Stevenson’s army, August 8

GOP leader Newt Gingrich argued in 1994 that “we had to destroy the House in order to save it.” His strategy was to make the American people lose trust in the House of Representatives so that they would welcome GOP majorities for the first time in 40 years. It worked.  The playbook is being used again by GOP candidates to sow distrust in other institutions of the US government, NYT reports.

Diplomacy is being tried in Niger.

US supports Philippines against Chinese harassment.

In FP, Steve Walt laments lack of consensus among China scholars.

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, with occasional videos of my choice. 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).