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Manhattan Institute Issues Commentary to Wall Street Journal: Can Minnesota's Somalis Rise Above the Fraud Scandal?
NEW YORK, Dec. 4 -- The Manhattan Institute issued the following excerpts of a commentary on Dec. 2, 2025, to the Wall Street Journal:* * *
Can Minnesota's Somalis Rise Above the Fraud Scandal?
By Jason L. Riley
They are far from the first group of migrants to arrive in the U.S. carrying heavy cultural baggage.
When the little boy in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes" blurts out that the emperor is naked, he says what people already knew. He says what his fellow townsfolk were thinking but were too afraid to utter themselves. Sometimes it can seem as though we're all living ... Show Full Article NEW YORK, Dec. 4 -- The Manhattan Institute issued the following excerpts of a commentary on Dec. 2, 2025, to the Wall Street Journal: * * * Can Minnesota's Somalis Rise Above the Fraud Scandal? By Jason L. Riley They are far from the first group of migrants to arrive in the U.S. carrying heavy cultural baggage. When the little boy in Hans Christian Andersen's "The Emperor's New Clothes" blurts out that the emperor is naked, he says what people already knew. He says what his fellow townsfolk were thinking but were too afraid to utter themselves. Sometimes it can seem as though we're all livingin Andersen's fairy tale, where too few people are willing to state the obvious.
Parents of school-age children are expected to watch their daughters play competitive sports with boys and not notice the physical differences. Law-abiding citizens are expected to believe that police pose a greater threat to public safety than violent criminals. We're told that asking someone to show identification before casting a ballot is "voter suppression."
Continue reading the entire piece here at the Wall Street Journal (https://www.wsj.com/opinion/can-minnesotas-somalis-rise-above-the-fraud-scandal-e2499362?mod=author_content_page_1_pos_1)
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Jason L. Riley is a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, a columnist at The Wall Street Journal, and a Fox News commentator.
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Original text here: https://manhattan.institute/article/can-minnesotas-somalis-rise-above-the-fraud-scandal
[Category: ThinkTank]
Jamestown Foundation Issues Commentary to Eurasia Daily Monitor: Russia Builds Coercive State Apparatus in Ukraine's Occupied Territories
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The Jamestown Foundation posted the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025, in its Eurasia Daily Monitor:* * *
Russia Builds Coercive State Apparatus in Ukraine's Occupied Territories
By Maksym Beznosiuk
Executive Summary:
* Since 2022, Russia has replicated its federal administrative architecture in the occupied territories of Ukraine, seeking full legal, economic, and political integration by January 2026.
* The Kremlin established courts, prosecutors' offices, security structures, tax and migration services, property registries, and social funds, all connected to federal ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The Jamestown Foundation posted the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025, in its Eurasia Daily Monitor: * * * Russia Builds Coercive State Apparatus in Ukraine's Occupied Territories By Maksym Beznosiuk Executive Summary: * Since 2022, Russia has replicated its federal administrative architecture in the occupied territories of Ukraine, seeking full legal, economic, and political integration by January 2026. * The Kremlin established courts, prosecutors' offices, security structures, tax and migration services, property registries, and social funds, all connected to federaldigital oversight systems.
* These structures bolster Russian oversight and control, deepen residents' dependence on Russian institutions, legitimize wide-ranging property seizures, and make future reintegration with Ukraine nearly impossible.
In October 2025, the Russian government finalized the full integration of all occupied Ukrainian regional administrations into its federal digital monitoring platform--the Governor's Dashboard. This system allows the Kremlin to track budgets, personnel performance, construction progress, and administrative compliance in real time (Government of Russia, October 31). This recent move places the occupied Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts under the same performance metrics used across the Russian Federation. They are increasingly under the Kremlin's tightened, authoritarian grip, which is supported by administrative personnel imported from Russia since 2022 (Radio Svoboda, September 29, 2022).
The Kremlin-led digital transition coincides with broader efforts to institutionalize Russian governance across Ukraine's occupied territories. Since the outset of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia has pursued an administrative annexation of occupied Ukrainian territories. In 2023, Russian authorities announced a transition period until January 2026 to fully incorporate the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People's Republics (DPR and LPR), as well as the occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, into Russia's legal and governance system (TASS, September 29, 2023). To this end, they have introduced a series of regulatory and institutional changes to replicate the Russian state across these regions. Specifically, the Kremlin has deployed courts, prosecutors, the Federal Security Service (FSB), Rosgvardiya units, tax offices, migration structures, property registries, and social funds throughout the occupied regions.
Russian authorities have implemented over 50 federal laws and 1,700 regional legal acts for the occupied territories, along with 500 new regional decrees on administration, property transfers, and municipal governance (DumaTV, October 25, 2023). The Kremlin's objective is to enforce a coercive and subservient bureaucratic system that will fully replace Ukrainian governance and make the political annexation irreversible.
The Kremlin has also facilitated the introduction of constitutions for the so-called DPR and LPR, as well as charters for the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, institutionalizing regional governments, parliaments, and bureaucracies aligned with the Kremlin (Russian State Duma, December 16, 2024). During the transition period, the Kremlin reorganized the wartime military-civil administrations into Russian-style regional governments headed by acting governors and supported by local cabinets (RBC, October 3, 2022; Fedpress, October 4, 2022). Legislative assemblies and regional governors were formally elected in 2023, institutionalizing the Kremlin's administrative hierarchy across the four occupied regions (Realnoe Vremya, September 24, 2023).
