Friday's Miscellany 04-17-2009

British American Security Information Council (BASIC)
· Iran Update, no, 133, 16 April 2009

Brookings Institution
· Afghanistan Index: Variable of Reconstruction & Security in Post-9/11 Afghanistan [updated April 7, 2009]
· Cuba: A New Policy of Critical and Constructive Engagement
· The Financial Crisis and the Rule of Law
· Summit of the Americas
· A Tighter Command Is Needed in Afghanistan
· Will Obama Retreat on Democracy in Latin America?

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP)
· International Economic Bulletin, v. 1, no. 1, April 2009
· Lessons from Algeria's 2009 Presidential Election
· Reconciling With the Taliban?: Toward an Alternative Grand Strategy in Afghanistan
· Sisters in the Muslim Brotherhood

CATO
· Pakistan and the Future of U.S. Policy

Center for American Progress
· Transcending the Rio Grande: U.S.-Mexico Relations Need to Reach Beyond the Border

Center for Defense Information (CDI)
· A Chronology of North Korea's Missile Tests

Center for Nonproliferation Studies
· 2010: Time for a New Beginning

Center for Security Policy
· An Ideological Crusade Against Alberto Fujimori

Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS)
· Afghan Public Opinion and the Afghan War: Shifts by Region and Province
· Commentary: Obama’s War Fighting Supplemental: $83.4 Billion More for Defense?
· Commentary: Opportunities for Obama in the Americas
· Comparative Connections v.11, n.1, (January-March 2009)
*Regional Overview: High Priority and High Drama over Asia
*U.S.-Japan Relations: A Fresh Start
*U.S.-China Relations: A Good Beginning is Half Way to Success
*U.S.-Korea Relations: The Late Night Phone Call
*U.S.-Russia Relations: The Kremlin Sizes up Obama
*U.S.-Southeast Asia Relations: Indonesia as Exemplar of Southeast Asia’s Importance
*China-Southeast Asia Relations: South China Sea, Economic Issues
*China-Taiwan Relations: New Economic Challenges
*North Korea-South Korea Relations: Squeezing the Border
*China-Korea Relations: Year of China-DPRK Friendship; North’s Rocket Fizzles
*Japan-China Relations: New Year, Old Problems
*Japan-Korea Relations: Conflict with North Improves Japan-ROK Relations
*-China-Russia Relations: Between Crisis and Cooperation
· Financial Power and International Security: Reflections on the Evolution of the Global Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorist Financing Regime since 9/11
· The Obama Administration and US Strategy: The First 100 Days
· Peace in Chechnya?
· Pursuing a Comprehensive Vision for the U.S.-South Korea Alliance
· U.E.-European Nonproliferation Perspectives: A Transtlantic Conversation

Century Foundation
· Iran Election Bulletin, v. 1, no. 4, April 10, 2009
*Ahmadinejad Adopts New Strategy on Campaign Trail
*Assessing Ahmadinejad’s Presidency
*Iranian Voters Hungry for Economic Policies, Not Slogans
*Seen & Heard: Analysis of Recent Media Coverage in Iran
*Background Brief: The State of Iran’s Economy
*Presidential Front Runners

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW)
· 2009 Congressional Pig Book
· Complete Pork Database

Combating Terrorism Center (CTC)
· CTC Sentinel, v. 2, no. 4, April 2009
*“Defining the Punjabi Taliban Network” by Hassan Abbas
*“The 2008 Belgium Cell and FATA’s Terrorist Pipeline” by Paul Cruickshank
* “President Obama’s Overseas Terrorism Challenge” by Tom Sanderson
* “Improving India’s Counterterrorism Policy After Mumbai” by Paul Staniland
*“Leveraging History in AQIM Communications” by Lianne Kennedy Boudali
*“AQAP a Rising Threat in Yemen” by Brian O’Neill
*“The Role of the United Nations in Defeating Al-Qa`ida and Associated Groups” by Richard Barrett
· Dysfunction and Decline: Lessons Learned from Inside al-Qa`ida in Iraq

Congress. House. Armed Services Committee
· Chairman Skelton Sends Letter to President Obama on Denying Safe Havens in Somalia to Pirates

Congressional Budget Office (CBO)
· The Budgetary Implications of NASA's Current Plans for Space Exploration

Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)
· Afghan Defense Chief Unhappy with Obama Plan
· Can China Lift Japan Out of Recession?
· India's Electoral Politics
· India's National Elections and Improved U.S. Relations
· U.S.-Latin America Relations: A New Direction for a New Reality
· The United States Should Avoid "Grand Schemes" in Somalia

Department of Defense Inspector General (DODIG)
· OIG-09-45 - FEMA's Implementation of the Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2004
· OIG-09-42 - Audit of the Effectiveness of the Checked Baggage Screening System and Procedures Used to Identify and Resolve Threats (Unclassified Summary)

Department of Homeland Security Privacy Impact Assessments (PIA)
· FireGround Compass
· Security and Video Quality for the Public Safety Statement of Requirements Project

Department of Transportation Research and Innovation Technology Administration
· Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) System Initiative Final System Design Document
· Next Generation 9-1-1 (NG9-1-1) System Initiative Transition Plan

Director of National Intelligence
· April 3, 2009: Dr. Joel F. Brenner, National Counterintelligence Executive, Addresses the Applied Research Laboratories at the University of Texas at Austin
· April 9, 2009: Mr. Michael E. Leiter, Director of the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC), Addresses the Aspen Institute
· Statement of the Justice OLC Opinions

Economist
· Troubled Waters: A Special Report on the Sea

Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
· Bank Crime Report 4th Quarter 2008
· Previous reports [see violent crime section]

FEMA
· Comprehensive Preparedness Guide (CPG) 101: Developing and Maintaining State, Territorial, Tribal and Local Government Emergency Plans
· Hurricane Ike in Texas and Louisiana: Mitigation Assessment Team Report, Building Performance Observations, Recommendations, and Technical Guidance

Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI)
· What to do About Piracy?

Fort Leavenworth, Combined Arms Center
· Military Review, v. 89, no. 2, March-April 2009
*Counterinsurgency Lessons from Iraq by Bing West
*Unifying Physical and Psychological Impact During
*Narrowing the Gap: DOD and Stability Operations
*Tal Afar and Ar Ramadi: Grass Roots Reconstruction
*Not My Job: Contracting and Professionalism in the U.S. Army
*From Peddlers to Sheiks: A Contracting Case study in Southern Baghdad
*All Our Eggs in a Broken Basket: How the Human Terrain System is Undermining Sustainable Military Cultural Competence
*Complex Operations in Africa: Operational Culture Training in the French Military
*Testing Galula in Ameriyah: the People are the Key
*A View from Inside the Surge
*Amnesty, Reintegration, and Reconciliation in South Africa
*Educating by Design: Preparing Leaders for a Complex World
*The Art of Design: A Design Methodology
*Learning from Moderate Governments’ Approaches to Islamist Extremism

Government Accountability Office (GAO)
· Addressing Significant Vulnerabilities in the Department of State's Passport Issuance Process. GAO-09-583R
· Defined Benefit Plans: Proposed Plan Buyouts by Financial Firms Pose Potential Risks and Benefits GAO-09-207
· Maritime Security: Vessel Tracking Systems Provide Key Information, but the Need for Duplicate Data Should Be Reviewed GAO-09-337
· Military Disability Retirement: Closer Monitoring Would Improve the Temporary Retirement Process. GAO-09-289
· Military Personnel: Status of Accession, Retention, and End Strength for Military Medical Officers and Preliminary Observations Regarding Accession and Retention Challenges GAO-09-469R
· Nuclear Security: Better Oversight Needed to Ensure That Security Improvements at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Are Fully Implemented and Sustained GAO-09-321
· Office of the Federal Coordinator for Gulf Coast Rebuilding: Perspectives and Observations. GAO-09-411R
· Superfund: Greater EPA Enforcement and Reporting Are Needed to Enhance Cleanup at DOD Sites GAO-09-278
· United States Government Accountability Office Fiscal Year 2010 Performance Plan. GAO-09-304SP

Heritage Foundation
· Complex Systems Analysis-A Necessary Tool for Homeland Security
· Gates' Proposed Missile Defense Cuts: Confusion and Contradictions
· The G-20 Summit: Mistakes and Missed Opportunities
· Indonesian President Yudhoyono's Big Decision
· Keeping Score: Will the Summit of the Americas Make the U.S. More Prosperous?
· A New Approach to Improving Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math Education
· Options for Combating Piracy in Somalia
· Piracy: A Symptom of Somalia's Deeper Problems
· The Summit of the Americas: A Chance to Make the Americas More Secure

