News + Media

	In the News May 18, 2020 Former inspector general: Trump is attacking the ‘institution’ of oversight Lawrence O'DonnellMSNBC Joel Brenner, who served as Inspector General of the National Security Agency under President Bush, tells Lawrence O’Donnell the firing of several inspectors general shows President Trump believes all government officials owe him “personal loyalty.”
	In the News May 18, 2020 Trump’s ‘highly unusual’ politicization of government watchdogs Yamiche AlcindorPBS News Hour President Trump has fired three inspectors general recently, including State Department watchdog Steve Linick on Friday. Yamiche Alcindor talks to Joel Brenner, a former national security inspector general and director of national intelligence, about how politicizing the IG role is “all wrong.”
	In the News May 15, 2020 Inspectors general: oversight, authority, and removal with Joel Brenner National Security Law Today Joel Brenner discusses the Inspectors General role during the Covid-19 crisis and Trump's removal on National Security Law Today.
	In the News May 11, 2020 National security is in the eye of the beholder Brad GlossermanJapan Times Richard Samuels quoted: MIT Professor Richard Samuels describes this as the belief that societies must “organize to defend the wealth of individuals they comprise” — their skills, productive relationships, firms and R&D centers that create their wealth — and argues that this logic has long prevailed in Japan.
	Analysis + Opinion May 10, 2020 Can the democrats avoid Trump’s China trap? Rachel Esplin Odell, Stephen WertheimThe New York Times Democrats, and Republicans who truly put American security first, face a choice. Joe Biden in particular will decide whether to lead his party into Mr Trump’s trap or play a different game.
	Analysis + Opinion May 9, 2020 An ode to the humble balcony Bernardo ZackaThe New York Times It is private, yet public; exposed, yet secluded. It offers company without the demands of intimacy, and we should never take it for granted again, writes Bernardo Zacka in a New York Times opinion piece available here.
	In the News May 8, 2020 Trump wages a war on watchdogs as coronavirus elevates their importance Liz GoodwinThe Boston Globe Joel Brenner quoted: “It absolutely sends a chill through the whole community,” said Joel Brenner, former inspector general of the National Security Agency. “It’s a very clear message. The president doesn’t want any inspector general issuing any report critical of the administration and any inspector general who does it has to understand that he or she is likely to be out of a job.”
	Analysis + Opinion May 8, 2020 4 things that will happen if Kim Jong-un died Jim WalshThe National Interest Should Chairman Kim exit early, there may be an opportunity to return to the negotiating table, especially given the North's precarious situation--one that is likely to deteriorate even further over the near to medium term, writes Jim Walsh in The National Interest's series asking what happens if Kim Jong-un died.
	News@E40 May 7, 2020 Distinguished fellow and friend, Yukio Okamoto, felled by Covid-19 Yukio Okamoto, a Japanese diplomat and fellow at MIT, died from Covid-19 on April 24 at the age of 74. The former special advisor to two prime ministers of Japan joined the Center for International Studies (CIS) in 2012 as a Robert E Wilhelm fellow and served as a distinguished research fellow at CIS until his death.
	Analysis + Opinion May 7, 2020 Does the global pandemic open new South China Sea opportunities for Beijing? Not really. M Taylor FravelThe Washington Post A number of recent analyses have emphasized that China is seizing pandemic-created opportunities to improve its position in the South China Sea as other countries are distracted or otherwise unable to respond. A key implication of such claims is that absent the pandemic, China would have acted differently and perhaps with more restraint.