Noteworthy new documents on military doctrine of one sort or another include the following (all pdf).
The participation of U.S. armed forces in humanitarian assistance operations abroad is governed by “Foreign Humanitarian Assistance,” Joint Publication 3-29, 17 March 2009, 223 pages.
Almost every function or task performed by the U.S. Army is captured and organized hierarchically in “The Army Universal Task List,” Field Manual (FM) 7-15, February 2009, 480 pages.
The safe and secure operation of U.S. Army nuclear reactors is prescribed in “Army Reactor Program,” Army Regulation 50-7, March 28, 2009, 35 pages.
January saw us watching whether the government would fund science. February has been about how that funding will be distributed, regulated, and contested.
This rule gives agencies significantly more authority over certain career policy roles. Whether that authority improves accountability or creates new risks depends almost entirely on how agencies interrupt and apply it.
Our environmental system was built for 1970s-era pollution control, but today it needs stable, integrated, multi-level governance that can make tradeoffs, share and use evidence, and deliver infrastructure while demonstrating that improved trust and participation are essential to future progress.
Durable and legitimate climate action requires a government capable of clearly weighting, explaining, and managing cost tradeoffs to the widest away of audiences, which in turn requires strong technocratic competency.