Stevenson’s army, April 21

– NSA O’Brien says US is monitoring reports that Kim jong-un may be gravely ill.
– His death could lead to unrest and fighting.
– Boris Johnson, while still healthy, missed 5 key meetings on  the coronavirus.
– In WSJ, NSA O’Brien defends Trump’s actions on the pandemic. What troubles me, however, is that he goes beyond defense and explicitly criticizes the likely Democratic presidential candidate in the process.

– Defense One has a tick-tock on Modly’s dash to Guam.
– Defense News says Esper is studying cutting two aircraft carriers from the Navy.
– And just in time for next week’s discussion of the judicial branch, here’s an article on a big decision yesterday. While the explicit issue before the Supreme Court was whether federal criminal juries had to be unanimous for convictions, the article notes that on a slew of important side questions, the court splintered hopelessly: It split 3–1–1–1–3 on thorny disputes over precedent, constitutional interpretation, the Bill of Rights’ protections for noncitizens, and the contemporary relevance of a law’s racist roots. The justices used Ramos to shadowbox over long-running debates, including abortion.

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).