Stevenson’s army, November 15

China has reached a free trade agreement with 14 other nations.  USA is MIA.
Slate explains how a Biden administration can install its nominees even if a GOP Senate opposes them: use the Vacancy Act and the presidential power to adjourn Congress long enough for recess appointments.

WaPo has more on SecDef Esper’s warning about Afghanistan just before he was fired.
WaPo lists the many norms broken by Pres. Trump.
Dean Cohen’s new Atlantic article also analyzes Trump.
Lawfare explains the legal issues behind the Ellis appointment as NSA General Counsel.

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).