biden: sanctions on russia until peace in ukraine

“The United States sanctions on Russia must and will remain in place until the Minsk Agreement is fully implemented,” said Vice President Joe Biden at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think tank.

• Read Xuan Lei’s story

‘Reporting Vietnam’ a gritty look at covering the vietnam war

Marking the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the Vietnam War, a new exhibit allows visitors to take a retrospective look at the war’s legacy through the lens of American journalists.

• Watch Andersen Xia’s video

MEDILL STUDENTS REPORT FROM THE GI FILM FESTIVAL

Medill graduate students are hard at work covering the 2015 GI Film Festival, an annual celebration of films that pay homage to the military experience. Check out their suite of stories below:

• GI Film Fest fans name their all-time favorite military films
• On Memorial Day: Remembering those who die from suicide

Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Press Secretary Ross Feinstein and U.S. Customs and Border Protection Media Division Director Michael Friel

WASHINGTON — U.S. Customs and Border Protection Media Division Director Michael Friel and Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Press Secretary Ross Feinstein recently challenged journalists to go beyond the obvious when covering their agencies.

The Oct. 2 panel discussion, entitled “Covering National Security in your Community,” was held as part of “Covering the Military, Veterans and Homeland Security: Tomorrow’s Trends and Issues,” the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative’s 2014 conference.

During the event, Friel said that people’s understandings of the CPB largely depend on where they come from because the agency has a wide variety of geographically dependent mission sets.

For instance, he said, people who grew up in border towns would probably have a greater familiarity with the U.S. Border Patrol, whereas those who grew up near big cities would more readily recognize Customs agents from transit hubs or points of entry, like airports or seaports.

But Friel urged the crowd to go beyond the familiar when searching for stories.

“As you know, there is a focus on our agency that I think is immigration-heavy so a lot of our work is with immigration-related reporters,” he said. “Of course, that is an important story and it gets a lot of attention. The agency is broad, though.”

Friel said that CPB is “an all-threats agency” dedicated to safeguarding Americans against any incoming risk, whether it be a rice shipment that contains an insect with the potential to threaten American agriculture, an individual attempting to cross a U.S. border with fake papers or a shipment of intellectualproperty-violating products coming into the U.S. via cargo ship.

Feinstein also acknowledged the existence of reporting trends for his agency.

“People think TSA just controls the airports,” Feinstein said, saying that local and tech angles understandably drew the most reporters to cover his agency’s work with security checkpoints.

“Well, it’s not true,” he said.

Feinstein distinguished that the TSA only handles airports’ “security screening apparatus,” and that it has no control over the airports themselves. Before or after security screenings, he explained, law enforcement is in charge.

Feinstein shared more unconventional storylines that he’s seen reporters explore in an attempt to broaden audiences’ interest.

The work of TSA intelligence officers, who collaborate with local airports to examine “any type of ways that we need to enhance aviation security,” and of Visible Intermodal Prevention and Response (VIPR) teams, which collaborate with mass transit organizations, were among the storylines he found to be the most compelling.

Above all, Feinstein stressed that the TSA’s relationships with officials and law enforcement on the local level are a huge part of the story of both the agency’s role in protecting America.

“It’s really important to see how that all comes together to make the nation’s security work,” he said.

The panel, which united Talley with National Guard Bureau Vice Chief Lt. Gen. Joseph L. Lengyel to address the future of the National Guard and Army Reserve, was held as part of “Covering the Military, Veterans and Homeland Security: Tomorrow’s Trends and Issues,” the Medill National Security Journalism Initiative’s 2014 conference.

