Vandenberg Flash Focus

The policies of the Biden administration not only failed to extinguish the foreign policy fires consuming the Middle East; they actively accelerated them. Recognizing the urgent need for a revamped Middle East strategy, the Vandenberg Coalition convened a working group of experts to proposed policy solutions to more effectively advance U.S. interests and regional stability. One of group’s experts, Gabe Scheinmann—Executive Director of the Alexander Hamilton Society and a member of the Vandenberg Governance Board— joins Flash Focus to discuss the threat landscape and share some of the report’s conclusions. 

Despite the high-minded and noble ideas upon which they were founded, multilateral institutions like the United Nations have been hijacked by actors adversarial to the United States, such as China, Russia, Iran, and terrorist organizations. No better example of this concerning trend exists than in the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). As documented in a new UN Watch report, UNRWA leadership has met with, and in some cases pledged loyalty and cooperation to, U.S.- and UN-designated terrorist groups including Hamas. In this episode of Flash Focus, Vandenberg Executive Director Carrie Filipetti speaks with Hillel Neuer, Executive Director of UN Watch, about UN Watch’s work, the report’s findings, and ways to ensure accountability for corrupted international organizations. 

For decades, the repressive Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has weaponized its position in the global economy to build geoeconomic leverage, fund its military modernization, fuel its global illicit activities, and wage economic warfare on the United States. Americans can no longer afford the costs of an unfettered CCP. What actions can the incoming administration and Congress take to counter the CCP economic threat? The China Economic & Strategy Initiative’s (CESI) recent report, “Defeating the CCP: A Running Start,” details a robust economic strategy to address this critical issue. In this episode of Flash Focus, Vandenberg Coalition Executive Director Carrie Filipetti is joined by Dan Blumenthal, Vice Chairman of CESI and senior fellow and the director of Asian Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), to discuss some of the report’s recommendations.