Tag: Space
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).
Stevenson’s army, July 31
– Tata is out. Good.
– Diplomats push back at returning to offices.
– Postal Service cuts back just when it’s needed for elections. That’s one of several threats to the elections discussed in a good CFR session.
-CFIUS had increased workload in 2019. Here’s the official report.
– The USG didn’t run its pandemic playbook, as it should have.
– Intriguing idea: non-kinetic ASAT
– Back to normal: approval of Congress falls

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).
Stevenson’s army, July 17
– An Obama NSC staffer criticizes the new DNI.
– A Brookings Fellow critiques the new defense space strategy.
– AG Barr hits US companies for “appeasement” of China.
– Several reports question Merkel’s friendliness toward 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).
Stevenson’s army, July 15
In presidential election years, think tanks produce numerous reports suggesting an “Agenda for the Next Administration .” I send links to many of them, some because they’re representative of a school of thought, others because they seem interesting and worthwhile. AEI’s Derek Scissors, for example, has clear suggestions on how a partial economic decoupling from China might work.
This week, I’ve noticed a lot of big reports that strike me as job hunting in a possible Biden administration. Remember, there are a lot of smart people who expected to work in a Hillary Clinton administration who are now jockeying for jobs with Biden. Michelle Flournoy at CNAS has a comprehensive defense strategy, and she’d like to be SecDef. Bill Burns is obviously marketing himself for Secretary of State. There are already inner and outer circles of foreign policy advisers to Biden, so watch for the stream of published articles to burnish their resumes. Pete Buttigeig now has a piece in FP.
In other news, I was troubled to see this academic article on civil-military relations citing polls which show that opinion on basic questions now lines up with partisanship. With Trump as president, Democrats believe presidents should do whatever the military recommends; when Obama was president, the parties switched on military advice.
There’s a bidding war for Space Force HQ — 26 states! Decision due in Jan 2021 — before or after the 20th??
Dan Drezner reviews Trump’s economic statecraft.
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).
Stevenson’s army, June 19
In class I make a big deal about legal authorities and bureaucratic processes. They matter. I also mention the Administrative Procedures Act that sets rules for how government can change its regulations. That was the basis for the Supreme Court ruling yesterday on DACA. The Chief Justice, writing for the 5-4 majority didn’t say DACA was legal, just that the Trump administration was arbitrary and capricious in trying ti void it.
Process matters in national security, too. The president may want to reduce US troop levels in Germany, but he hasn’t signed an order.
And I remain puzzled about the pandemic vaccine program called Operation Warp Speed. I still haven’t seen any authorities for its operation. And testimony yesterday from a 4-star who is supposed to be heading it says he’ll direct report to the Defense Secretary. Huh?
Meanwhile, Politico says there’s a loyalty purge going on in the Pentagon [corrected link]
Vox says Steve Bannon wants to turn VOA into a propaganda ministry.
NYT says Trump has regularly undermined his own China policy.
Keeping hope alive, several national security professionals are now running for Congress.
FYI, DOD has released its newest Defense Space Strategy.
And a new civ-mil prof has a good piece on keeping the military apolitical.
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).
Stevenson’s army, January 17
– Wired has a great story of the long and winding road US has followed against Huawei.
– DIA has new unclassified report on foreign challenges to US space security.
– A former student sends an article on DOD foreign language needs.
-WaPo reports growing strength of al-Shabaab.
-And there’s bipartisan opposition to US drawdown from Africa.
– Lawfare has a cute history report on the different actions for which other officials than presidents have been impeached.
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).