agile, or Fragile?

By James Hasik

The USAF’s strategy sounds better than its plans.   In Real Clear Defense, my Atlantic Council colleague Alex Ward recently endorsed the US Air Force’s concept of strategic agility as what’s needed for the service “to employ new technologies, better deal with increasingly powerful state and non-state actors, and adapt operations to new environments over the next thirty years.” In its recently published […]

Defense Industrialist

Aug 13, 2014

Divesting the MRAP

By James Hasik

    BAE’s planned sale of Land Systems South Africa reminds us that not just companies, but countries, can reconstitute some industrial capabilities when needed.   As was widely reported on Monday, BAE Systems and investment firm DGD are selling their Land Systems South Africa business to state-owned Denel for (US) $80 million. As Bloomberg Business Week noted, LSSA does make more […]

Iraq

Global Trade And The Americas

Aug 12, 2014

Natural Gas: A New Hope for TPP

By Katelyn Lamson

Though squabbles over automobiles and agricultural products appear to have stalled negotiations for the time being, all hope for a deal is far from lost. Indeed, there is one issue that might prove the lynchpin of concluding negotiations: energy. A free trade agreement that includes an element of national treatment of liquefied natural gas has […]

Economy & Business Trade and tariffs

Global Trade And The Americas

Aug 12, 2014

Natural Gas: A New Hope for TPP

By Katelyn Lamson

Though squabbles over automobiles and agricultural products appear to have stalled negotiations for the time being, all hope for a deal is far from lost. Indeed, there is one issue that might prove the lynchpin of concluding negotiations: energy. A free trade agreement that includes an element of national treatment of liquefied natural gas has […]

Economy & Business Trade and tariffs

Defense Industrialist

Aug 12, 2014

QDR, then NDP: Serially Avoiding Hard Choices

By James Hasik

  The National Defense Panel Wants More Money for Defense. That’s Just Not Happening. At the end of July, the congressionally-mandated National Defense Panel released its assessment of 2014 Quadrennial Defense Review QDR), with the inspiring title Ensuring a Strong US Defense for the Future. The panel, hosted by the US Institute for Peace, was composed of an august group of former generals, […]

LatAmSource

Aug 11, 2014

Brazil’s Lasting World Cup Legacy

By Ambassador Mauro Vieira

In the run-up to the FIFA World Cup, Brazil had to endure a spate of negative reporting and doomsday-style predictions about its capacity to deliver a successful tournament.  Moreover, articles on perceived failures in the preparation for the event stretched the pessimism even further, to the point of questioning the World Cup legacy in the […]

Brazil

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