Judicial integration has been central to the Kremlin's strategy. As of November 2025, the Kremlin has established an efficient network of supreme, regional, and arbitration courts across all four territories, as well as garrison and district courts overseen by Russia's High Qualification Board of Judges (DumaTV, October 25, 2023). As of 2025, there are 100 courts across the four regions, with 570 federal judges, to ensure that all legal disputes, including property conflicts and criminal cases, are adjudicated under Russian law (Pravo, February 20).
The Russian Prosecutor General's Office launched regional branches in all four territories by late 2022, while the FSB, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Rosgvardiya, and the Investigative Committee have established permanent presences by reassigning personnel from other Russian regions (TASS, November 15, 2022). Together, these institutions enable the Kremlin to ensure efficient political control, suppress resistance, and cope with the growing legal and security apparatus.
Moscow has also actively worked to strengthen its fiscal and administrative grip over the occupied regions. In March 2025, Russian Minister of Internal Affairs Vladimir Kolokoltsev stated that 32 State Traffic Safety Inspectorate units and 106 migration offices were fully functional in the occupied territories (Interfax, March 5). In particular, the Kremlin's active efforts indicate its determination to enforce passportization and integrate all personal data on drivers and vehicles into Russian national databases to ensure compliance and alignment with other Russian regions. Since 2023, the Russian Federal Tax Service has launched over 60 offices across the occupied territories, including inspectorates and administrative branches, to provide residents and companies with access to Russian tax infrastructure, business registration, and support measures under Russian law (TASS, August 15, 2023). The Kremlin has also expanded small-business registries through simplified procedures, special tax regimes, and subsidies to new regions, along with incentives and expanded subsidy programs to ramp up economic integration with Russia (TASS, July 10, 2023; Nezavisimaya gazeta, October 30).
In 2024, Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin announced that property and land registration in the occupied territories must operate on the same basis as in any Russian region (Government of Russia, September 12, 2024). The Federal Service for State Registration, Cadastre, and Cartography has deployed branches throughout the occupied territories and incorporated them into the Federal State Information System of the Unified Real Estate Register, adding over 1.3 million properties to the registry and processing around 240,000 applications via interagency electronic exchange (Government of Russia, September 12, 2024). As of November 2025, the agency has extended extraterritorial registration to 39 Russian regions, allowing property owners from the occupied territories to submit documents at multi-functional centers across Russia (RBC, October 1).
The Kremlin's approach facilitates large-scale re-registration of Ukrainian-owned properties as Russian assets while supporting decrees on "abandoned property" and "federal integration," which give occupation administrations the right to expropriate housing and enterprises and transfer them to Russian citizens or state corporations (UNN, July 5, 2024; RBC, October 23). Since 2022, more than 40,000 Ukrainian companies have been re-registered under Russian law, many functioning as mirror entities controlled by Russian managers (Youcontrol, December 16, 2024).
Furthermore, the Social Fund of Russia has been fully operational in the occupied territories since 2023, taking over pensions and welfare payments from the previous administrations (TASS, December 4, 2023). As of 2025, approximately 1.5 million residents in the occupied territories receive pensions and benefits under Russian law, while local entitlements from previous administrations are temporarily maintained to prevent reductions (TASS, April 5). As access to these benefits increasingly depends on Russian paperwork, including citizenship and registration status, welfare systems become another tool of the Kremlin's coercive control and coercive annexation (Meduza, October 22).
Despite the comprehensive enforcement of the Kremlin-dominated administrative system, Russian officials face staff shortages and limited access to water, electricity, and other critical services. For instance, since 2023, the healthcare system has faced severe staff shortages of up to 40 percent (UNN, July 30). Many Ukrainian doctors refuse to collaborate with Russian occupation authorities (Suspilne, March 19, 2023). Russian medical specialists, furthermore, are often unwilling to relocate despite higher pay, as they are aware that they are perceived as occupiers (Espresso, July 30).
Russian occupation officials are also facing staff shortages in the education sector. For instance, in October 2025, the occupation administration in Kherson oblast reported a shortage of about 600 teachers in local schools (Most.ks.ua, September 9). Most remarkably, to fill leadership and teaching posts, Russian occupation administrators have had to appoint individuals with no relevant qualifications, including laboratory assistants and janitors (UNN, April 23, 2024).
More worryingly, there have also been continuous issues with water and power outages across the occupied territories, affecting thousands of residents. For instance, in September 2025, power outages occurred in occupied parts of Kherson oblast due to shortages of qualified energy staff (NV, September 8). In the so-called DPR, a deepening water crisis has been unfolding since the summer, with the Russian authorities implementing new schedules that have worsened the condition of networks that had received only minimal repairs since the occupation (Radio Svoboda, October 6).
Since 2022, Russia has built a state apparatus to replicate and extend its system of coercive control and oversight by establishing judicial, tax, migration, and property institutions, as well as recently introduced digital oversight systems in occupied territories. The Kremlin's ultimate objective is to deepen residents' dependence on Russian institutions, legitimize wide-ranging property seizures, and make future reintegration with Ukraine nearly impossible. For Ukraine and its Western partners, reversing this hostile and comprehensive administrative takeover will necessitate not only de-occupation but also the dismantling of the Kremlin's complex bureaucratic ecosystem aimed at binding the occupied territories to the Russian state for the long term.
