Stevenson’s army, July 20

– Politico has a long piece trying to show that SecDef Esper is stronger and more independent of Trump than earlier reports suggested. But it has mixed anonymous assessments from inside the Pentagon. It says NSA O’Brien is angling for the job. It says CJCS Milley is domineering over Esper.
– NYT has more on the whistleblower complaint against SecState Pompeo
– NYT excerpts a chapter from a new book about the Iraq war where Colin Powell tries to justify his UNSC testimony.
– NYT says lobbying is changing because of the coronavirus: they’re working mainly in home states rather than DC.  But they are working to get special interest provisions in the next pandemic relief bill.
– Former cyber official makes the case against a WH Cyber Czar.
Stay cool. Look at the Celsius temps not Fahrenheit.

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).