“What in the World? Weekly Quiz” | November 27, 2023

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Thanks to our quiz question writers this week: Lucy Love Haman, Tim Douglas, Celeste Wilson, Jim Shepherd, Breck Walker and Silas McClung

Last Week’s Quiz Winners

Yezzie Dospil, Nashville, TN
Jack Mahoney, Saco, ME
Tim Stewart, Nashville, TN
Max Siri, Lawrenceville, GA
Barbara Cleland, Weston, CT
David Hillinck, Alexandria, VA
Christopher Marsh, Memphis, TN
Heike Heinzelmann Kranz, Heidelberg, Germany
Paul Love, Marlboro, VT
Anna Tatro, Saco, ME
Hannah Osborne, Chapel Hill, TN
Seth Osborne, Chapel Hill, TN
Christine Yardley, Souderton, PA

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Of the scores of weekly winners eligible for the end of the month prize, only five candidates are TNWAC members, eligible for the prize. Join today to be eligible for next month’s prize.

NOVEMBER QUIZ PRIZE

“Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine”

Gen. David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts

“Conflict: The Evolution of History from 1945 to Ukraine” is here — and so is this great review in the “The Wall Street Journal,” with particularly notable final sentences. Excerpts:

‘Conflict’
Review: How Wars Are Fought and Won
By Jonathan W. Jordan

As Europe’s first big cross-border land war since World War II grinds through its second year and a mass terror raid sparks memories of the Yom Kippur War, a top-to-bottom look at how wars are fought in the era of Pax Atomica has become grimly relevant.

“Conflict” brings together one of America’s top military thinkers and Britain’s pre-eminent military historian… Retired Gen. David Petraeus, who co-authored the U.S. Army’s field manual on counterinsurgency warfare and oversaw the troop surge in Iraq in 2007, brings a professional eye to politico-military strategy. Andrew Roberts, who has been writing on military leadership since the early 1990s, offers an “arc of history” approach to the subject of mass destruction. The pair’s ambitious goals: to provide some context to the tapestry of modern conflict and a glimpse of wars to come.

Invoking the Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz, the authors argue that the first job of a strategic leader is to get the big ideas right. Those who have succeeded include Gerald Templer… whose reference to winning “the hearts and minds of the people,” we are told, “remains the most succinct explanation for how to win a counter-insurgency.” By contrast, the nationalist forces in China, the French in Algeria and the Americans in Vietnam got the big ideas wrong and paid a steep price.

The longest chapters, narrated in the first person by Mr. Petraeus, cover Iraq and Afghanistan, where political dysfunction swamped military success. On the 2021 collapse of Afghanistan’s government troops, Mr. Petraeus remarks that “the troops were brave enough—the 66,000 dead Afghan soldiers killed during the war attest to that. But they fought for an often corrupt and incompetent government that never gained the trust and confidence of local communities…

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 serves as the book’s case study on how badly Goliath can stumble against David…

The final chapter teases out the contours of future conflicts…

For all its technical erudition, “Conflict” is remarkably readable. Mr. Roberts’s engaging prose softens the edges of Mr. Petraeus’s straight-shooting analysis…

The book was written before the recent outbreak of war on Israel’s southern border… As gunmen ride to massacre scenes in pickup trucks and precision missiles take to the air in response, the authors’ introductory caveat snaps into focus: “Warfare evolves; it does not ossify. Yet it is clearly also capable of being suddenly and shockingly thrown into reverse.”..

Timely, engaging and instructive, “Conflict” is the best one-volume study of conventional warfare in the nuclear age. It sets a new benchmark in understanding modern war.

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1. Israeli Defense Force troops surrounded THIS hospital in Gaza which they say Hamas has been using as a command center. The IDF showed press the entrance to what they say is a network of Hamas tunnels under the complex.

A. al Raffa
B. al Shifa
C. al Gaza
D. al Mansour

Correct response: B. al Shifa
https://www.economist.com/leaders/2023/11/16/the-rights-and-wrongs-of-israel-and-hamas-at-al-shifa-hospital

2. Chinese leader Xi Jinping met with President Biden at the APEC summit in San Francisco. Biden said the meeting included “some of the most constructive and productive discussions we’ve had.” Xi agreed to help curb the production of THIS deadly illicit drug component afflicting the United States.

A. Sudafed
B. Fentanyl
C. Arsenic
D Methamphetamine

Correct response: B. Fentanyl
https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-xi-jinping-takeaways-c8384d40661a32aa276ec8ca97f35003

3. After decades of falling short of the NATO alliance’s 2% of GDP expectation of military spending, THIS European country will meet that target and announced it will double military aid to Ukraine in 2024. It has been surpassed only by the United States in military support to Kyiv.

A. France
B. Spain
C. Germany
D. Italy

Correct response: C. Germany
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-11/germany-set-to-double-its-ukraine-military-aid-under-scholz-plan

4. The newly elected populist government in THIS country is bucking the European trend by publicly announcing an end to “lethal” support to Ukraine. The previous government in Bratislava was a solid backer of Kyiv and was the first country to send fighter jets to Ukraine.

A. Croatia
B. Slovakia
C. Romania
D. Poland

Correct response: B. Slovakia
https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20231026-slovakia-announces-halt-of-military-aid-to-ukraine

5. The Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) is a regional economic forum established in 1989 to leverage the growing interdependence of the Asia-Pacific. THIS country is NOT among the 21 members.

A. India
B. Russia
C. Vietnam
D. Mexico

Correct response: A. India
https://www.apec.org/about-us/about-apec

6. The leaders of THESE countries met in San Francisco to discuss regional security issues, bilateral economic relations, and the tension over the release of radioactive wastewater from a damaged nuclear power plant.

A. Japan and China
B. China and the Philippines
C. Japan and South Korea
D. The Philippines and Indonesia

Correct response: A. Japan and China
https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/APEC/Kishida-and-Xi-agree-to-seek-ways-to-end-Fukushima-wastewater-spat

7. The Supreme Court in THIS country ruled that the government’s plan to fly asylum-seekers to Rwanda was unlawful.

A. Italy
B. Greece
C. Poland
D. The United Kingdom

Correct response: D. The United Kingdom
https://www.economist.com/britain/2023/11/15/the-supreme-court-rules-against-britains-rwanda-policy-what-next

8. In a move aimed at decolonizing the Soviet Union’s era in THIS country, the Prosecutor-General in Astana plans to open secret service archives containing the records of thousands of people convicted during the repressive regime of Joseph Stalin.

A. Kazakhstan
B. Uzbekistan
C. Kyrgyzstan
D. Tajikistan

Correct response: A. Kazakhstan
https://www.rferl.org/a/kazakhstan-opens-kgb-archives-russian-criticism/32681381.html

9. Pedro Sanchez was re-elected Prime Minister of THIS EU country after months of political uncertainty and widespread protests after the center-left politician promised amnesty for Catalan separatists in exchange for their support.

A. Peru
B. Venezuela
C. Portugal
D. Spain

Correct response: D. Spain
https://apnews.com/article/spain-sanchez-government-catalonia-amnesty-5dbc03d49474e0a12647afce86980c86

10. President Biden and THIS leader agreed to work together against security threats to the United States and Mexico on the final day of the APEC summit.

A. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
B. Daniel Ortega
C. Alberto Fernandez
D. Gustavo Petro

Correct response: A. Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador
https://apnews.com/article/biden-immigration-migrants-mexico-fentanyl-d39861ee91b91656be23e8d1068ec993

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