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Maksym Beznosiuk is a strategic policy specialist whose work focuses on Russia's evolving military strategy, European security, EU-Ukraine cooperation, and Ukraine's reconstruction.
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Original text here: https://jamestown.org/russia-builds-coercive-state-apparatus-in-ukraines-occupied-territories/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Jamestown Foundation Issues Commentary to Eurasia Daily Monitor: Europe-Ukraine Defense Industry Collaboration Expanding
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The Jamestown Foundation posted the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025, in its Eurasia Daily Monitor:* * *
Europe-Ukraine Defense Industry Collaboration Expanding
By Yuri Lapaiev
Executive Summary:
* The Ukrainian and European defense ecosystems are becoming more integrated through new funding channels for Ukraine, mutual technology and military strategy transfers, and joint production initiatives.
* European states are adopting Ukrainian-proven systems and tactics--such as counter-drone warfare, electronic warfare integration, and long-range strike methods--while ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The Jamestown Foundation posted the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025, in its Eurasia Daily Monitor: * * * Europe-Ukraine Defense Industry Collaboration Expanding By Yuri Lapaiev Executive Summary: * The Ukrainian and European defense ecosystems are becoming more integrated through new funding channels for Ukraine, mutual technology and military strategy transfers, and joint production initiatives. * European states are adopting Ukrainian-proven systems and tactics--such as counter-drone warfare, electronic warfare integration, and long-range strike methods--whileUkraine gains access to European industrial processes, funding, procurement frameworks, and advanced manufacturing standards in a two-way modernization cycle that strengthens both sides.
* Europe-Ukraine defense cooperation improves Europe's military readiness while diversifying and growing Ukraine's defense industry.
On November 5, Ukrainian Minister of Defense Denys Shmyhal announced that Ukraine has been granted "Enhanced Partnership" status with the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), a defense coalition of ten nations from Northern Europe. [1] According to Shmyhal, this is the first time that a non-member state has been granted this status. Ukraine will likely share its experience in combating hybrid threats, air defense, drone technologies and tactics, and conducting long-range strikes. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) will participate in joint exercises with JEF partners to achieve full interoperability (X/@Denys_Shmyhal, November 5).
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk on November 19 announced the creation of a Ukrainian-Polish information exchange group following acts of sabotage on the Polish railway. This group will share their experiences and lessons learned in dealing with Russian hybrid warfare to prevent future acts of sabotage (X/@ZelenskyyUa, November 19).
France and Ukraine signed a Declaration of Intent on Cooperation in the Acquisition of Defense Equipment for Ukraine following Zelenskyy's visit to France on November 17. The document enables Ukraine to procure 100 Rafale F4 aircraft from France, along with SAMP/T air-defense systems, air-defense radars, air-to-air missiles, and aerial bombs. The declaration also raises the possibility of technology transfer and joint production of aircraft in Ukraine. The two countries agreed to jointly produce interceptor drones and together develop new technologies for Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles (President of Ukraine, November 17). Despite the long implementation period--deliveries of all Rafale F4 are planned to be completed in 2035--and some skepticism from Ukrainian experts, such as Taras Chmut, head of the Come Back Alive Foundation, this is still a huge step forward for Kyiv (X/@TarasChmut, November 17).
These collaborations demonstrate that Ukraine is becoming an important element of the European security system. Ukraine is gradually shifting from simply a recipient of material and technical assistance from Europe to a partner that shares technologies and tactics earned through its unique combat experience. This cooperation is beneficial for European countries, some of which have begun reforming and rearming their armed forces in response to potential Russian aggression against them.
The growth of joint projects on weapons production confirms this trend. Greece has announced the start of joint production of Ukrainian naval drones. Some of the products will be supplied to AFU, and some to the Greek Armed Forces. If the project is successful, there are plans to expand it to include the production of underwater drones (Kathimerini, November 17). The sharp criticism and typical threats against the Ukrainian-Greek project from the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs can be viewed as a recognition of the effectiveness of Ukrainian defense products and partnership efforts (Afinskie Novosti, November 21).
On November 18, the Czech Air Team company signed an agreement with Ukrainian Defense Industry JSC (also known as Ukroboronprom) for the joint development and production of air target interceptors (Ukrinform, November 18). Spain and Ukraine announced a series of bilateral development agreements for defense technologies and production following Zelenskyy's November 18 visit. These agreements included a letter of intent on technical and financial cooperation between Kyiv and Madrid, a memorandum on countering Russian disinformation, and a memorandum on industrial cooperation between the Ukrainian defense company Praktika and the Spanish companies Escribano and Technonova (The New Voice of Ukraine, November 18).
On November 5, the European Commission and the European Parliament opened a path for Ukrainian access to the European Defense Fund. Besides taking a step toward more funding and cooperation in defense industry development and construction, the agreement "also paves the way for Ukraine's gradual integration into the European Defense Technological and Industrial Base" (European Commission, November 5). On November 25, the European Parliament took a further step, approving $345 million for the Ukraine Support Instrument of the European Union's Defense Investment Program.
The opening of exports of the latest Ukrainian weapons systems is another extremely important step in EU-Ukraine defense integration. The first contracts are expected in the second half of 2026 and would mark the first Ukrainian weapons exports since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022 (Ukrinform, November 7). The first stage will involve the export of Ukrainian unmanned air and sea systems. Despite the risk of exporting weapons during wartime, it could help Ukraine develop its own defense industry, better finance its needs on the front, and improve its position in the global arms market. For Kyiv's partners, this is an opportunity to improve the combat capability of their own armed forces by obtaining unique weapons that have proven success on the battlefield (see EDM, July 8, 2024; Militarnyi, November 13).
