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Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America, ONLINE event, New America/ASU

Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America

It is virtually impossible to turn on CNN, read the Wall Street Journal, go to a hospital, attend a university, or browse a bookstore without encountering a sea of Indian names and faces. In her new book Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America, author and journalist Meenakshi Ahamed examines the story of Indian immigration to the United States. As immigration policy again tops the news, the history of Indian immigration to the United States reveals how the Cold War arms race, the rise of Silicon Valley, the development of the modern American healthcare system, and other factors shaped the development of one of America’s most successful immigrant communities. According to a 2018 survey by the Pew Research Center, the median annual household income for Indian Americans is $100,000, higher than that of other Asian Americans and the general population, and Indian Americans are more likely to be college-educated than the general population. What accounts for Indian Americans’ remarkable ability to break into mainstream American culture and their meteoric rise within its ranks? Ahamed’s Indian Genius provides fascinating portraits of the Indian Americans at the forefront of the wave of Indian success stories, drawing on a series of interviews to explore the larger story of the Indian-American community.

Join New America’s Future Security Program as they welcome Meenakshi Ahamed to discuss her new book Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America. Ahamed is a freelance journalist and author of A Matter of Trust: India–U.S. Relations from Truman to Trump, a sweeping narrative history of the turbulent seventy-year relationship between the two countries. Her writing has been published in the New York Times, Washington Post, Atlantic, CNN, Wall Street Journal, and other outlets. She has worked at the World Bank in Washington, D.C., and for New Delhi Television, and has served on the boards of Doctors Without Borders, Drugs for Neglected Diseases, and Vellore Christian Medical College Foundation. Ahamed was born in Calcutta and received an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Join the conversation online using #IndianGenius and following @NewAmericaISP.

Participants:

Meenakshi Ahamed
Author, Indian Genius: The Meteoric Rise of Indians in America

Moderator:

Peter Bergen
Vice President, New America
Co-Director, Future Security
Professor of Practice, Arizona State University

How Do You End An Endless War?

December 17, 2024
In the annals of violent conflict, the decades of the “Troubles” in Northern Ireland seemed especially intractable. As the long-running strife flares violently again between Israelis and Palestinians, two negotiators of the astonishing and lasting peace agreement in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s, Monica McWilliams and John Alderdice, explain what it takes to get people to sit down with their enemies and whether the path to peace in Northern Ireland offers a way forward for the Middle East.

Por qué Trump quiere adueñarse del Pentágono, CNNespanol

ANÁLISIS | Por qué Trump quiere adueñarse del Pentágono
Por Peter Bergen, CNN
6 min de lectura
19:24 ET (00:24 GMT) 24 de febrero de 2025

En una dramática purga el viernes por la noche, el presidente Donald Trump tomó medidas decisivas para evitar que se repita lo ocurrido en su primer mandato, cuando se peleó con altos líderes militares, al despedir al principal general de Estados Unidos y destituir a otros en un esfuerzo por asegurarse de tener un Pentágono totalmente complaciente.

En un buen momento para intentar enterrar noticias importantes: el asesor militar de más alto rango de Trump, el jefe del Estado Mayor Conjunto, el general Charles “CQ” Brown, y la principal oficial de la Marina estadounidense, la jefa de Operaciones Navales, la almirante Lisa Franchetti, fueron despedidos. El secretario de Defensa de Trump, Pete Hegseth, también anunció que está buscando candidatos para reemplazar a los principales abogados militares de la Fuerza Aérea, el Ejército y la Marina que firman la legalidad de las operaciones militares estadounidenses.

Ninguno de estos oficiales parece haber sido despedido por una causa, como un mal desempeño en el campo de batalla o insubordinación, aparte de una supuesta obsesión con el DEI en el caso del general Brown, según el libro de Hegseth de 2024.

Trump quiere rehacer el Pentágono para tener un control total sobre él. Por supuesto, él es el Comandante en Jefe, así que está en su prerrogativa hacerlo, pero al despedir a Brown, que es negro, y a Franchetti, que fue la primera mujer en dirigir la Marina, Trump dio a entender que la lealtad incuestionable será el requisito clave para estos puestos, en lugar de proporcionar el mejor asesoramiento militar al presidente con independencia de la política interna estadounidense, que se supone que es la función clave de los cargos.

Por eso, cuando Trump asumió el cargo en su primer mandato, se rodeó rápidamente de generales de alto rango; el general retirado de cuatro estrellas John Kelly fue su segundo secretario general; el general retirado de cuatro estrellas James Mattis fue su primer secretario de Defensa y el teniente general en activo de tres estrellas H.R. McMaster fue su segundo asesor de seguridad nacional.

