Tag: Trade
Stevenson’s army, March 18
There are many causes of US political polarization. The two main parties have become more ideologically different; many people stay inside a partisan media bubble for their news; and there has been a “Big Sort,” with people increasingly living in like-minded communities. NYT dramatizes this with city maps showing what it calls “partisan segregation.”
Tom Edsall shows how partisan alignment is occurring with other issue and identity alignments. [Read through the culture war commentary to get to the poli sci stuff. Like this.
And this.]
Russia has recalled its ambassador from Washington.
NYT has good summary of Biden’s emerging policy toward China.
NYT also explains why “free trade” is no longer politically popular.
DNI has new report on domestic extremism.
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, March 11
– Blinken and Austin will go to Japan & South Korea.– Blinken & Sullivan willl then meet Chinese officials in Alaska.
– JCS Vice Chairman says Combatant Commands not well integrated.– Poll finds trust in US military dropping.
– Pullout of US contractors from Afghanistan more “devastating” than troop pullout.
-WaPo says bipartisan China bill may be next.
– NYT says China is boosting its own technology
– Politico warns of “trade bomb” with EU.
– WSJ reports new sanctions against Islamic State forces in Central Africa.
Correction: I was wrong about this article; authors want to shift foreign military aid from DOD to State.
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, March 2
Although the new USTR has not yet been confirmed, the administration released a trade agenda, stressing more challenges to China.
WSJ says allies aren’t all aligned with US on China.
Brazilian prof says Latin American governments are caught between US & Chinese tech war.
Lawfare previews CFR report on preventing war over Taiwan.
Politico discusses Democratic challengers to Biden foreign policy.
Just so you know: AP notes that Democrats dislike GOP use of “Democrat” as an adjective. [In my case, it’s fingernails-on-a-blackboard cringeworthy.]
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, February 12 and 13
I didn’t get to it yesterday, so here is two days worth:
February 13
– Major shakeup in Senate Appropriations — Sen. Leahy becomes chairman, but loses his chairmanship of State/Foreign Ops after many decades. Full roster here.
– State de-lists Houthis as terrorists.
– Biden keeps tariffs on European wine & cheese [Darn]
February 12
This is the year of the ox.
Technology issues are a major part of the Biden administration’s China policy. Note these:
Export restrictions expected.
Supply chain issues important.
Press reports say Jennifer Harris, co-author of War by other means [assigned for week 6] will be NSC director for foreign economic policy.
Fred Kaplan says Pence’s “nuclear football” was evacuated with him.
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, February 8
George Shultz, who served in 4 senior cabinet positions in the Nixon and Reagan administrations, including Secretary of State, died on Saturday. Dan Drezner has a fine appreciation, including links to other good articles.
Over the years, I’ve found several teaching points from Shultz’s career.
1. He explained how the policy process is never-ending, with fights recurring even after presidential decisions. Nothing ever gets settled in this town, a seething debating society in which the debate never stops, in which people never give up, including me.
2. He threatened to resign 14 times to gain leverage for his proposals — but never had to follow through.
3. The toxic relationship between him and Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger pervaded State and DOD, making interagency cooperation nearly impossible for years. It was even worse than the Powell-Rumsfeld fights in the early 2000s. Reagan refused to choose between his two friends, so both continued to push contradictory policies. Weinberger, for example, wanted to limit the use of force to strategic enemies; Shultz insisted on fighting terrorists, calling Weinberger’s tests “the codification of the Vietnam syndrome.”
In other news, WSJ notes that China is winning the war of setting technical standards for new technologies.
– NYT sees a pattern in Biden’s trade appointments
-FP reviews a book about centrist diplomacy.
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, November 15
China has reached a free trade agreement with 14 other nations. USA is MIA.
Slate explains how a Biden administration can install its nominees even if a GOP Senate opposes them: use the Vacancy Act and the presidential power to adjourn Congress long enough for recess appointments.
WaPo has more on SecDef Esper’s warning about Afghanistan just before he was fired.
WaPo lists the many norms broken by Pres. Trump.
Dean Cohen’s new Atlantic article also analyzes Trump.
Lawfare explains the legal issues behind the Ellis appointment as NSA General Counsel.
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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