Forward Motion, China, Hinge Points (and Music)

Dear Colleagues,

While we fight for MBN’s future, you continue to adapt with admirable energy and determination. My tip of hat and respect.

Our industry continues to go through wrenching change. We’re revamping and building a digital media company for the 21st-century — agile, entrepreneurial, impactful— that can compete and beat American rivals and adversaries.

In stressful periods and under such suboptimal circumstances, there can be hesitancy, an instinct to draw back. We’ve decided instead for ambition and aspiration. We owe it to our supporters in Congress and the American taxpayer.

Forward Motion

Let’s generate great content. Let’s plan strategically. Let’s keep investing in new technologies and talent, tapping into a range of experience and expertise. To these ends:

• Our young professionals program just hosted Boston College’s Peter Skerry for a discussion on immigration. Peter is chairman of the Immigration Roundtable for the nationwide grass roots organization Braver Angels.
• This Thursday, the MBN young professionals program will host Guy Gugliotta on his new Civil War book. Guy is a prize-winning journalist and former national reporter for the Washington Post.
• On September 16, MBN rising leaders will be at the Swedish Embassy for lunch with Urban Ahlin. Ambassador Ahlin knows the Middle East and Iran in particular. He negotiated the release of Swedish citizens from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
• We’ve just hosted the first in a series of small, offsite staff discussions. Meeting in Old Town Alexandria last week, we discussed MBN content and competition. Tom Melia is cohosting the series with me. Tom has worked on the Hill, in the State Department, and with NGOs engaged with our region. All valuable, high level experience. He’s also a member of the MBN board.
• On September 4, Chair Ryan Crocker will convene a meeting of the MBN board in Springfield. We have a devoted board. The September 4 meeting will start at 1 pm, after a 12 noon staff pot luck lunch providing you with an opportunity to discuss your work with Ryan and colleagues.
• On September 5, our senior leadership team will meet for a day-long offsite on organizational and editorial strategy. We’ll prepare for the 2026 budget year. We’ll drill deeper on mission, metrics, organization alignments, and how we communicate with key stakeholders. Before we’re done, we will have established clear strategic initiatives for 2026.

MBN leans into new technologies. We’ll be doing more with AI. Stay tuned. But mission is paramount and content is still king.

I recently mentioned Ezat’s piece on Starlink and the Houthis. Elon Musk’s company is making it harder for an Iranian-backed terror group to thwart American interests in Yemen and Red Sea shipping lanes. This past week, Joe hosted Elliott Abrams on The Diplomat. We interviewed Tom Warrick, too.

Hard conversations with contrastive viewpoints are our bread and better — and an MBN competitive advantage. MBN is aligned with broad U.S. foreign policy goals, but we do real journalism. A needle to thread? At times. The impact, however — unparalleled.

This week, we’ll launch a first Arabic and English-language newsletter to create a new distribution channel for our unique brand of journalism. It’s time we showcase more effectively your important work.

China

Going forward, we’ll increasingly keep an eye on China in our region. China has been angling to be a key provider of physical and digital infrastructure in the Middle East. Saudi, UAE, Iraq, Egypt, and Oman are all part of the Chinese plan. Beijing and Riyadh are strengthening shipping ties as we speak. Last week at the UN, China (along with Russia) was siding with Iran against the reinstatement of Western sanctions.

Our times may be rife with uncertainty, but one thing is clear: The Middle East is a hinge point in today’s great power competition. I’ve invited editor and media executive Min Mitchell to talk to us about Chinese influence in our region.

Let’s talk about all these things at a town hall meeting this Wednesday at 11:15 am. Pizza afterwards, on me.

Hinge Points and Music Notes, August 1918

Here’s a look back. August 1918 Germany turned out to be one of those great historical hinge points. The Allied Hundred Days Offensive was crushing German morale.

Wanting to do their part, from August 31 to September 2 New York National Guardsmen entered the fight in Belgium. One German commander deemed the Americans so inexperienced they were unable “to utilize the terrain” or “choose correct formations” under fire. The scrappy New Yorkers ended up routing the overconfident Prussians.

By November 1918, World War I was over. The bumbling of Kaiser Wilhelm II — a vain, erratic, impulsive figure — had finally caught up to the German nation.

Back in Lawrence, Massachusetts, on August 25, 1918, Leonard Bernstein entered this world. Lenny, as he’d be known to friends throughout his life, had to fight with his father for piano lessons. The hairdressing and beauty products supplier from Ukraine had other career ideas for his boy. Bernstein would become an icon of 20th century American culture.

At age 25, he made his debut conducting the New York Philharmonic. Lenny became an instant, international sensation. As pianist, conductor, composer, and teacher, Bernstein became inseparable from important chapters in modern American history.

After John F. Kennedy’s assassination in November 1963, Bernstein turned to his beloved Gustav Mahler and led a nationally televised performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 in tribute to the fallen American president.

Here’s Bernstein’s Symphony No. 2, titled The Age of Anxiety. It was inspired by a poem by W.H. Auden and composed in 1948, the year of the First Arab-Israeli War.

I’m reading the 2018 book by Bernstein’s assistant Charlie Harmon. His hyper-focused boss insisted on going straight from the car to the elevator to the stage for performances. Not that Bernstein’s lifestyle involved much discipline. He’d have a few scotches before dinner, eat a chocolate bar late in the evening, and chat with his sister Shirley about crossword puzzles by phone after midnight.

I like daughter Jamie Bernstein’s memoir. Her relentless and exuberant father loved feeling in over his head with an especially demanding piece of music, she recounts. He also loved corn on the cob at this time of year. Just corn, slathered in butter, Lenny’s favorite mono meal.

Here’s Bernstein conducting Haydn, no hands, facial expressions only. He knew how to charm audiences.

Enjoy summer before it’s gone. Pace yourselves. Listen to music, and always try to read something unrelated to work. Bernstein loved fiction and poetry and kept on his shelf, An Anthology of Modern Poetry by Arab Women.

Sincerely, Jeff