The AFU can become a valuable provider of advanced combat experience for European partners in addition to military technology cooperation. Lieutenant General Christian Freuding, inspector of the German Army, noted in an interview that veterans of the AFU will soon train Bundeswehr officers. In his opinion, it is impossible to replicate battle experience, and therefore it is important to take the Ukrainian experience into account when training German military personnel (FAZ, November 20). Ukrainian participants in training courses in Europe also point to a serious gap between modern combat tactics and the methods used by European soldiers. Europeans, in particular, lag behind in the use of drones, and the AFU can help them adapt to the latest tactics (ВВС Ukraine, November 17). Russia has been engaged in similar cooperation and training for a long time, with its army actively sharing its experience with the People's Republic of China (PRC), Iran, and North Korea.
Ukraine is increasing the number and scale of joint defense projects with European partners. In the context of ongoing diplomatic turmoil, this could become an important means of ensuring Kyiv's sovereignty and security. Diversification of production will help reduce risks for Ukrainian companies amid ongoing Russian attacks. For partners, defense industry cooperation opens access to the latest Ukrainian technological developments and the opportunity to study the combat experience of the AFU. Ukraine is gradually becoming an important element in strengthening Europe's collective security and military-industrial resilience. This collaboration, in turn, requires robust involvement from Europe to counter Russian aggression and ensure Ukraine's survival.
Note:
[1] "The Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) is a coalition of ten like-minded nations (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), comprising high readiness forces configured to rapidly respond to crisis" (JEFNations, accessed December 3).
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Yuri Lapaiev is currently the editor-in-chief of Tyzhden (The Ukrainian Week) magazine.
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Original text here: https://jamestown.org/europe-ukraine-defense-industry-collaboration-expanding/
[Category: ThinkTank]
Hudson Institute Issues Commentary to Japan Forward: In Praise of Candor - Takaichi, Japan, and Taiwan
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- Hudson Institute, a research organization that says it promotes leadership for a secure, free and prosperous future, issued the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025, to Japan Forward:* * *
In Praise of Candor: Takaichi, Japan, and Taiwan
By James J. Przystup
In China's Sights
Recently, Beijing's foreign policy leadership had appeared to be making an effort to send its Wolf Warrior diplomats back to their lairs-until Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi spoke truth to power in her remarks to the Diet. She observed that China's use of force in a potential Taiwan contingency ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- Hudson Institute, a research organization that says it promotes leadership for a secure, free and prosperous future, issued the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025, to Japan Forward: * * * In Praise of Candor: Takaichi, Japan, and Taiwan By James J. Przystup In China's Sights Recently, Beijing's foreign policy leadership had appeared to be making an effort to send its Wolf Warrior diplomats back to their lairs-until Japan's Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi spoke truth to power in her remarks to the Diet. She observed that China's use of force in a potential Taiwan contingencycould present Japan with "a survival-threatening situation."
In response, the Wolf Warriors were soon out of their dens. China's initial salvo came from Osaka Consul General Xue Jian. He advocated decapitating the Prime Minister, arguing "to cut off that dirty neck without a second of hesitation."
China's Ambassador to the United Nations, Fu Cong, followed up. In a letter to the UN Secretary General, the ambassador called on Japan to "stop making provocations and crossing the line, retract its erroneous remarks." Cong warned Japan that armed intervention would be considered "an act of aggression."
Beijing then turned up the heat, with Foreign Minister Wang Yi finding the Prime Minister's remarks "shocking" and promising that China would "resolutely respond." The Foreign Minister went on to declare that the international community is duty-bound to "prevent the resurgence of Japanese militarism." President Xi followed up in a telephone call to President Donald Trump, in which he raised the Taiwan issue.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning has explained that Takaichi's "wrongful remarks have seriously hurt the feelings of the Chinese people and poisoned the atmosphere for people-to-people exchange." Accordingly, Beijing issued personal safety warnings for its citizens traveling to Japan.
That was only the start.
China's Global Wolf Warriors
Beijing then re-opened its economic sanctions playbook, reimposing a ban on the import of Japanese seafood products and suspending the December 5 scheduled release of the Japanese animated movie "Crayon Shin-chan." Then, on November 16, it sent Chinese Coast Guard ships into the waters of Japan's administered Senkaku Islands.
The response came with a warning of more to follow unless the Prime Minister retracted her "wrongful remarks." In itself, though, that warning violated China's own sacrosanct principle of non-interference in domestic affairs.
Beijing's efforts at economic intimidation are not new. We've seen this movie before.
To Review:
2010:
China embargoed rare earth exports to Japan in response to a fishing boat incident in the Senkaku Islands. It also delayed customs clearance procedures and suspended high-level diplomatic and political contacts. Meanwhile, it allowed anti-Japanese sentiment in China to run rampant against Japanese companies, also endangering the safety of Japanese residents.
2017:
Responding to Seoul's decision to deploy the THAAD missile defense system, Beijing banned group tours to South Korea. Likewise, it encouraged a boycott of South Korean products, cancelled performances of K-pop entertainers, and suspended cultural engagements.
Beijing also imposed a diplomatic "Three Noes" diktat on Seoul-no further THAAD deployments, no participation in a US missile defense architecture, and no participation in a US-Korea-Japan partnership. (In 2022, Seoul declared the Three Noes inoperative.)