Hudson Institute
· Hudson Economic Report--April 17, 2009

Human Rights Watch
· A Dying Practice: Use of Cluster Munitions by Russia and Georgia in August 2008
· Forced Apart (By the Numbers): Non-Citizens Deported Mostly for Nonviolent Offenses
· Service for Life: State Repression and Indefinite Conscription in Eritrea

Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS)
· Video Tour of Iran's Nuclear Sites

Institute for Security Studies (ISS)
· African Security Review, v. 18, no. 1, 2009: Peacekeeping in Africa
· 01 Jul 2008: Partnerships for Enhancing Regional Enforcement of Laws Against Environmental Crimes. Workshop Report

Institute for the Study of War
· June '06 to April '09 Iraq Order of Battle
· Operation Peace

International Crisis Group
· Chad: Powder Keg in the East
· China’s Growing Role in UN Peacekeeping
· Development Assistance and Conflict in Sri Lanka: Lessons from the Eastern Province
· Turkey and Armenia: Opening Minds, Opening Borders

International Relations and Security Network
· China’s Unhappy Neo-Leftists
· Costs of War: Dodging Security Bullets
· How to Tackle Piracy
· Moldova: No Revolution This Time Around
· Russia Ends Chechnya 'Operation'
· Srebrenica: Weighing Justice
· True Colors: Thailand on the Brink
· Uncovering China’s Hidden Agenda on Nuclear Proliferation

Jamestown Foundation
· China Brief, v. 9, no. 8, April 16, 2009
*Taiwan's Submarine Program: Pipe-Dream or Next Big Thing?
*Beijing's Calculated Response to NK Missile Launch
*Turkey Trot: Military Cooperation between Beijing and Ankara
*Military Parades Demonstrate Chinese Concept of Deterrence
*An Assessment of Taiwan's Quadrennial Defense Review

Lexington Institute
· Analytic Flaws in the Emerging Gates Defense Posture
· Back to the Future with Secretary Gates
· Radford Army Ammunition Plant: The Heart of the U.S. Ammunition Supply Chain

Maritime Administration
· Horn of Africa Piracy

Middle East Report Online
· The Reawakened Specter of Iraqi Civil War

National Priorities Project (NPP)
· The President's War Request: Local Costs Updated

New York University Center for Catastrophe Preparedness and Response (CCPR)
· Facial Recognition Technology: A Survey of Policy and Implementation Issues

Peterson Institute
· The GCC Monetary Union: Choice of Exchange Rate Regime
· The IMF and the Global Crisis: Role and Reform
· World Recession and Recovery: A V or an L?

Pew Hispanic Center
· Mexican Immigrants in the United States, 2008
· A Portrait of Unauthorized Immigrants in the United States

Pew Internet
· The Internet's Role in Campaign 2008

RAND
· Challenges and Issues with the Further Aging of U.S. Air Force Aircraft: Policy Options for Effective Life-Cycle Management of Resources
· The Economic Cost of Methamphetamine Use in the United States, 2005
· Enhancing Fires and Maneuver Capability Through Greater Air-Ground Joint Interdependence
· An Examination of the Relationship Between Usage and Operating-and-Support Costs of U.S. Air Force Aircraft
· Evaluating Options for U.S. Greenhouse-Gas Mitigation Using Multiple Criteria
· A Framework to Assess Programs for Building Partnerships
· Initial Evaluation of the Cities Readiness Initiative
· Titanium: Industrial Base, Price Trends, and Technology Initiatives

Small Wars Journal
· The Post Oceanic Navy, the New Shadow Zones, and the U.S. Navy’s Force Structure Challenge
· The Role of PRTs on the Battlefield
· Translating Russia's Military Reform

Strategic Studies Institute
· A History of Socio-Cultural Intelligence and Research Under the Occupation of Japan

Washington Institute for Near East Policy
· Making Smugglers Pay: Underwriting Egyptian Border Security
· Will Mitchell's Trip Bypass Damascus?