Tag: Intelligence
Stevenson’s army, September 2
- DOD’s annual report on China’s military power was released yesterday. Here’s a story. And here’s the report.
- NYT notes increased Russian military provocations around the globe.
Facebook & Twitter say Russians are spreading election disinformation now. - But ABC says DHS politicized an intelligence report about that.
- Senate Democrats consider changes to filibuster rules.
[FYI, I favor keeping the filibuster but making it rarer and harder to pursue.] - Fred Kaplan says US military are far better than most police at crowd control.
- SAIS grad Robin DIckey has written a report on US policy toward space militarization.
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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Stevenson’s army, August 20
The centenary of the 19th amendment is a good moment to reflect on the struggle for women’s suffrage. GZero has a great graphic. I liked to brag that my home state of Colorado gave women the right to vote in 1893, long before the 19th amendment and second only to Wyoming. But a few years ago I did some research and learned that the main reason the law was changed was to dilute the voting power of single miners. Right thing for the wrong reason.
The Air Force is even going to redesign its aircraft to allow more female pilots.
NYT doubts that a President Biden would be able to build bipartisan coalitions in Congress. I certainly favor bipartisanship in foreign policy and the “regular order” [like the NDAA] for major legislation. But maybe the hyperpartisanship is too strong. We can talk about this in class.
NYT says an intelligence community assessment in June disagreed with an earlier DHS intelligence report and concluded that low level officials in Wuhan withheld key coronavirus information from Beijing.
Politico says SecState Pompeo illegally sought military housing, though the army eventually provided lodging at Fort Myer.
NYT has more on F35 sale to UAE, including Netanyahu’s non-denial denial of the sales’ connection to the recognition deal.
I agree with Alice Hunt Friend’s article questioning the need for the SecDef to have military experience.
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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Stevenson’s army, August 19
– State is denying documents to House, not Senate
– SecState Pompeo cancels briefings for HFAC
– I share the basic political science judgment that there are few truly Independent voters; most lean regularly to one party. But there are changeable voters, though few, as WSJ reports.
– Rare good news from Afghanistan: Taliban stopped attacking US troops.
– Administration drops insistence on China, willing to discuss extending New START with Russia.
– WSJ says Xi is purging domestic security forces.
– Now that reporters have had time to review Senate Intell report, here are some key points from NYT and Vox.
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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Stevenson’s army, August 13
– Axios has a great piece listing voting rules and deadlines for all states.
– Defense News reports how key members of Congress have blocked arms sales to Turkey through their informal powers.
– Both Kori Schake and Fred Kaplan criticize the Nagl-Yingling letter urging CJCS Milley to prevent Trump from challenging an electoral defeat. I agree with the criticism.
– To try to get UNSC approval of Iran sanctions, US has cut its draft resolution from 35 paragraphs to four.
– SAIS honor grad Akshai Vikram is key author of report on US-Russia nuclear arms race.
– HuffPost says Trump has basically stopped taking intelligence reports.
– Politico has unredacted copy of State IG report on Pompeo and arms sales. Note: it’s “Sensitive But Unclassified”.
– WSJ says Xi is shifting Chinese economy inward.
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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Stevenson’s army, August 9
I make a big deal in the spring course about the importance of agency authorities, capabilities, and culture. Previously I’ve noted how many of President Trump’s official documents are little more than press releases, not legally significant actions. That’s abundantly true of the four measures signed Saturday and touted as pandemic relief. Read them for yourself. Only one is called an executive order; the others are memorandums. None adds money to the fight. Instead, the agencies are told to shift money from FEMA, or to use unspent money. Officials are told to “consider” using “existing authorities” to halt evictions and provide help. They could have done that on Friday, too. To get new money, you need a new appropriation under our Constitution; to change an expiring law, you need a new law. I’ve seen good assessments of these new documents by NYT and Vox.
WaPo says Chief of Staff Meadows now spends most staff meetings on political messaging rather than pandemic issues.
FP has an analysis of the new agreement between China and Iran.
Sen. Blumenthal says we need more declassification of intelligence assessments of foreign electoral interference.
SAIS Prof James Mann says Brent Scowcroft didn’t always follow his own model of neutral honest broker.
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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Stevenson’s army, August 8
– Brent Scowcroft, the revered model for National Security Adviser and for his NSC system, has died at 95. SAIS PhD John Gans has an appreciation. As does author of NSC books David Rothkopf. The Scowcroft Center at the Atlantic Council has additional articles. I got to know and admire him while working on the Project on National Security Reform in 2006-2008. We agreed on most things, except he fiercely objected to my proposal that the NSA should be Senate-confirmed.
– A senior intelligence official has now publicly confirmed that Russia especially is trying to interfere in the US presidential elections. NYT has more background.
– Reporter Robert Draper has a look at the interagency tussle over such intelligence reports.
-NYT disparages national security threats from Tiktok and WeChat
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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