2020:
The Australian government called for an inquiry into the origin of the COVID-19 pandemic. Beijing, to show its displeasure, responded by calling Australia "gum stuck to the bottom of China's shoe" and acted to restrict Australian exports, including wine, barley, coal, cotton, and lobsters. This led Australia's companies to successfully diversify export markets.
2021:
And just to underscore that the Wolf Warriors are global in outlook, in November 2021, Beijing slapped a trade embargo on the Lithuanian government and downgraded its diplomatic presence in that country. It blamed the action on Lithuania's decision to allow the opening of a Taiwan representative office in Vilnius. China called that act a "blatant breach of faith."
So, what is to be done?
1. A Diplomatic 'Wolf in Sheep's Clothing'
First, is to recognize that for all of Xi Jinping's Global Governance call for a new world order, China remains a diplomatic "wolf in sheep's clothing." Despite the well-tailored suits of its diplomats, at heart, it is a schoolyard bully.
2. Strengthen the US-Japan Alliance
Second is to join with Ambassador to Tokyo George Glass in thanking China for all that it is doing to strengthen the US-Japan alliance. At a time of much uncertainty with respect to the direction of US foreign policy, Washington needs all the help it can get. So again, makoto ni domo arigatoo gozaimasu. -sincere thanks.
3. Remember Abe's Syllogism
Third, as for Taiwan, as former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe cautioned, remember that a "Taiwan contingency is Japan contingency" and therefore a contingency for the Japan-US alliance. Abe's syllogism reflects strategic realities.
The growing realization of Japan's potential involvement in a Taiwan contingency has served to shape the evolution of Japan's defense and national security policies. Its strategic shift to the Southwest islands began under the 2010 National Defense Program Guidelines and the Mid-Term Defense Plan. Japan's 2022 National Security Strategy and subsequent defense policy documents have reinforced this direction.
The increasing deployment of the Self-Defense Forces to the southwest islands, joint exercises with US forces in the region, and the development of civil defense and evacuation plans in the event of conflict all reflect the reality of a potentially existential Taiwan contingency for Japan.
4. Japan's Peace and Security Legislation
Fourth, to remember the language of Japan's 2015 Peace and Security legislation. As Takaichi has reminded the Japanese public and the Chinese Communist Party leadership in Beijing, it reads:
1. When an armed attack against Japan occurs or when an armed attack against a foreign country that is in a close relationship with Japan occurs and as a result threatens Japan's survival and poses a clear danger to fundamentally overturn people's right to life, liberty and pursuit of happiness*,
2. [And] when there is no other appropriate means available to repel the attack and ensure Japan's survival and protect its people,
3. Use of force should be limited to the minimum extent necessary.
* As a matter of course, use of force must be carried out while observing international law. In certain situations, this is based on the right of collective self-defense under international law.
In short, an armed attack on US forces during a Taiwan contingency could present Japan with a survival-threatening situation.
The Prime Minister was simply acknowledging a potential national security reality in her remarks to the Diet. At the same time, her comment enhanced alliance-based deterrence against that contingency.
Candor is not often recognized as a political virtue. When it does appear, it should be respected.
Read in Japan Forward (https://japan-forward.com/new-from-hudson-in-praise-of-candor-takaichi-japan-and-taiwan/).
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James J. Przystup is a senior fellow with Hudson Institute's Japan Chair.
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Original text here: https://www.hudson.org/foreign-policy/praise-candor-takaichi-japan-taiwan-james-przystup
[Category: ThinkTank]
Capital Research Center: Big Labor, Its Friends on the Right, a Late Pope, and a Spider-Man Villain Walk Into a Bar
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025:* * *
Big Labor, its friends on the right, a late pope, and a Spider-Man villain walk into a bar
An 1891 papal pronouncement is loved today by labor leaders and some right-leaning allies and politicians. But they wouldn't be so fond of it if they had read the whole thing.
By Michael Watson
I have been skeptical of the Hewlett Foundation's investments in right-of-center groups suspiciously interested in advancing historically left-of-center policy, at times wondering if these groups are simply ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The Capital Research Center issued the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025: * * * Big Labor, its friends on the right, a late pope, and a Spider-Man villain walk into a bar An 1891 papal pronouncement is loved today by labor leaders and some right-leaning allies and politicians. But they wouldn't be so fond of it if they had read the whole thing. By Michael Watson I have been skeptical of the Hewlett Foundation's investments in right-of-center groups suspiciously interested in advancing historically left-of-center policy, at times wondering if these groups are simplypaid factotums in Hewlett's efforts to divide and rule the right. Leading the line for the leftism-from-the-right effort is American Compass, the think tank richly rewarded by Hewlett for its efforts to torpedo the Taft-Hartley Consensus that has guided conservative labor-relations policy since 1945 and helped keep American economic policy distinct from Europe's socialist sclerosis.
Regardless of how many leftists helped American Compass rise to influence, it has found an audience among a new prospective post-Trump-era Republican Establishment. So, it is worth treating the group's ideas on labor relations with seriousness regardless of whence they derived. And they fail for a simple reason: Rather than provide the social-formation roles that Catholic intellectuals and national conservatives imagine for them, American labor unions would rather turn people into dinosaurs.
Wait, what?
