Stevenson’s army, February 9

– I like and agree with Jennifer Harris and Jake Sullivan’s argument that US strategists need to include domestic and foreign economic policy in their plans.

– Conservative scholar Yuval Levin says Congress has degenerated into a bunch of self-promoters: But Congress has progressively lost its inner life, as all of its deliberative spaces have become performative spaces, everything has become televised and live-streamed, and there is less and less room and time for talking in private. By now, about the only protected spaces left are the leadership offices around midnight as a government shutdown approaches, so it is hardly surprising that this is where and when a great deal of important legislation gets made.
– Adam Gopnik reviews a revisionist book that argues Lincoln was less important than Congress during the Civil War.
-The budget comes out tomorrow. The Hill highlights some of the choices the administration has to make. 
– WSJ lists some of the winners and losers from the US-China trade war.

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).