The article argues that recent executive overreach and politicization have severely undermined established norms of U.S. civil-military relations. To restore professional standards, the incoming Congress must actively exercise its oversight powers, moving beyond mere criticism to demanding transparency in defense policy and personnel decisions. Key reforms include enforcing meritocratic promotion processes, requiring documented justification for senior officer removals, and preventing the partisan use of the military. These actions are crucial for bolstering public trust and ensuring the military remains a nonpartisan instrument of civilian control.
Shock, awe, and economic fallout
English Summary
This Brookings study, published in June 2026, investigates the economic fallout of the 2025 administration’s aggressive interior immigration enforcement campaign, dubbed "shock and awe." The research demonstrates that the intensified ICE operations, characterized by high-profile raids and arrests, resulted in a significant loss of jobs – 668,000 across 86 cities – impacting both immigrant and American-born workers. Utilizing a comparative analysis of cities with and without heightened ICE activity, the study found that the enforcement surge triggered a decline in employment, particularly in immigrant-intensive sectors, and exacerbated broader economic disruption through reduced consumer spending and business operations. The findings highlight the unintended consequences of a purely enforcement-based approach to immigration policy and underscore the importance of pairing enforcement with pathways for legal migration to mitigate negative economic impacts.
中文摘要
本 Brookings 研究所於 2026 年 6 月發佈的研究報告探討了 2025 年政府推行的強硬內地移民執法行動——「震懾瓦解」戰略所造成的經濟後果。研究顯示，ICE 作戰行動的加劇，藉由高調的突襲逮捕，導致失業人數大幅增加，在 86 個城市中計 668,000 人，對移民和美國本土工人均造成影響。透過比較具有和沒有加強 ICE 活動的城市，該研究發現，執法力度增加導致就業下降，尤其是在高度依賴移民的產業中，並透過降低消費者支出和企業運營，加劇了更廣泛的經濟動盪。研究結果凸顯了以純粹執法為基礎的移民政策所帶來的意想不到的後果，並強調了將執法與合法移民的通道結合的重要性，以減輕負面的經濟影響。
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