Stevenson’s army, December 17

Last week I noted how many foreign policy matters are in the NDAA. Today, look at some of the extraneous measures added to the two omnibus appropriations bills. Lesson: must-pass bills turn into Christmas trees.
Saudi Arabia is making nice toward Iran, with geopolitical consequences.
The anti-Muslim citizenship bill in India is sparking widespread protests.
Morale is improving at State — except among those closest to Pompeo.

A Texas law professor has found, in the new NDAA, a provision codifying a requirement for notification of the Armed Services Committees when significant offensive cyber operations are conducted. Hooray! For several years I have been calling for a “Title 60” provision modeled after the Hughes-Ryan provision for CIA covert actions to deal with offensive cyber operations and lethal drone strikes. This is a welcome development.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I plan to republish here. If you want to get it directly, To get Stevenson’s army by email, send a blank email (no subject or text in the body) to stevensons-army+subscribe@googlegroups.com. You’ll get an email confirming your join request. Click “Join This Group” and follow the instructions to join. Once you have joined, you can adjust your email delivery preferences (if you want every email or a digest of the emails).

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