Trump se deleitaba hablando de “mis generales”, como “Perro Loco” Mattis, y también se deleitaba con los aspectos ceremoniales de ser el comandante en jefe. Trump quedó impresionado por el despliegue de material militar francés que vio en la celebración del Día de la Bastilla en París el 14 de julio de 2016.

Trump ordenó al Pentágono que montara un espectáculo similar para su discurso del Día de la Independencia “Salute to America” el 4 de julio de 2019, y los generales no lo decepcionaron. Durante su discurso, Trump hizo un play-by-play de un sobrevuelo de aviones avanzados de la Fuerza Aérea de Estados Unidos, anunciando: “Pronto verán hermosos y flamantes F-22 Raptors” y “un magnífico bombardero furtivo B-2”.

Pero las relaciones entre Trump y sus generales se agriaron con el tiempo (¡nota bene, Elon!) porque Kelly, Mattis y McMaster, cada uno a su manera, no cumplían los deseos de Trump, como descubrí cuando estaba informando sobre mi libro, “Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos”.

McMaster agotó su acogida con Trump, en parte, porque abogaba por mantener el rumbo en Afganistán y ampliar la presencia de efectivos estadounidenses allí. Trump llevaba mucho tiempo queriendo salir de Afganistán y después de que McMaster fuera relevado tras poco más de un año en el cargo, Trump autorizó a su equipo a empezar a negociar con los talibanes una retirada total de Estados Unidos de Afganistán.

Por su parte, a Mattis le preocupaba que Trump iniciara la Tercera Guerra Mundial y, cuando en 2017 Trump intensificó su retórica contra el dictador norcoreano Kim Jong Un, dotado de armas nucleares, Mattis “tardó” en proporcionar posibles opciones militares contra Corea del Norte. Mattis también retrasó la provisión de opciones militares, para cualquier tipo de conflicto potencial con Irán.

El 19 de diciembre de 2018, Trump tuiteó sobre su orden de retirar todas las tropas estadounidenses de Siria. Al día siguiente, Mattis se reunió con Trump en el Despacho Oval e intentó persuadir al presidente para que diera marcha atrás en su decisión. Trump no cedió y Mattis dimitió.

Kelly, secretario general de Trump, valoró su paso por la Casa Blanca en función de lo que había conseguido evitar durante su mandato, por ejemplo, que Trump retirara abruptamente las fuerzas estadounidenses de Afganistán o que se retirara de la OTAN. Trump odia ser “manejado”, por lo que su relación con Kelly también se agrió y abandonó la Casa Blanca en diciembre de 2018.

Una ruptura decisiva entre Trump y muchos oficiales estadounidenses se produjo durante las protestas a nivel nacional desencadenadas por el asesinato por la policía de Minneapolis de George Floyd el 25 de mayo de 2020. A las afueras de los terrenos de la Casa Blanca, el 3 de junio, la policía, con tropas de la Guardia Nacional en reserva, atacó a manifestantes pacíficos cerca de la iglesia de St. John. En la iglesia Trump sostuvo una Biblia para las cámaras.

Tras dimitir, Mattis había hablado poco de Trump. Sin embargo, ahora ha publicado un comunicado condenatorio en el que afirma: “Donald Trump es el primer presidente en mi vida que no intenta unir al pueblo estadounidense, ni siquiera lo pretende. En lugar de eso, intenta dividirnos”.

El entonces secretario de Defensa de Trump, Mark Esper, un antiguo oficial del Ejército estadounidense que había sustituido a Mattis, dijo públicamente que no apoyaría el uso de tropas estadounidenses en servicio activo para sofocar las protestas, algo que Trump había amenazado recientemente con hacer. Esper fue despedido por medio de una publicación en Twitter seis meses después.

Otra ruptura con el Pentágono se produjo tras los disturbios del 6 de enero de 2021 en el Capitolio de EE.UU. por parte de partidarios de Trump. El presidente del Estado Mayor Conjunto, el general Mark Milley, llamó a su homólogo chino para asegurarle que no había ninguna posibilidad de que Estados Unidos lanzara un ataque militar contra China. En Twitter, Trump sugirió entonces que Milley debería ser ejecutado por su conversación con el general chino.

Las cicatrices de las pasadas peleas de Trump con los líderes del Pentágono han dado como resultado la intención de Trump de tomar el control total del Departamento de Defensa. Vimos un indicio de ello en los últimos meses de su primer mandato, cuando Trump instaló a un ultra leal, Kash Patel, en el poderoso puesto de jefe de personal del Pentágono. Patel fue votado recientemente por el Senado para convertirse en el nuevo director del FBI.

