‘Some eligible voters may be discouraged’

‘Many Americans live in the UK — but few vote back home. This year, that must change.’

Kathryn Sikkink at The Guardian

The United Kingdom “hosts the second-largest population of voting-age U.S. citizens outside the United States, but Americans living in the U.K. vote at very low levels in U.S. elections,” says Kathryn Sikkink. Why do “hundreds of thousands of eligible U.S. voters in the U.K. not exercise their right to vote, even though U.S. rules for voting abroad are relatively welcoming compared to many other countries?” American “citizens in the U.K. can take this opportunity.”

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‘In defense of guilt by association’

James Kirchick at The Atlantic

JD Vance and Abdul El-Sayed have “very little in common ideologically and seem to like each other even less,” but they “can agree on at least one thing: that guilt by association is a contemptible means of scoring cheap political points,” says James Kirchick. They “would have us believe that their troublesome friends are no different from the people in our own lives whose political views we abhor.” But “one’s choice of friends is in fact an excellent sign of character.”

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‘Police hiring standards matter. But they alone cannot stop abuse.’

Jordan DeVylder at Al Jazeera

Concerns have “emerged about a retreat from standards intended to protect the public by offering a baseline of conduct for law enforcement officers,” says Jordan DeVylder. The “public is right to worry,” as “loose hiring standards can put reckless individuals in positions of power.” But “ensuring commitment to higher standards in law enforcement recruitment alone cannot solve the police violence problem in the U.S.” Standards “should be evaluated according to what they actually predict, what they exclude and what risks arise.”

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‘Drone warfare is exposing a NATO weakness’

Ana Birchall at Newsweek

There is a “problem NATO can no longer afford to ignore: How do we act when an unidentified threat approaches allied territory, seconds matter, but attribution may take hours or days?” says Ana Birchall, the former Deputy Prime Minister of Romania. An “adversary no longer needs to launch a conventional, full-scale attack.” A “drone that tests reaction times, approaches an energy installation or creates uncertainty about its origin and intent can already serve a strategic purpose.” NATO “cannot afford to wait for definitive attribution before protecting its people.”

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