NEWS WRAP

Trilateral ties strengthened at summit

• Camp David diplomacy | The leaders of Japan, South Korea and the United States met at Camp David for a historic summit in which they agreed to strengthen defence cooperation through new exercises and establish a crisis communication hotline. READ MORE HERE

• Storm Hilary strikes California | Tropical Storm Hilary flooded streets across Southern California in unprecedented scenes for communities accustomed to baking heat. Desert community Palm Springs and Death Valley received record amounts of rain that overwhelmed local infrastructure in the latest instance of extreme weather to strike the United States. READ MORE HERE 

• Take-off permission for Ukrainian F-16s | The United States gave its approval for the Netherlands and Denmark to provide F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. While Ukraine has welcomed the announcement, independent analysts warn the deliveries will take time and are unlikely to change the short-term state of the conflict. READ MORE HERE 
   
• Atlanta arrest | Former President Trump will travel to Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday to be arrested in the fourth criminal case in which he has been recently indicted, this time alongside 18 other defendants. Trump faces 41 counts in Georgia relating to accusations that he sought to overturn the 2020 election result in the state. READ MORE HERE 

• Long road to Maui recovery | President Biden and first lady Jill Biden travelled to Hawaii to meet with survivors and survey the damage of devastating wildfires on Maui, Hawaii which killed at least 115 people two weeks ago. While clean-up of the disaster area has begun, many remains are yet to be identified and communities have expressed concerned over the direction of future reconstruction. READ MORE HERE 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Did you USSC?

• Brief | Full knowledge and concurrence: Key questions for US-Australia extended deterrence and escalation management consultations
  USSC guest author Kelsey Hartigan from the Center for Strategic and International Studies argues US and Australian policymakers need to address difficult questions about how to manage escalation risks with nuclear-armed adversaries. READ FULL REPORT
   
• Commentary | Defence needs to harness the power of private capital
  Director of Economic Security Hayley Channer writes in the Australian Financial Review about the opportunity for the Australian Government to harness the potential of private investment to fund and realise new defence capabilities. READ MORE HERE
   
• Insights | A new chapter in US-Japan-South Korea trilateral ties
  USSC CEO Dr Michael J Green offers quick insights ahead of the US-Japan-South Korea trilateral summit at Camp David last week. He offers important context about the meeting's significance and future challenges for the trilateral grouping. READ MORE HERE

BY THE NUMBERS

Attention-seeking in the first GOP debate

With front-runner Donald Trump skipping the first Republican primary debate, the event (whose 2015 equivalent amassed 24 million watchers) is the perfect opportunity for the eight other leading Republican candidates to creep out from under Trump’s media dominance, boost their name recognition and set themselves apart in the crowded primary field. Yet, a recent CBS News/ YouGov poll finds that some attention-seeking strategies  might work better with Republican primary voters than others.

The polling’s topline finding showed 91 per cent of Republican voters want Trump’s opponents to “make the case for themselves” rather than “make the case against Trump” during the first debate. The finding may well serve as a rebuke for candidates like former New Jersey governor Chris Christie, who was booed at a Republican convention in June 2023 when he said “I'm running because [Trump has] let us down” and has set himself apart in the field so far by deriding the former president as “an ugly, divisive, horrible figure.” Indeed, any candidate seeking to leverage Trump’s recent legal woes to get ahead in the debate should heed the warning offered by the polling, which shows 77 per cent of likely GOP primary voters think the latest Georgia state indictment is “politically motivated.”

Perhaps throwing bombs at the former president might just earn candidates the votes of some undecideds or more moderate Republicans unimpressed by the former president. In fact, around 42 per cent of those who voted for Trump in 2020 and say they are considering candidates other than Trump in 2024, indicated that Trump’s controversies are a reason they are considering alternatives. Yet, the reality remains that prising away Trump’s supporters, a necessary step to secure the nomination, will be a significant challenge for all the ‘other’ candidates. Among the more surprising findings in the poll — Trump voters are more likely to say that they believe what Trump tells them is true (71 per cent), than their friends and family (63 per cent), conservative media figures (56 per cent) or religious leaders (42 per cent).

To help prepare for the next Republican showdown, listen to the latest episode of USSC Briefing Room podcast, and for more analysis after the debate, register to watch us at the University of Sydney from 6pm on 24 August 2023 for our next event: ‘The GOP debate breakdown: What just happened?’

THE WEEK IN TWEETS

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