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Profile in Liberty: Friedrich A. Hayek The Online Library of Liberty, Intellectual Portrait Series Are Cryptocurrencies the Great Hayekian Escape?Alex J. Pollock, Law & Liberty
Pollock examines whether cryptocurrencies fulfill Hayek’s vision of monetary competition, weighing their promise of autonomy against enduring risks of volatility and trust.
A new war fought with old arms: The limits of economic statecraft
The US financial warfare toolkit has not stemmed the tide of conflict that places American interests at risk on a global scale. Economic statecraft misaligned with the strategic environment is likely to escalate tensions without addressing the fundamental reasons behind them. Iran at the Heart of Terrorist Financing Danielle Pletka | Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs The cost to Iran of supporting its militant proxies throughout the Middle East is not cheap. Danielle Pletka notes that during the height of the Trump administration’s maximum-pressure campaign, transfers to Iran’s terrorist proxies dropped dramatically. When Iran does not have money, terrorists do not have money. However, terrorist groups have other sources of income through corruption within humanitarian aid, loopholes in US sanction enforcement, the illegal Captagon drug trade, and more. Read the full testimony here. >> The Persian-Russian Connection Kenneth M. Pollack and Daniel Byman | Lawfare Deepening ties between Russia and Iran are emerging as a counterforce to new Middle Eastern alliances. Kenneth M. Pollack and Daniel Byman explain that an informal alliance with Russia is ideologically and historically odd for Tehran but strategically enticing. Iran needs a great-power backer, and Russia fits the bill. This alliance will likely get stronger in the future. The most dangerous outcome from this alliance would be Russia ignoring or even abetting Iran’s nuclear program. Even if the Iran-Russia relationship does not lead to that terrifying end, the United States should expect Russia to back Iran in resisting any US-led attempts to isolate the clerical regime. Learn more here. >> hat Happens If Israel Strikes Iran?
Michael Rubin | 19fortyfive.com The threat of an Israeli strike on Iran is real. Michael Rubin shows that because Iranians are nationalistic, any overt military action by the United States or Israel against Iran would allow the Iranian regime to rally ordinary Iranians around its flag. If Israel must strike Iran, it can mitigate a nationalistic reaction by targeting only senior regime officials, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps sites away from civilian centers, and symbols of regime oppression such as Evin Prison, and it should make clear that there will be no Israeli occupation of Iran. Iran is primed for regime change, but that change should be an indigenous movement led by Iranians for Iranians. Read more here. >>
Douglas MacKinnon writes: The world is changing. Power is shifting. Alliances are being created or reinvented, and Saudi Arabia and the crown prince are behind much of the change. It’s time to focus on the flash. – The Hill
Why DoD Needs Greater Focus on Non-Lethal Weapons,
Intermediate Force Capabilities By Scott Savitz & Krista Romita Grocholski, Defense Opinion: "When facing gray-zone confrontations with rival powers, such as standoffs at sea, non-lethal capabilities can push back against an encroaching force while managing the risk of escalation.” The Singleton Paradox On the Future of Human-Machine Teaming and Potential Disruption of War Itself By Ben Zweibelson, Journal of Advanced Military Studies: “Technological innovation has historically been applied in war and security affairs as a new tool or means to accomplish clear political or societal goals. The rise of artificial intelligence posits a new, uncharted way forward that may be entirely unlike previous arms races and advancements in warfare, including nuclear weapons and quantum technology."
Quantum Interceptor Technology Showcased for Missile Defense
By Andrew Salerno-Garthwaite, Army Technology: “"During times of military response, speed matters, and our artificial intelligence, powered by D-Wave’s technology, provided an answer much faster than other computational options.””
Judith Miller
Can Sanctions Bring Moscow to Its Knees? Though economic penalties may be slowly crippling the Russian economy, they don’t appear to be changing the Kremlin’s mind on Ukraine. / Read here International Trafficking in Arms Regulations and Innovation: The Export Control Problem
William C. Greenwalt | Nonproliferation Policy Education Center
China's Rising Holdings of U.S. Agency Bonds
by Brad W. Setser
Turkish Company Launders Funds for Hamas, Defies U.S. Sanctions
by Abdullah Bozkurt Nordic Monitor February 22, 2023 https://www.meforum.org/64190/turkish-company-launders-funds-for-hamas-defies
China’s Growing Naval Influence in the Middle East
Blake Herzinger and Ben Lefkowitz | Washington Institute for Near East Policy 
Fawzi al-Zubaidi writes: The key structural obstacles for security reform facing the government of Sudani include the lack of political consensus and conflicts, the ambiguity of the political future of the Sudani government, rampant corruption, the sagging administrative system in Iraq, and the absence of professional co-ordination among the national security institutions. Nevertheless, although the obstacles are many and the proposed reforms expansive and complex, whether Iraq can implement these reforms will determine whether Iraq’s national security sinks or swims amidst increasingly dire regional and global contexts. – Washington Institute Seth J. Frantzman writes: As the crisis continues, Hezbollah continues to entrench. It continues to build watchtowers and fortifications in southern Lebanon and to threaten Israel, which is carrying out large-scale military drills with US Central Command this week. Hezbollah knows that it must tread carefully – and benefits from the vacuum of power at the heart of Beirut. – Jerusalem Post Seth Cropsey writes: It is a matter of supreme importance that we deploy hypersonic weapons at scale — and in a variety of platforms — as rapidly as possible. Congress should encourage the Pentagon to accept testing risks and push rapid operational deployments. The ARRW, in particular, should be fully funded for procurement, not just RDT&E. More generally, Congress should ensure that hypersonics are not a casualty of misguided fiscal prudence or progressive domestic priorities. – The Hill Mackenzie Eaglen writes: Returning to 2022 spending levels for 2024 is much more than a $75 billion cut for the US military. The House GOP is proposing a defense cut well north of $100 billion once more accurate inflation data is available. The result of this short-sighted and unserious proposal would be near immediate and create a “force that is measurably smaller and less capable than the one we have today.” – 19fortyfive
Pentagon Senior Leaders Unfocused on Combat Readiness By Forrest L. Marion, RealClearDefense: “During the so-called "Phoney War" from the fall of 1939 to the spring of 1940, the former Chief of the Imperial General Staff, Lord Gort – reassigned to command the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France against the German attack that everyone knew was to come – inexplicably remained attentive to nonessential concerns.” The redistribution of wealth changes society in deep ways that social planners tend to overlook. READ MORE › How to Win Friends and Choke China’s Chip Supply, by Emily Kilcrease US sanctions Turkish businessman over IRGC oil sales The United States designated what it described as an international oil smuggling and money laundering network led by Turkish businessman Sitki Ayan. Experts Question Chinese Claim Of Quantum Cryptography Breakthrough. Chinese researchers claimed in late December to have made a breakthrough in quantum computing that has allowed them to break low-level RSA encryption – the standard encryption method for secure data transmission. The researchers say the method can overcome advanced 2048-bit RSA encryption with a 372-qubit quantum computer, though they were only limited to cracking 48-bit RSA with a 10-qubit device in testing. Cybersecurity experts have raised concern that essentially the entire internet would be vulnerable to decryption technology with this alleged potential. However, they add that they are skeptical of the Chinese researchers’ success since their study is not meaningfully peer-reviewed and is based on a controversial technique that analysts say does not work when applied to larger encryption. The Record Tech Monitor
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