Well, American labor unions would rather turn people into dinosaurs metaphorically. There is a panel from a comic book featuring Spider-Man that has become something of a meme:
Upon seeing the villain's evil plan to turn all humanity into dinosaurs, Spider-Man asks with absolute incredulity why the villain does not use his powers to rewrite DNA for good. The villain simply does not care; he rejects the hero's question because he wants "to turn people into dinosaurs" in keeping with his evil plan.
Big Labor's behavior when asked by the would-be Spider-Men of the self-described New Right to lay off the partisan leftist ideology for the good of the social position of the working class might as well be modeled on the pterodactyl-ian villain of the meme. The point of a contemporary labor union is not to "furnish the best and most suitable means for attaining what is aimed at, that is to say, for helping each individual member to better his condition to the utmost in body, soul, and property"; it is to carry on the Everything Leftist Omnicause. It is to turn workers into soldiers of whatever institutional progressivism's Eye of Sauron demands they fight for.
Pope fights
The quotation in archaic language in the previous paragraph is an 1891 declaration from Rerum Novarum, a Roman Catholic encyclical (a letter from the pope to bishops for instructional purposes) issued by Pope Leo XIII (not to be confused with the current Pope, Leo XIV).
Trade unionists, and especially their friends on the American Compass-aligned ostensible right, love the document. In a policy brief by Baron Public Affairs on the rising labor-unionist factions on the political right, the letter makes an appearance involving an event held by Teamsters boss Sean O'Brien and a speech given by then-U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), an American Compass favorite now elevated to a post in the Trump administration.
But the document isn't what it's often portrayed as, namely a radical endorsement of trade unionism and near-socialism under the color of divine authority. Notably, it is emphatic in its affirmation of the right to private property. This was radical, but from a conservative direction in turn-of-the-20th-century Europe, in which state ownership of the means of production was a live political movement. The document declared: "The right to possess private property is derived from nature, not from man; and the State has the right to control its use in the interests of the public good alone, but by no means to absorb it altogether."
The document is first and foremost a product of its time, the developing Industrial Revolution, when European and American business law had not yet come to terms with how to handle massive increases in the number of industrial workers and declines in farmers. In keeping with Christian views of the dignity of work and workers, the late Pope Leo issued calls for employers to uphold dignified employment practices that today are largely mandated by law.
For example, he condemned excessive mandatory work hours (then typically 10-hour days, often six days per week), which are now regulated by the federal overtime law. (And those on salary expected to work more than the standard 40 hours per week are supposed to be compensated appropriately.) The Pope condemned child labor, also banned (or at least strictly regulated) under today's laws.
Qualified praise
But the late Pope Leo did praise labor organizations, at least insofar as they carried out Christian purposes (remember, Rerum Novarum is a Catholic religious document, not an American public-policy brief). In paragraph 49, Leo asserts:
The most important of all are workingmen's unions, for these virtually include all the rest. History attests what excellent results were brought about by the artificers' guilds of olden times. They were the means of affording not only many advantages to the workmen, but in no small degree of promoting the advancement of art, as numerous monuments remain to bear witness. Such unions should be suited to the requirements of this our age - an age of wider education, of different habits, and of far more numerous requirements in daily life.
There is obviously much for O'Brien and his Republican stooges (notably Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO)) to like here but note the paragraph does not end Leo's written sermon. In paragraph 54, Leo takes note of a potential problem workingmen's associations might present [emphasis added]:
Now, there is a good deal of evidence in favor of the opinion that many of these societies are in the hands of secret leaders, and are managed on principles ill - according with Christianity and the public well-being; and that they do their utmost to get within their grasp the whole field of labor, and force working men either to join them or to starve. Under these circumstances Christian working men must do one of two things: either join associations in which their religion will be exposed to peril, or form associations among themselves and unite their forces so as to shake off courageously the yoke of so unrighteous and intolerable an oppression. No one who does not wish to expose man's chief good to extreme risk will for a moment hesitate to say that the second alternative should by all means be adopted.
It is clear that if it had its way, American labor unions would "do their utmost to get within their grasp the whole field of labor, and force working men either to join them or to starve." From the Wagner Act to the proposed PRO Act, Big Labor has sought to compel the payment of union dues by as many workers as it can force to pay them, with past union bosses sometimes resorting to Mob tactics to get their way.
Ending with the dinosaurs
In recent years we have seen the AFL-CIO and its member unions operate as a functional adjunct to the Democratic Party and the woke Omnicause and the federation itself share outright Marxist propaganda encouraging workers to "seize the means of production."
Here arrives American labor and its affinity for metaphorical dinosaur transformations. The American union movement, as demonstrated by its majority faction in the AFL-CIO federation, could focus on "furnish[ing] the best and most suitable means for attaining what is aimed at, that is to say, for helping each individual member to better his condition to the utmost in body, soul, and property." But that's not what it does.
And on matters especially dear to social conservatives (Catholics among them), Big Labor chooses Everything Leftism over the late Leo. Radical transgender activism gets the union label over the material benefit of at least one prominent union member. Union staffers freely rotate between union work and abortion-activist work. Union coffers fund campaigns to put Planned Parenthood propaganda in elementary schools. And that's without even considering social issues where the Compass followers and the Roman Church may be at odds with each other, such as immigration, where labor has chosen to follow its political allies down the path to Everything Leftism.
As the Baron Public Affairs report (available for download here) makes clear, even the Compass followers acknowledge that union political and social-policy activities are a sticky wicket when trying to convince the right to adopt their left-wing economic program. Until the union movement decides that working for workers is more important than the left-wing social agendas union leaders seem to prioritize, unions' positions should foreclose conservatives from following American Compass's Hewlett-funded path.
