Stevenson’s army, January 7

– More US troops are being sent to the Middle East, but they’re not allowed to have cellphones.
– Just in case, US is preparing sanctions against Iraq.
– Mike Pompeo, who says for sure he’s not running for the Senate, is now viewed as shadow secretary of defense.
– NSA O’Brien gets touted as especially close to Trump now.
-Another risk analysis firm has a good list of 2020 issues.
– Travel to Israel tops congressional visits.
– Evan Osnos has long piece on US-China relations.

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).