On this Washington Roundtable episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast, sponsored by Bell, our guests are Dov Zakheim, PhD, former DoD comptroller, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute, Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO who is now with the Center for a New American Security and Michael Herson of American Defense International.

Topics:

— Update on NDAA and prospects for another brief continuing resolution as appropriations stall

— Midterm elections outcome as Republicans return to power in House and Senate loom, sparking worries among allies in Europe and Asia

— Contours of a debt ceiling discussion within Biden administration and with lawmakers

— Outlook on Russia’s war on Ukraine as Moscow targets power and water grids to force Ukrainians to pressure their leaders for a peace deal and spur Western commentators to urge Kyiv toward a negotiated settlement

— NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg calls on Turkey to approve Finland and Sweden’s membership in the alliance as Ankara demands all manner of concessions from Europe and America in exchange for its “yes” vote

— UK defense update as Defence Secretary Ben Wallace concedes government-wide spending cuts directed by his boss, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, make 3 percent of GDP investment goal “aspirational”

— Unprecedented barrage of North Korean cruise and ballistic missile tests toward South Korea and Japan, violating Seoul’s territorial waters for the first time since 1952

— The outlook for South Korean President Yoon Suk-Yeol’s tenure after 156 were crushed to death in a Seoul ally while celebrating Halloween

— The aggressive global diplomatic stance of China’s premier, Xi Jinping, in the wake of the Chinese Communist Party’s congress last week

— The global implications of Bibi Netanyahu’s return to power on Israel’s relationships with the United States, Europe, Russia and Gulf partners