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Michael Watson
Michael is Research Director for Capital Research Center and serves as the managing editor for InfluenceWatch.
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Original text here: https://capitalresearch.org/article/big-labor-its-friends-on-the-right-a-late-pope-and-a-spider-man-villain-walk-into-a-bar/
[Category: ThinkTank]
American Action Forum Issues Commentary: When Your 401(k) Allows Exotic Assets
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The American Action Forum issued the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025:* * *
When Your 401(k) Allows Exotic Assets
By Thomas Kingsley
Executive Summary
* President Trump issued an executive order that marks a decisive shift in retirement policy--directing regulators to ease restrictions on alternative assets in 401(k)s, potentially opening to everyday savers "exotic" assets including private equity, private credit, real estate, and digital-asset vehicles.
* This policy guidance could reshape both product design and capital flows, prompting asset managers to create ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The American Action Forum issued the following commentary on Dec. 3, 2025: * * * When Your 401(k) Allows Exotic Assets By Thomas Kingsley Executive Summary * President Trump issued an executive order that marks a decisive shift in retirement policy--directing regulators to ease restrictions on alternative assets in 401(k)s, potentially opening to everyday savers "exotic" assets including private equity, private credit, real estate, and digital-asset vehicles. * This policy guidance could reshape both product design and capital flows, prompting asset managers to createretirement-compatible private-market vehicles while raising concerns about illiquidity, opaque valuation practices, high fees, and the suitability of such assets for participants nearing retirement.
* The long-term ramifications hinge on regulatory execution: Done well, the shift could democratize access to higher-growth markets and redirect capital toward productive investments; done poorly, it could introduce new systemic risks and undermine the safeguards that underpin the U.S. retirement system.
Introduction
It is rare for an executive order (EO) to ripple so quickly through the retirement landscape, and rarer still for one to unsettle long-standing assumptions about how ordinary workers invest for their futures. Yet President Trump's August 2025 directive, intended to "democratize access to alternative assets" within 401(k) plans, has done precisely that. Assets once reserved almost exclusively for institutions and high-net-worth elites may soon appear in the portfolios of everyday savers. "Exotic" assets such as private equity, private credit, real estate, digital-asset vehicles, commodities, and a range of other non-traditional instruments are being pulled from the institutional realm into the defined-contribution world.
For decades, 401(k) fiduciaries adhered to a conservative orthodoxy that limited retirement portfolios to public equities, fixed income, and cash equivalents. This was not simply habit; the legal incentives encouraged liquidity, transparency, and price discoverability. Exotic assets, with their opacity, valuation challenges, and often-heavy fees, have long been seen as incompatible with the risk standards that govern retirement plans. This EO challenges that premise by directing the Department of Labor (DOL) to revisit its earlier guidance and consider safe harbors (legal provisions that protects individuals or organizations from liability for activity that would otherwise be illegal) that could allow plan sponsors to offer a broader array of options without assuming prohibitive litigation risk. By framing the issue as one of fairness--Why should institutional investors access high-return private markets while workers cannot?--the administration has shifted a technical regulatory debate into a broader economic one. High-return private markets, however, necessarily involve meaningful risk: illiquidity, high fees, opaque valuation methods, and potential for underperformance.
The Current Landscape: Exotic Assets Meet Main Street
For decades, 401(k) participants have been offered what amounts to a conservative menu: a mix of public equities, fixed income, and cash or cash-equivalents. By contrast, institutional investors--including large pension funds or endowments--have had access to a broader, higher-return universe: private equity, real estate, private credit, infrastructure, and even digital assets.
These "alternative" or "exotic" assets are now poised to migrate from elite institutional portfolios into the accounts of everyday workers. The EO explicitly defines alternative assets to include:
1. Private market investments, e.g., unlisted equity or debt.
2. Real estate, both direct and via debt instruments.
3. Actively managed digital asset vehicles, e.g., crypto or funds built to operate on blockchain.
4. Commodities, infrastructure investments, and even longevity pools (vehicles used to manage the risk associated with retirees living longer than expected).
Fiduciaries under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal law that governs many retirement plans, have long been cautious. Risk, liquidity constraints, valuation opacity, and litigation fears all weighed heavily on decisions, usually directing fiduciaries to the safest waters. The Trump EO seeks to recalibrate that caution: It instructs the DOL to revisit its guidance, to clarify fiduciary duties, and to design "safe harbors" so plan sponsors can more confidently offer these vehicles.
The Implications of the Trump Executive Order
Democratization of Access
Framed in the White House fact sheet as a democratizing move, the order is pitched as leveling the playing field: More Americans, not just the wealthy, can now potentially gain access to returns that were once the province of big institutional investors. That said, the assets in question carry meaningful risk: illiquidity, high fees, opaque valuation methods, and potential for underperformance. For retirement savers, especially those far from retirement, the trade-off may be compelling; for those close to retirement, less so.
Supervisory Realignment and Litigation Risk
By directing the DOL to reexamine guidance and potentially rescind prior restrictive stances, the EO could significantly reduce the legal overhang that has historically discouraged sponsors from offering alternative assets. Plan fiduciaries often face lawsuits claiming imprudence when they deviate from standard liquid investments; a recalibrated regulatory framework could blunt that threat. The DOL is being asked to consult with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Treasury Department, and other agencies to harmonize rules across domains.
