Stevenson’s army, August 23

– SAIS Prof Hal Brands argues that the Federalist papers  lay out good ideas for a grand strategy.
-There’s a new, well-reviewed documentary about the US-promoted coup in Iran in 1953. Be on the lookout for it.
– I just saw, and highly recommend,  a documentary about the failed Iranian hostage rescue mission in 1980, Desert One. It has interviews with Iranians, senior US officials, and several military participants. It doesn’t discuss the aftermath or lessons derived from that failure, the most significant of which was the military reform movement leading to the Goldwater-Nichols Act. [I was involved in the SASC briefings and hearings after Desert One and worked with many of the people who developed GNA.]
FYI, I’ll be away a few days and unable to read my favorite broadsheet newspapers, so unlikely to send much around.

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).