Tag: Civilian/military relations
Stevenson’s army, October 17
– Mail-in voting rules may affect midterms.
– 28% of election-denier candidates are veterans, War Horse reports.
– Intercept reports on AIPAC election efforts.
– Belarus may be next Russian front, WSJ reports.
– Hill says Russia may conduct pre-election cyber attacks.
Charlie added later:
These can’t wait until Tuesday:
– New Yorker has excellent article on evolution of US support to Ukraine’s military.
– WSJ says US wants to keep B-52s in service.
– Max Boot says Israel-Lebanon agreement is a big win for Biden.
– Alice Hunt Friend says we don’t have standards on how civilians are supposed to do civ-mil relations.
– FP article details how JFK lied about Adlai Stevenson and the Cuba missile deal.
– National Security Archive has more on this.
A question for you: when did YOU learn that JFK had lied and actually made the Turkish missile removal part of the deal?
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Stevenson’s army, October 5
– Two civ-mil analysts use cases to explain why civilians defer to military advice.-
– Foreign policy analysts warn against declaring Russia a terrorist supporting state.
– A retired colonel says our 4 star officers need replacement.
– A retired Marine colonel says cable news shows should be banned on military bases.
-A Carnegie analyst says bad relations between Germany and Poland are hurting Ukraine.
– BBC notes criticism of Russian military by Russians.
– WSJ says Russia is using Iranian drones very effectively.
– Fred Kaplan says Musk’s “peace plan” won’t work now.
Then Charlie added:
Why wait? These are interesting.
US & Europe are trying to get an anti-Russia vote in the UN General Assembly.
Erdogan might be getting ready for war with Greece.
FP says US is cracking down on Paraguay.
CRS says NDAA may contain provisions on cyber personnel.
National Security Archive touts its document file on Cuban missile crisis.
And I was wrong in class about PAYGO. It’s still on the books, has been routinely cancelled each year, but this fall faces a $100 billion automatic sequester unless Congress agrees to cancel it again.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I 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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Stevenson’s army, September 14
– Reuters says Putin rejected a pre-invasion deal to keep Ukraine out of NATO.
-US says Russia gave at least $300million to foreign political parties.
– Feaver & Fluornoy stress civil-military norms.
– UVa prof questions value of CFIUS investigations.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I 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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Stevenson’s army, August 24
– WaPo has the third in its series of major articles on the Ukraine war, this about the battle for Kyiv. Here’s the takeaway article.-
– AP says US to announce today $3 Billion more aid to Ukraine, but it doesn’t use presidential drawdown authority, so deliveries will be slow.
-AP has latest on Iran nuclear deal, but also reports Israeli opposition.
Armed Forces and Society, the premier journal on civil-military relations, has just released an excellent special issue on the war in Afghanistan.
– Among the analyses: Risa Brooks says COIN didn’t work given the ethnic groups and tribes. Ori Swed says contractors weren’t properly used. Don Travis says the Afghans were improperly trained. Will Atkins of USAFA says the US military followed Huntington’s ideas and shouldn’t have. And there’s more…
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I 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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Stevenson’s army, February 8
– French officials say Putin promised no new military initiatives for now.
– WaPo has Army report on Afghan withdrawal.
– Vox says Biden learned from Crimea handling under Obama.
– Yesterday I sent Ezra Klein’s report that social trust was key factor in pandemic coping. Kevin Drum argues that loss of social trust correlates with rise of Fox News. [FWIW, I think social media’s stimulation of anger and outrage also mattered.]
– FP says hypersonic missiles are easy to counter.
– RollCall says Continuing Resolutions hurt defense. [Latest plan is to kick the can to April]
-SAIS prof Paula Thornhill comments on new civ-mil research. And she links to great issue of Air University’s SSQ.
My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I 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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Stevenson’s army, December 4
-Despite the Senate’s recent dysfunction, the government is funded until Feb 18. We still don’t know how the debt ceiling will be handled — and the deadline could be as soon as Dec 21. Meanwhile, the armed services leadership, stymied by Senators insisting on having their amendments voted on, is looking to skip Senate amendments altogether. The leaders plan to work out a conference deal on the NDAA, let the House pass it as a new bill, and force the Senate to accept it. FYI, I like this bipartisan idea for the debt ceiling.
– In a very curious leak, WaPo says Russia has plans to invade Ukraine by late January. The story, attributed only to “US officials”, also included an unclassified document depicting Russian troop movements. The fact of such an unclassified document suggests to me that the administration wants to build a very public case against the Russian moves. Saying Russia has “plans” is also different from saying Russia has the clear intent to act. I suspect the IC has details of a basic plan, accompanied by realistic troop deployments as part of an exercise, which could be turned into an invasion.
-Politico has an unusual piece about Chancellor Merkel with more negatives than positive. Worth reading.
-Good for the EU: more convergence with US on China, and its own BRI.
– Civ-mil problems: dropping confidence in the US military and extremist sentiments in Army & Marine Corps.
– WSJ has section from Prof Brands’ new book on how to contain China.
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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