Trump no espera nada menos que el nivel de lealtad de Patel en sus generales y altos funcionarios del Pentágono. Y es probable que la purga del viernes por la noche de seis oficiales militares de alto rango sea tan solo el aperitivo, ya que Hegseth está buscando ahora decenas de miles de millones de dólares de recortes en su departamento y es probable que tenga que perder un número significativo de personal.

Why Trump wants to own the Pentagon, CNN.com

Analysis by Peter Bergen, CNN
6-minute read
Updated 12:44 PM EST, Mon February 24, 2025

CNN
—
In a dramatic Friday night purge, President Donald Trump took decisive action to avoid a repeat of his first term when he tussled with senior military leaders, by firing America’s top general and removing others in an effort to ensure he has a fully compliant Pentagon.

At a good time to try and bury major news— Trump’s most senior military adviser, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Charles “CQ” Brown and the top US navy officer, the Chief of Naval Operations, Admiral Lisa Franchetti were both fired. Trump’s Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also announced he is seeking nominations to replace the top military lawyers at the Air Force, Army and Navy who sign off on the legality of US military operations.

None of these officials seem to have been fired for cause, such as poor performance on the battlefield or insubordination, other than a purported obsession with DEI in the case of General Brown, according to Hegseth’s 2024 book.

Trump wants to remake the Pentagon, so he has total control over it. Of course, he is the Commander in Chief so it’s his prerogative to do so, but by firing Brown who is Black and Franchetti who was the first woman to run the Navy, Trump signaled that unquestioned loyalty will be the key qualification for these jobs rather than providing the best military advice to the president irrespective of American domestic politics, which is meant to be the key function of the roles.

Trump has been obsessed with the US military from an early age. He attended a military-style boarding school in New York and one of his heroes is General George Patton, an aggressive battlefield commander during World War II.

So, when Trump took office in his first term, he quickly surrounded himself with senior generals; retired four-star General John Kelly was his second chief of staff; retired four-star General James Mattis was his first secretary of defense and active duty three-star Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster was his second national security adviser.

Trump reveled in talking about “my generals” such as “Mad Dog” Mattis, and he also took a boyish delight in the ceremonial aspects of being the commander in chief. Trump was wowed by the French display of military hardware that he saw at the Bastille Day celebration in Paris on July 14, 2016.

Trump ordered the Pentagon to put on a similar show for his “Salute to America” Independence Day speech on July 4, 2019, and the generals didn’t disappoint. During his speech, Trump did a play-by-play account of a fly-by of advanced US Air Force planes flying overhead, announcing, “You will soon see beautiful brand-new F-22 Raptors” and “a magnificent B-2 stealth bomber.”

But Trump’s bromances with his generals soured over time (nota bene, Elon!) because Kelly, Mattis and McMaster each in their different ways wouldn’t comply with Trump’s wishes, as I found when I was reporting my book, “Trump and His Generals: The Cost of Chaos.”

McMaster wore out his welcome with Trump, in part, because he advocated for staying the course in Afghanistan and expanding the US troop presence there. Trump had long wanted to get out of Afghanistan and after McMaster was eased out after just over a year on the job, Trump authorized his team to start negotiating with the Taliban a total US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

For his part, Mattis worried that Trump would start World War III and when in 2017, Trump was ratcheting up his rhetoric against the nuclear-armed North Korean dictator, Kim Jong Un, Mattis “slow rolled” providing potential military options against North Korea. Mattis also delayed providing military options, for any kind of potential conflict with Iran.

President Donald Trump speaks as national security advisor H.R. McMaster, left, White House chief of staff John Kelly, second left, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, right, listen during a briefing with senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House in October 2017.
President Donald Trump speaks as national security advisor H.R. McMaster, left, White House chief of staff John Kelly, second left, and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, right, listen during a briefing with senior military leaders in the Cabinet Room of the White House in October 2017. Andrew Harrer/Pool/Getty Images
Trump’s final break with Mattis came over the fight against ISIS in Syria. Mattis believed US troops should stay in Syria after ISIS’s defeat there to prevent any return of the terrorist group, while Trump insisted on withdrawing from Syria. Mattis also felt that this left the Syrian Kurdish forces that had been fighting ISIS vulnerable to attack by the powerful Turkish military and would mean abandoning an ally on the battlefield.

On December 19, 2018, Trump tweeted about his order to pull all US troops out of Syria. The following day Mattis met with Trump in the Oval Office and tried to persuade the president to reverse his decision. Trump wouldn’t budge so Mattis resigned.