If the Reserve is new to you, here are some facts and figures to get your reporting started on the right foot:

1. It’s kind of a chameleon. Talley said that the Reserve is characterized by the technical expertise of its manpower, which stretches across a variety of disciplines. According to Talley, the Reserve houses the majority of the Army’s technical capabilities (vs. active-duty ranks), comprising 94 percent of the total Army’s legal units, 80 percent of its logistical capability, nearly all of its civil affairs troops and the majority of its medical capability. Additionally, he said, full-spectrum engineering only exists within the Reserve’s ranks.
2. It wasn’t originally designed to fight. According to Talley, the Reserve was “founded initially to get access to private-sector doctors and nurses,” with its other technical expansion coming later on. “The Army Reserve, over years, has been transitioned from combat forces to combat support and combat services,” Talley said. He said the Army Reserve tries to maintain combat effectiveness when active-duty troops are in periods of drawdown. Talley said the Reserve is also to do any sort of sustained contingency mission for the Army.
3. “It is the only component of the Army that is a command,” Talley said. He described the regular active-duty army as being “a component” rather than being one unified command. This structure stands in contrast with the National Guard, he said, which is organized as 54 different commands. He also said this facet of its structure gives the Reserve its own commander versus the National Guard setup in which an adjutant general is the leader but bows to the command of a governor.
4. It’s huge. “If you take the Air Force Reserve plus the Coast Guard Reserve plus the Marine Corps Reserve plus the Navy Reserve – add ‘em all up – the Army Reserve is bigger,” Talley said, noting that it’s also bigger than the active-duty Marine Corps. He said the Reserve’s strength objective is approximately 205,000 for soldiers and 32,000 for civilians.
5. It’s everywhere. “What you’ll find is the Army Reserve is directly embedded and integrated into every Army service component command and every combatant command” including the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Talley said. He said this integration is justified by the Reserve’s “enabling capability” for the Army, which provides about 40 percent of all combatant commands’ total capabilities.
6. Its future is in the numbers. Talley said the way in which the Reserve deals with things like government sequestration and budgets will determine the future direction the Army Reserve and National Guard, alike, will take. However, he expressed hope in the power of its Private Public Partnership Initiative to help offset the impact of the current American fiscal crisis on the Reserve. He said past partners include Coca-Cola and Fox News.

The keynote was held at the Hamilton Crowne Plaza as part of “Covering the Military, Veterans and Homeland Security: Tomorrow’s Trends and Issues,” the 2014 Medill National Security Journalism Initiative Conference.

Flournoy, who started out as a stringer for TIME Magazine and eventually became the top-ranked woman at the Pentagon in 2009, intended for the talk to be a roadmap for national security reporters.

For this reason, we’ve distilled her talk down to a mini-handbook to help you better navigate issues of national security relevance both within our borders and beyond.

1. THE ISLAMIC STATE IN THE MIDDLE EAST

Flournoy called reporting on the Islamic State – which she said is fueled by a “fundamental, systemic instability” in the Middle East that is rooted in the Shi’a-Sunni divide – to be “relatively shallow” and identified the jihadist group ISIS and its actions as a great opportunity for investigative journalism.

“The manifestations may change, but the problems are going to be with us for quite some time, unfortunately,” she said.

HERE’S WHAT SHE THINKS YOU SHOULD BE ASKING:

• Where does the Islamic State come from?
• What drives its ideology?
• Why are people embracing the Islamic State?
• How can it most effectively be disrupted?
• What’s the American interest in the Islamic State issue?
• What kind of threat does it pose to the U.S. network?
• What kind of dangers does it pose to U.S. foreign interests and American citizens living abroad?
• What are different incarnations does the Islamic State take, and how is it evolving?

RELATED STORYLINES THAT WARRANT EXPLORING:

• Does and/or should the U.S. care about the Islamic State threat?
• What are the geopolitics of U.S. energy independence?

2. THE EMERGENCE AND INTENTIONS OF CHINA

“There is no region that is going to impact the U.S. economy or U.S. security more … in the next 20 years than [the] Asia-Pacific,” Flournoy said.

