When China and Vietnam Went to War: Four Lessons for History (Matthew Pennekamp, The National Interest)

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/when-china-vietnam-went-war-four-lessons-history-16675

Neocons' Weird Love for the Spanish Civil War (Matthew Pennekamp, The National Interest)

Sometimes when the very old die, it baffles the mind to recall how their lives spanned contrasting ages. Harriet Tubman, whose visage we now know will grace our legal tender, lived until the year after the sinking of the Titanic. Madame Chiang’s life touched three centuries, and that old curmudgeon George Kennan survived long enough to see the advent of the flip phone. So when Del Berg, the last remaining American veteran of the Spanish Civil War’s Abraham Lincoln Brigade, died in March at the age of one hundred, John McCain found cause for graciousness, writing in the New York Times of Berg and his comrades-in-arms, “[They] believed they were freedom fighters first, sacrificing life and limb in a country they knew little about. . . . You might consider them romantics, fighting in a doomed cause for something greater than their self-interest.”

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/neocons-weird-love-the-spanish-civil-war-16201

The Philippines' Own War on Terror (Matthew Pennekamp, The National Interest)

This year will mark a decade and a half of hearing the phrase “war on terror” as a normal part of the United States’ national parlance. In that same span of time, the term “undisputed victory” has become as rare as the preceding is ubiquitous—perhaps only the death of bin Laden afforded Americans the same outpouring of raw jubilation, reminiscent of V-E or V-J Day. But before and since, clear-cut successes have been practically indiscernible. Afghanistan is a morass, and northern Iraq resembles something out of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s most feverish dreams. ISIS has managed to franchise its brand with more adroitness than Starbucks, while the American ethos of “homeland security”—another platitude for the ages—remains as finely honed as ever.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-philippines-own-war-terror-15903

Brexit's Doomed Alternative to the EU (Matthew Pennekamp, The National Interest)

Secretary of State Dean Acheson stirred considerable controversy when, in a speech at West Point in 1962, he admitted what everybody already knew of his nation’s wartime partner: “Great Britain has lost an empire and has not yet found a role.” As one might expect, this incensed British tabloid opinion, and both Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan and the leader of the Labour Party quickly denounced Acheson’s words. But what went less noticed was his next sentence, warning that said role could not be “based on being head of a ‘commonwealth’ which has no political structure, or unity, or strength.”

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/brexits-doomed-alternative-the-eu-15730

The End of Vietnam's Pivot to America? (Matthew Pennekamp, The National Interest)

New leadership could threaten a nascent strategic alliance.

http://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-end-vietnams-pivot-america-15398