The “Very Model of a Modern Major General” Edition

<p>This week, Alan, Quinta, and Scott were joined by special guest Ravi Agrawal, editor-in-chief of Foreign Policy magazine, to hash through the week's big national&nbsp;security news, including:</p><ul><li>“Canned Strategy.” The war in Ukraine and tensions over Taiwan have led the Biden administration to further revise its <a href="https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2022/08/01/white-house-aims-to-release-overdue-security-strategies-within-weeks/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">long overdue National Security Strategy</a>, which it now intends to release in the fall. What do we already know about Biden’s grand strategy? And how should we evaluate it?</li><li>“Mar-a-Leggo My Federal Records.” Yesterday, the FBI executed a <a href="https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-we-do-and-dont-know-about-fbis-mar-lago-search" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">search of former President Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate</a>, reportedly in search of classified documents that Trump had retained in violation of federal records laws. How serious a step is this and what does it mean for the broader universe of investigations surrounding Trump and his associates?&nbsp;</li><li>“Milley Not So Vanilli.” A <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2022/08/15/inside-the-war-between-trump-and-his-generals" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">shocking new report</a> details former President Trump’s contentious relationship with his generals—including a particularly contentious relationship with his Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley that has some experts concerned about civ-mil relations. Were Milley and the other generals out of line? Is there reason to be concerned moving forward?</li></ul><p>For object lessons, Alan gave a double-headed recommendation: for the late David McCullough, and specifically his eponymous biography of John Adams; and the lovely town of Asheville, NC. Quinta passed along Caitlin Dickerson's investigation of the Trump administration's child separation policies in The Atlantic, "<a h