Flournoy said that China’s “incremental actions” within the Asia-Pacific region are calculated to simultaneously raise Chinese influence while minimizing international suspicion that its moves havei more global motives. However, she believes that the country aims to upend the current global-power hierarchy and change the international political playing field for good. According to Flournoy, China’s desire to remix the system is rooted in the fact that the current international order (and corresponding international relations policy) was crafted while China was in a weakened position and so it might feel disenfranchised.

STORIES TO WATCH:

• Whether China will be a globally minded stakeholder in the international order or to change that order for self-serving reasons
• How the map of Asia will change with increasing Chinese power
• How these changes will impact the country’s relationship with the U.S.
• How China uses its power
• Safeguarding international order that allows China to be succeeding now

3. THE FUTURE OF RUSSIA

“When I step back and look at Russia, I think the long story is this is a nation that is fundamentally in decline,” Flournoy said.

Citing issues including, but not limited to, the isolating nature of Putin’s foreign policy moves and attitudes, a limited economy and more, Flournoy predicted that the country’s complications will have a regional domino effect.

“The next 10 years, you’re going to see Europe completely rebalancing and reposturing to deal with a different Russia,” she continued.

PERTINENT STORYLINES/ THINGS TO WATCH:

• Decreasing life expectancy of Russia’s male population
• Russia’s failure to diversify their national economy beyond income from the energy industry
• The foreign policy implications of Putin’s antagonistic behavior
• NATO’s next moves with respect to Russia (which Flournoy said she expects to include an increased investment in military posture along Russia’s borders)
• The future involvement (or lack thereof) of European military’s in NATO action against Russia
• Difficulties with Russia’s integration into Europe

4. BORN IN THE USA

Flournoy also identified some homegrown storylines to keep an eye on:

• How technology will affect security over the long term
• Private-sector developments vs. government-funded research & development
• Foreign of U.S. global power in the wake of economic instability and in-fighting.

Former Colorado Springs Gazette and current New York Times reporter David Philipps walked the crowd through the reporting process behind his Pulitzer Prize-winning series on military discharge-related corruption from May 2013 entitled “Other than Honorable” as a case-study in how good reporting, regardless of outlet size or resource sophistication, can make waves. Philipps said anyone with the time and willingness to dig deeply could undertake such an effort. An unlikely military reporter and self-describe “floater” whose resume also includes an alligator-wrestling certification, Philipps’ coverage of veteran’s affairs sprung out of his Colorado Springs hometown’s large veteran population and a then-surge in homecoming soldiers. He said a quick but hesitant indulgence of an initial tip about one soldier’s psychiatric hospital-to-imprisonment story lead to a months-long quest to track down additional victims and the data to back up his theory (or any plausible explanation for his observations). He stressed the value of FOIA requests and sources with knowledge of systematic workarounds to get crucial reporting information – such as military defense lawyers – and the importance of finding data to support controversial journalistic assertions. “I needed to show who these guys were, what happened to them, and then how they were treated in a very sort of narrative way in order to make anybody give a damn,” he said.

For Washington Post reporter, editor and author David Finkel, journalism is about more than just getting the story; it’s about getting into the story. During his panel address, the Pulitzer Prize-winner and author of “Thank You for Your Service” and “The Good Soldiers” – both of which revolve around the experience of Iraq War veterans – made the case for “immersion journalism,” or a style of reporting that entails hanging out around your reporting environment of choice and waiting and watching for stories to emerge. He said he keeps Ernest Hemingway’s maxim that a journalist’s responsibility is to understand, rather than judge at the forefront of his work. “My approach to understanding is when I go off to do a story, I have a question in mind,” he explained. “I don’t have an answer. That’s what the reporting’ll lead me to.” He emphasized the importance of taking immaculate notes to steel yourself against potential accusations of dishonesty or bias and the difficulty and necessity of cultivating strong source relationships in order to build the kind of trust that breeds access. Finkel also cautioned the reporters at the meeting to be conscious of the emotional and professional tug-of-war they’ll face over whether a reporter’s ultimate responsibility is to be loyal to sources or to the journalism vocation.