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.
Dollar dominance is surviving the Iran war – just about
English Summary
While US assets demonstrated relative resilience and maintained their safe-haven status during the Iran conflict, the Chatham House analysis cautions that this stability may be conjunctural rather than structural. The good performance of the dollar and US markets may simply reflect the US's current economic insulation, particularly its status as a major energy and weapons producer. Policymakers should note that this reliance on US strength is challenged by the remarkable stability of rival economies, such as China, whose financial calm suggests that global currency dominance is subject to multiple, non-US-centric factors.
中文摘要
儘管美國資產在伊朗衝突期間展現出相對韌性並維持了其避險資產地位，查塔姆學會的分析警告稱，這種穩定性可能只是偶然的，而非結構性的。美元和美國市場的良好表現，可能僅反映了美國當前的經濟隔離狀態，特別是其作為主要能源和武器生產國的地位。政策制定者應注意，這種對美國實力的依賴正受到競爭對手經濟體（如中國）顯著穩定的挑戰，而中國的金融平穩狀態暗示著全球貨幣主導地位，受制於多重、非美國中心因素。
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