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Stevenson’s army, March 2

Just in time for our week 6 discussion of foreign economic policy, USTR released her first annual report and future year plans. WSJ analyzes. China impact.

Politico reports USTR fights with other US officials.

China offers to mediate Ukraine fighting.

Turkey blocks Russian navy entering Black Sea.

Western arms to Ukraine hindered by need for Russian models.

NYT notes Russian casualties undermine Putin narrative.

WOTR has 2 great reports — on Russian logistics and on recent Marine Corps University war game.

Opinions — from Eliot Cohen and from our brownbag guest next week, AEI’s Kori Schake.

RollCall reports on party unity in Congress last year.

Politico says SecState Blinken is Biden favorite:

Biden begins each day with the presidential daily briefing. On most days in recent weeks, the intelligence briefer has been joined by some of Biden’s top national security advisers: Secretary of State Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and more. Carrying over reading habits from his three-plus decades in the Senate, Biden dives into the briefing books and peppers his aides with questions, according to two senior White House aides. But the routine has gotten more time-consuming and frantic in recent weeks as the threat of a Russian invasion of Ukraine turned into a reality. Unlike his last foreign policy crisis — the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan — Biden has been forced to spend his time responding to the actions of a foreign nation rather than shaping U.S. policy there. In recent days, Biden has attended morning meetings in the Situation Room as well as evening sessions in the Oval Office; he worked in the Treaty Room last Wednesday when aides believed a Russian invasion was imminent. Blinken, above all others, has emerged as the president’s top confidant, used as a sounding board and consigliare on how to shape U.S. policy and rally global pressure against Russia in light of its invasion. Biden has also leaned on those with vast Russian experience, including Bill Burns, the CIA director who once served as the nation’s ambassador to Moscow, and Victoria Nuland, the under secretary of State who was a top liaison to Ukraine under President Barack Obama.

My SAIS colleague Charlie Stevenson distributes this almost daily news digest of foreign/defense/national security policy to “Stevenson’s army” via Googlegroups. I 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).