Monday NatSec Roundup

But to abstract war from the environment in which it is fought and study its techniques as one would those of a game is to ignore a dimension essential to the understanding, not simply of the wars themselves but of the societies which fought them.

• The great historian Michael Howard passed away on Saturday. I am told by friends that he remained intellectually active to the very end, attentive to the work of graduate students and young scholars in the field. He was one of the very few active historians to have served in combat in World War II. War in European History is probably his best known working, serving as a touchstone for thinking about the interaction between social and political institutions and the practice of warfare.
• China is increasingly weaponizing its travel policies, such that we can expect the Chinese tourism curve to bend a bit in the future. Domestic politics (managing relations between domestic constituencies and the diaspora) are part of this, but Xi also wants a credible threat to punish foreign countries by restricting tourist money…
• Michael Kofman is bullish on the Russia-China relationship. I am less so, but Michael makes a good case.
• Some sophisticated framing on the relationship between climate change and domestic violence in the Pacific Islands.
• I was not aware that the US had acquired copies of the Kh-31 anti-ship missile for testing… the 90’s were a wild time.
• Nice review of Robert Forczyk’s Tank War on the Eastern Front at Strategy Bridge.