Battlegrounds: The Fight for Mosul and Election Day Disruptions

David Rothkopf
Updated
From realignment with Russia to the revocation of global trade deals, is the Trump administration relapsing to an era we once thought confined to the dustbin of history?

On this week’s episode of The E.R., FP’s David Rothkopf, Lara Jakes, and Rosa Brooks, along with David Sanger of the New York Times, discuss the latest headlines — the battle for Mosul and last week’s cyberattacks — and then take a future-glancing spin into what a Hillary Clinton cabinet might look like.

The panel begins by discussing the greater implications of the Mosul offensive for the future of Iraq and more broadly the entire Middle East. Will the Islamic State abandon its goals in Iraq but still carry out terrorist attacks across the world? Or will the militants continue to gain ground while extracting more support in the region as the Mideast wars fester? And with the U.S. election in mind, the panel wonders whether or not Iraq will still be a top priority for the next White House.

The recent coordinated cyberattack on Dyn, a U.S.-based internet routing company, that disrupted dozens of websites including Twitter, Spotify, and the Verizon network has the panel wondering: What might it mean for the upcoming U.S. elections? And though it would be nearly impossible to compromise voting machines, with their antiquated technology, the panel wonders if voter registration databases could be targeted or whether internet outages might affect voter turnout.

For a fun finale, the panel considers who might become the next U.S. secretary of state, secretary of defense, and even the next chief of staff. Names like William Burns, Michèle Flournoy, Jake Sullivan, and Nick Burns are mentioned, as well as the possibility of Secretary of State John Kerry maintaining his current post. Come January 2017, how accurate will The E.R. hosts be?

David Sanger is the national security correspondent for the New York Times and author of Confront and Conceal: Obama’s Secret Wars and Surprising Use of American Power. Follow him on Twitter at: @SangerNYT.

Rosa Brooks is a senior fellow at New America and teaches international law, national security, and constitutional law at Georgetown University. She is the author of the newly released book How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything. Follow her on Twitter at: @brooks_rosa.

Lara Jakes is FP’s managing editor for news. Follow her on Twitter at: @larajakesFP.

David Rothkopf is the CEO and editor of the FP Group. Follow him on Twitter at: @djrothkopf.

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