Tag: Foreign Policy

Stevenson’s army, March 23

I am back from a week in Doha when I wasn’t posting, and Charlie is back from a few days away:

Back at my desktop and partway through the accumulated newspapers, here are some links.

– Stimson has a bunch of reports. I especially liked the “Chimera of Technological Superiority” paper.

– Lots of Iraq reflections [today is the 20th anniversary of the start of the US war]. Reporter John Walcott was right.  As was Jim Fallows.

– A Marine calls for a more family friendly military personnel system

– SAIS prof Ed Joseph sees a Kosovo deal.

– US News said US intell helped India against China.

– Fred Kaplan assesses the Xi-Putin summit. WaPo notes the absence of a pipeline deal.

– Two views on US aid to Ukraine: surprising success or much too slow.

– NYT analyzes DeSantis foreign policy.

– Max Boot sees return to 1930s GOP foreign policy.

– RollCall notes Biden’s high success rate with Congress.

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, with occasional videos of my choice. 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, March 10

– Alerted by FT’s John Thornhill, I want to share the UK Defence Ministry’s commissioned Sci-Fi stories to help think about future warfare.

– Lithuanian intelligence says Russia can fight two more years at current pace in Ukraine.

– NYT reveals what Saudis want from US in return for normalizing relations with Israel.

– There still aren’t many budget details for defense and foreign policy. Defense News has this summary.

– And Indopacom has leaked its wish list.

– Politico notes European differences over China.

Max Boot confesses he has been wrong about foreign policy.

– WaPo earlier had interesting maps about US & Ukraine.

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, with occasional videos of my choice. 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 22

– The White House has released a fact sheet on the Ukraine war, including embedded links to even more details.

– Politico has a good summary of new laws and policies to counter Chinese technology [relevant to week 7 exercise]

– Yahoo News says Russia plans to take over Belarus.

– Prigozhin accuses Russian military of treason.

– David Frum makes case for AMLO as an autocrat.

– WaPo columnist details GOP budget games.

– Dan Drezner skewers DeSantis foreign policy

– A footnote inspired me to read this article on how, except for US independence, the British won the war of 1775-83.

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, with occasional videos of my choice. 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 11

– Politico says administration is preparing defense budget bigger than this year.

– WSJ reports Moldova government collapse.

– WSJ says quake recovery is hurting Erdogan politically.

– Poll has new insights into extremists.

– AEI’s Kori Schake calls Biden foreign policy a “mess”

– RAND analysts lists Russian mistakes in Ukraine.

– RollCall notes how committees chairs bought votes.

– I mention tick-tock stories a lot. WSJ’s Ben Zimmer has derivation.

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, with occasional videos of my choice. 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, January 31

– WaPo says US likely to get new Philippine bases.

– NYT describes WH procedures for classified materials.

– In FT, Gideon Rachman says culture wars are now part of foreign policy

– FP notes Biden donors who have become ambassadors.

SAIS grad John Gans has a review of Chris Whipple’s book on the Biden administration in NYT Book review. I’m a little less enthusiastic because it’s mostly interview quotes with officials with little new information. Whipple did succeed in getting many attributed quotes compared to a Bob Woodward book. So, yes, read Whipple. 

Avoid, however, the new Mike Pompeo memoir, an angry, nasty book, full of venom even for most of his Trump administration colleagues, but not the former president. He brags about firing CIA analysts who said good things about JCPOA; he calls State the “worst platoon,” meaning it needed substantial reforms; he calls FSO’s “overwhelmingly hard left;” he savages Nikki Haley and John Bolton; he says Jim Mattis “was not a sound fit” for the administration and criticizes his views on Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, and China; he expresses gratitude that Hillary Clinton was willing to talk to him about the SecState job, but then blasts her for being “the center of the Russia Hoax.”  Turn these pages only with protective gloves. Burn after reading.

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, with occasional videos of my choice. 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, January 10

– CSIS has a summary of multiple war games about Taiwan. Here’s the full report.

– NYT considers what security guarantees might be provided to Ukraine.

– RollCall has a good list how new House rules will affect the budget process.

– NYT analyses DeSantis’ foreign policy.

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, with occasional videos of my choice. 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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