Stevenson’s army, March 4
The US government makes few Big Statements on foreign policy. Most common is the National Security Strategy Report, which previous administrations have issued just once in 4 years, usually in the second year. The language is anodyne; it’s hard to find anything to disagree with. But once issued, the documents become gospel, regularly quoted in interagency meetings as “proof” of what the President wants.
The Biden Administration is off to a fast start. Yesterday the WH issued “Interim National Security Strategic Guidance.” Defense News has a good summary.
SecState Blinken also made a major policy speech. WaPo notes the highlights.
NYT reports secret order on drone strikes, said to be temporary pending review, reversing Trump policy delegating authority to operational levels. [Readers here may know that I have long favored the Hughes-Ryan model of presidential decision and congressional notification of drone strikes and offensive cyber operations.]
In other news, Germany is conducting FONOP in South China Sea.
FP says Biden is giving Turkey a “silent treatment.”
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. 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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