Kelly, Trump’s chief of staff, viewed his time in the White House by what he’d managed to prevent on his watch, for instance, Trump abruptly pulling US troops out of Afghanistan, or withdrawing from NATO. Trump hates being “managed” so his relationship with Kelly soured too and he left the White House in December 2018.

US President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John’s Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020. – US President Donald Trump was due to make a televised address to the nation on Monday after days of anti-racism protests against police brutality that have erupted into violence.
The White House announced that the president would make remarks imminently after he has been criticized for not publicly addressing in the crisis in recent days. (Photo by Brendan Smialowski / AFP) (Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington, DC, on June 1, 2020. Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images/FILE
A decisive break between Trump and many US flag officers came during the nationwide protests sparked by the murder by Minneapolis police of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. Just outside the White House grounds on June 3, police, with National Guard troops in reserve, attacked peaceful protesters near St. John’s Church. At the church Trump held up a Bible for the cameras.

After resigning Mattis had said little about Trump. Now he released a damning statement saying: “Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people—does not even pretend to try. Instead, he tries to divide us.”

Trump’s then-Defense Secretary, Mark Esper, a former officer in the US Army who had replaced Mattis, publicly said that he would not support using active-duty US troops to quell protests which Trump had recently threatened to do. Esper was fired by tweet six months later.

Yet another break with the Pentagon happened following the January 6, 2021, riot at the US Capitol by Trump supporters. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs General Mark Milley called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that there was no chance of the US launching a military attack against China. On Twitter Trump then suggested that Milley should be executed for his conversation with the Chinese general.

The scar tissue from Trump’s past fights with Pentagon leaders has resulted in Trump’s intention to take total control over the Department of Defense. We saw a hint of that in the final months of his first term when Trump installed an ultra-loyalist, Kash Patel, to the powerful job of chief of staff at the Pentagon. Patel was recently voted in by the Senate to become the new director of the FBI.

Trump expects nothing less than Patel-levels of loyalty in his generals and top officials at the Pentagon. And Friday night’s purge of six senior military officers is likely to be just the aperitif since Hegseth is now looking for tens of billions of dollars of cuts at his department and he’ll likely have to lose significant numbers of personnel.

No Way But Forward: Life Stories of Three Families in the Gaza Strip, New America ONLINE

What is life really like in the Gaza Strip? Few outside observers have spent as much time on the ground in Gaza exploring this question as Brian K. Barber. In his new book, No Way But Forward, Barber traces how three ordinary young Palestinian men have experienced life in Gaza over the past thirty years—including the year following October 7, 2023. Their lives have been riddled with oppressive military constraint, violence, humiliation, and loss. Yet along with their parents, wives, and children, they have persevered. These narratives are gripping tales of survival, endurance, and hope.

Join New America’s Future Security Program as they welcome Brian K. Barber for a discussion of his new book and life in Gaza. Brian K. Barber, PhD, is Professor Emeritus at the University of Tennessee and the author of No Way But Forward: Life Stories of Three Families in the Gaza Strip. He is a former New America Future Security Program Fellow and was a 2016 Jacobs Foundation Fellow with New America’s Fellows Program. Among other books, he is the editor of Intrusive Parenting: How Psychological Control Affects Children and Adolescents (2002, American Psychological Association), and Adolescents and War: How Youth Deal with Political Conflict (2008, Oxford University Press).

His latest book is available at www.bkbarber.com.

Join the conversation online using #NoWayButForward and follow @NewAmericaISP.

Participants:

Brian K. Barber
Author, No Way But Forward

Former Fellow, New America Future Security Program

2016 Jacobs Foundation Fellow, New America

Moderator:

Peter Bergen
Vice President, New America
Co-Director, Future Security

Is A New Nuclear Arms Race Inevitable?

Jan 28 2025
Very quietly, and with little public discussion, the U.S. military has undertaken a $1.5 trillion project to modernize America’s nuclear triad – the planes, submarines and missiles that deliver nuclear weapons. It’s one of the biggest and most expensive projects in American military history – more costly, even, than the Manhattan Project. But how necessary is this modernization effort? And what message does it send to our nuclear adversaries?

Special Operations Forces (SOF) Week, Tampa

SOF Week
Held in Tampa, Florida, Special Operations Forces (SOF) Week is an annual conference for the international SOF community to learn, connect, and honor its members. Jointly sponsored by USSOCOM and the Global SOF Foundation, the 2024 edition attracted over 19,000 attendees.

SOF Week 2025 aims to be the premier global gathering of special operators, industry leaders, and strategic partners. This event will foster collaboration, innovation, and excellence, showcasing the cutting-edge capabilities and strategies that define modern special operations.