A special LIVE episode from the CNAS annual conference. We pour some French 75s and talk to Karen Attiah and Jia Lynn Yang from The Washington Post about national security in a time of distraction. Then we dive into the Modi visit, late night Syria shots, and Defense Department recruiting and personnel issues. We wrap up with questions from the audience and a blast from the past: how not to dress like an Army colonel.

How do you solve a problem like Qatar? This week over Pimms Cups, we talk with Mara Karlin about all the Middle East dramas (and why she loves the SAIS cult). We lament the State Dept budget and UK politics, pay tribute to the USS Fitzgerald, and wonder if we’ll ever have a strategy in Afghanistan or Syria. Finally, American Gods, the Manic Pixie Dream S2 of Band of Brothers, and Fidget Spinners.

Reading:

• "Afghanistan Stabilization Program: A Summary of Research and Key Outcome Trends," by Radha Iyengar and Jake Shapiro, Empirical Studies of Conflict
• "UK election result: What does it mean for Brexit?" by Katya Alder, BBC
• "What is the Good Friday Agreement and why does it matter now?" by Adam Becket, Business Insider
• "Trump's Cuba Policy Will Fail," by Ben Rhodes, The Atlantic
• "How Could This Happen? The Fitzgerald, the U.S. Navy, and Collisions at Sea," by Bryan McGrath, War on the Rocks

This week we go it alone to focus on your questions! We force Radha and Loren to actually define their true loves of process and staffing, all while drinking delicious white sangria. Plus, what’s a wonk? Then we dig into the president’s whirlwind trip, upcoming U.K. elections and Erin and Radha's obsession with measurement error, how to make decisions on major international agreements after a Frenchman shakes your hand too hard, and whether the world is really as zero-sum as reality TV.

Reading:

• The Role and Purpose of the National Security Advisor, Steve Hadley, Texas A&M
• What Did Trump Accomplish on His First Foreign Trip?, Eliot Cohen, The Atlantic
• The U.K. Snap Election Is Riskier Than It Seems, Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight
• Are the UK Polls Skewed, Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight
• Trump abdicates US leadership on climate change, Ernie Moniz, The Boston Globe
• Paris decision underscores the visceral expression of Trump’s worldview, Dan Balz, The Washington Post
• Trump Hands the Chinese a Gift: The Chance for Global Leadership, David Sanger and Jane Perlez, The New York Times
• America First Doesn’t Mean America Alone, HR McMaster & Gary Cohn, The Wall Street Journal
• The most extraordinary op-ed of 2017, Dan Drezner, The Washington Post
  Trump administration moves to return Russian compounds in Maryland and New York, Karen DeYoung and Adam Entous, The Washington Post
• Justin Trudeau Met Emmanuel Macron, Making Bromantic Dreams Come True,  Jerry Portwood, Rolling Stone 
• I Took A Military Vet to Brad Pitt's Bad Anti-War Movie. He liked itGreg Jaffe, The Washington Post
• Oh Thank God, ‘Wonder Woman’ Is Good, Rebecca Pahle, Pajiba