This is not a “Pearl Harbor moment” or another 9/11; those were traumatic surprises. This is a monster category 5+ storm we saw inching toward America and we failed to take the long-prescribed defensive measures.
Multiple stories about Capt. Crozier: David Ignatius first reported that Acting NavSec Modly relieved Crozier of command to preempt a demand for that action by President Trump. Today he gives Modly’s side of the story — that he lost confidence in Crozier. SecDef Esper calls this good accountability. NYT has more, also reporting Crozier has the coronavirus.
Jonathan Swan learned of a Navarro-Fauci shouting match.
In other news, Trump is threatening new tariffs against Russia and Saudi Arabia over oil…
Bill Burns has some post-pandemic strategic advice.
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).
President Vucic is getting a boost. Transactions are on the agenda. Democracy, rule of law,…
The US will try to get Serbia aligned with US objectives. Serbia will offer half…
If even a handful of retiring Republicans announce that they will caucus with the Democrats,…
The lesson is that powerful states should hesitate to attack less powerful ones, who will…
With NATO and EU membership, Kosovo won't care much about UN membership, which can't happen…
No, America is no longer the America Europeans, including Kosovars, want it to be. And…