Tag: Taliban

Stevenson’s army, September 15

SFRC reports Taiwan bill. More from The Hill.

– Senators push terrorism designation on Russia.

– Members criticize new Egypt aid.

– Administration set up Afghan aid bypassing Taliban.

Uncertain schedule for NDAA.

Charlie wrote later:

[I have grandparent duty most Fridays, so let me upload some extra items now]

– WaPo report on Xi & Putin comments.

– More Senate staff will get top clearances.

– Biden’s Asia trade program IPEF gets some movement. Here’s CRS background.

– In addition to Taiwan bill [text here], SFRC yesterday reported what it calls a State Dept Authorization bill. Since it’s 68 pages long and covers a lot of territory, it could be the first significant such measure in 20 years [though flimsy bills with that title have been enacted since.]

– Beware: there is a faction among GOP candidates who have a scary view of civilian control of the military. For example.

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, May 7

– The best case I’ve seen for Commandant Berger’s radical restructuring of the US Marine Corps is this WOTR piece by a Chief Warrant Officer.

– Peter Baker has newer, more disheartening statistics on our hyperpartisanship: the number of Americans who don’t want their kids to marry outside their party has grown.

– In FT, Simon Schama summarizes Ukraine’s history.

– Taliban are reimposing the burqa.

– TPM has more from the Esper memoir.

– WSJ sees careful distinctions in US intelligence sharing with Ukraine.

– Study in FP shows where foreign aid goes.. According to our calculations, of the $51 billion in U.S. aid tracked by ForeignAssistance.gov in fiscal 2020, about 40 percent was spent by the U.S. government itself to buy goods and pay salaries, for example. Another 20 percent was administered by U.S.-based firms and nonprofits. A little more than 30 percent went to international organizations—the United Nations and other multilateral bodies—and international NGOs. Of the small remainder, foreign firms and nonprofits, mostly based in recipient countries, received just above 5 percent. That leaves partner country governments in the developing world the recipients of just 3.9 percent of U.S. aid spending. Take out Jordan, which receives a large part of U.S. bilateral development aid, and that drops to a mere 0.7 percent.

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 28

– David Frum explains the economic problems Russia faces.

– NYT notes Germany’s pivot.

– NYT explains Israel’s balancing act.

– WaPo notes Russian military problems.

– WSJ says Putin manifesto was required reading in Moscow last summer.

Tears on K Street.for Russia’s lobbyists.

-Taliban seizes guns.

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 1

– Summits lead to deals. Qatar’s leader met with Biden and won “Major Non-NATO Ally status”  CNN has background.  Qatar promised help with the Taliban.

Archives confirmed what Politico and others reported previously: President Trump often shredded documents which by law should have been preserved; so they’ve been taped together.

– There’s also more evidence that Trump sought DOD or DHS to seize voting machines.

North Korea is bragging about its missile tests.

– NYT looks for patterns in recent African coups.

– [This came up in class Monday] FT analyzes German internal debates over Russia and Ukraine.

– Location matters.Both Boeing and Airbus promise to build new tankers in US.

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, January 21

– WSJ says US allows Baltics to transfer arms to Ukraine.

– FT says Taliban threatens Pakistan.

Oath Keepers were armed for insurrection.

Fred Kaplan analyzes Biden’s Ukraine gaffe.

– NYT says US special forces bombed a dam in Syria on “no hit” list. Senior officials had denied attack.

– In FA, SAIS prof Hal Brands says US is overstretched militarily.

– More  on CIA assessment of Havana Syndrome.

– China demands end to foreign FONOPs.

On the 80the anniversary of the Wannsee conference,NYT remembers.  I’ve been to the place where the meeting occurred.  Here are the minutes of the meeting.

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 31

– WaPo reports the Taliban are behaving like the Taliban.

– NYT reports what’s being said about Biden-Putin call.

– SAIS Prof Frank Gavin assesses Biden’s first year.

– Here’s the 2022 congressional calendar.

The NDAA is now public law 117-81. The 910 page measure is here.Three sections, totaling 68 pages, cover “Matters relating to other nations” — foreign policy in the defense policy bill. The law also contains 19 pages of what’s called a State Department Authorization Bill, but it’s pretty skinny.  The Department of Homeland Security gets 24 pages of new laws. And cyber matters take up 52 pages. As I’ve often said in class, the NDAA is now the everything bill, and it gives the defense committee people a key role in all foreign policy legislation.

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