Product Innovation and Alignment of Incentives
Private equity and alternative managers have long sought access to the enormous pool of 401(k) capital. This order may be the key. We're already seeing major players respond: Goldman Sachs and T. Rowe Price, for instance, announced plans to launch retirement products offering exposure to alternatives. For them, this is not just a new product line but a potential multi-trillion-dollar structural inflow.
Economic and Policy Ramifications: What Could Go Wrong and What Might Go Right?
The growing flow of defined-contribution savings into illiquid private markets has the potential to supercharge private equity, infrastructure, and real estate investment, redirecting capital toward long-duration projects that support productive economic growth. For retirees, broader access to alternative assets could also provide meaningful diversification and higher return potential, improving long-term retirement outcomes. At the same time, better regulatory coordination across the DOL, SEC, and Treasury could enable new financial vehicles--such as tokenized structures and improved liquidity mechanisms--that open previously exclusive investment strategies to a wider range of retail participants.
Expanding retirement plans into illiquid private assets carries several risks: Although retirement savings are long term, individuals still need access, creating potential liquidity mismatches if funds are locked up and plan sponsors face redemption pressure. Private assets are also harder to value and less transparent, exposing retail savers to pricing distortions, hidden fees, or other abuses without strong oversight. As regulators revise the rules, gaps between SEC and DOL frameworks could invite regulatory arbitrage and shift risks onto individual participants. There is also a behavioral challenge, as many 401(k) savers lack the sophistication to avoid chasing "hot" strategies such as crypto or private credit, leaving them vulnerable to losses. Finally, if a significant share of retirement capital flows into high-risk, illiquid vehicles, a downturn in private markets could threaten retirement security and potentially amplify broader systemic vulnerabilities.
Strategic Takeaways
For asset managers: The EO provides a once-in-a-generation opening. Firms that can build scalable, transparent private-asset vehicles for defined-contribution clients stand to win big. But success will depend on thoughtful product design--balancing liquidity, fees, and risk--and investor education.
For plan sponsors: Fiduciary risk must be managed. Even with safe harbors, sponsors must carefully vet managers, build appropriate oversight, and align with long-term participant goals. They will need to decide how much of their default or target-date menus should tilt into alternatives.
For regulators/policymakers: The EO is a test case: how to democratize access to potentially high-reward asset classes without sacrificing the protective guardrails that underpin retirement security. The DOL, SEC, and Treasury will need to walk a fine line.
For investors/participants: This is not a free call to bet the farm on crypto. Those approaching retirement need to be cautious; younger investors might consider a modest allocation, but only with a clear understanding of the risks.
Conclusions
President Trump's executive order is not merely a regulatory tweak--it is a pivot. It signals a decisive shift in how we think about retirement capitalism. For private-asset managers, it is a seismic opportunity. For workers, it could be a chance at more expansive growth--but only if the risks are managed, the education is real, and the regulatory framework is robust. Missteps could jeopardize not just returns, but the very stability of retirement investing as we know it. The coming months will reveal whether this is a democratizing masterstroke or a risky re-wiring of the retirement system.
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Thomas Kingsley is the Director of Financial Services Policy at the American Action Forum.
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Original text here: https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/when-your-401k-allows-exotic-assets/
[Category: Think Tank]
America First Policy Institute Participates in White House Education Compact Roundtable
WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on Dec. 3, 2025:* * *
America First Policy Institute Participates in White House Education Compact Roundtable
The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) today participated in the White House Education Compact Roundtable, held in the historic Indian Treaty Room. The event brought together administration officials, national thought leaders, policy experts, and education advocates to spotlight key challenges facing America's higher education system and to strengthen support for the White House Education Compact.
The ... Show Full Article WASHINGTON, Dec. 4 -- The America First Policy Institute issued the following news release on Dec. 3, 2025: * * * America First Policy Institute Participates in White House Education Compact Roundtable The America First Policy Institute (AFPI) today participated in the White House Education Compact Roundtable, held in the historic Indian Treaty Room. The event brought together administration officials, national thought leaders, policy experts, and education advocates to spotlight key challenges facing America's higher education system and to strengthen support for the White House Education Compact. Theroundtable discussion focused on the decline of open debate, the rise of DEI-driven policies, and the erosion of academic freedom across U.S. colleges and universities. Participants shared updates on their ongoing work, highlighted emerging problems, and offered practical solutions to restore viewpoint diversity and free inquiry on campus.
Dr. Christopher Schorr, AFPI Director of the Higher Education Reform Initiative, delivered remarks highlighting AFPI's work in higher education reform and the organization's ongoing efforts to combat ideological discrimination in academia.
"America's universities are facing a crisis of free inquiry," said Dr. Schorr, "AFPI is proud to contribute proven policy solutions to restore intellectual diversity, protect students' civil rights, and counter the corrosive influence of woke campus bureaucracies. Our state-level Compact model legislation, civil rights investigations, cancel-culture research, and ongoing litigation demonstrate exactly how we are advancing real reforms that put students and American values first."
AFPI looks forward to continued collaboration with federal partners, state leaders, and grassroots education advocates to ensure every student in America has access to an education grounded in merit, free inquiry, and the pursuit of truth.
Learn more about AFPI's post-secondary education work here (https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/education/post-secondary-education).
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Original text here: https://www.americafirstpolicy.com/issues/america-first-policy-institute-participates-in-white-house-education-compact-roundtable
[Category: ThinkTank]