Stay ConnectedAs the United States confronts an ever-changing set of international challenges, our foreign policy leaders continue to offer the same old answers. But what are the alternatives? In None Of The Above, the Eurasia Group Institute for Global Affairs’ Jonathan Guyer asks leading global thinkers for new answers and new ideas to guide an America increasingly adrift in the world.
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Copyright: © Copyright 2019, Eurasia Group Foundation
President-elect Joe Biden sees the world very differently than President Trump. He's promised to reinvigorate diplomacy, and his approach to a range of pressing national security challenges – from Afghanistan to Iran to China – will likely diverge starkly from that of the current president. Biden has also begun to assemble his foreign policy team. State Department senior staffers and long-time Biden aides Anthony Blinken and Jake Sullivan will reportedly be nominated as Secretary of State and National Security Advisor (respectively), and Pentagon veteran Michelle Flournoy will be Biden's pick for Secretary of Defense. Who are these people and what does their selection mean for Biden's approach to international relations? Do these choices augur a confrontation between Biden and his progressive critics on foreign policy? Vox national security writer Alex Ward joins host Mark Hannah for a conversation on the last two months of the Trump administration, and the future of American foreign policy under President-elect Biden.
Alex Ward is a staff writer for Vox on international security and defence, and co-host of Vox's Worldly podcast on international affairs. He formerly was an associate director at the Atlantic Council's Brent Scowcroft Center on International Security and holds an MA from American University in International Relations. Follow him on Twitter at @AlexWardVox.
In February 2020, the U.S. government and the Taliban signed an agreement with steps to end the war in Afghanistan. With Intra-Afghan talks also underway between the Taliban and the Afghan government, the end to the war is in sight… though it's not without complications. In recognition of Veterans Day and the election of a new president who will now inherit America's longest war, Mark Hannah speaks with retired Army general Donald Bolduc and Kabul-based journalist Ali Latifi. What do we know about Joe Biden's plans for the Afghanistan war, and what challenges does a new administration face in — and possibly pose to — the peace process?
General Donald Bolduc served 10 tours in Afghanistan and is a former Green Beret. He was a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire earlier this year. In 2001, he commanded the special forces that the United States inserted into the South of Afghanistan after 9/11. He is a prominent advocate for veterans and mental health. You can follow Don on Twitter @GenDonBolduc.
Ali Latifi is a journalist based in Kabul. Born in Kabul, Ali grew up in California before he returned to Afghanistan in 2013 to cover the on-going war. Ali has written extensively on the Taliban's presence and diplomacy in Doha. His work has appeared in Foreign Policy Magazine, Al Jazeera English, Los Angeles Times, VICE, The New York Times, and CNN. You can follow Ali on Twitter at @alibomaye.
The 2016 U.S. presidential election may have been the most divisive election in modern memory. The aftermath has left the United States in a period of "agonizing reappraisal" over America's role in the world. Four years later, the United States appears to still be at a crossroads between Donald Trump's vision of an "America First" foreign policy and Joe Biden's promised restoration of a "liberal international order." This week, host Mark Hannah is joined by Margaret Hoover and David Eisenhower, prominent descendants of two American presidents, to discuss what is at stake for foreign policy in next week's election. Does Donald Trump represent a paradigm shift in American foreign policy? Is the restoration which Joe Biden seeks possible? They also discuss America's relationship with China, a topic which looms large in American foreign policy today. Does China's emergence as a competitor augur a coming conflict or can we avoid a second cold war? Margaret Hoover is the host of PBS's "Firing Line," a conservative political commentator, and a regular contributor for CNN. She is the great-granddaughter of President Herbert Hoover and serves on the board of overseers at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Follow her on Twitter: @MargaretHoover. David Eisenhower is an author, public policy fellow, and professor at the University of Pennsylvania, where he is the Director of the Institute for Public Service. He is also the host of "The Whole Truth with David Eisenhower," on American Public Television (APT). He is the grandson of President Dwight Eisenhower and the son-in-law of President Richard Nixon.
Historian Stephen Wertheim traces America's decision for global military dominance back to World War II in a widely anticipated book published this month. Some anticipated Donald Trump would follow through on a campaign promise to end America's endless wars, and finally break the United States from the globe-spanning role in which it cast itself. But Wertheim points out that President Trump is as conventional in his quest for military dominance as most other presidents before him. This week, host Mark Hannah sits down with Wertheim to discuss the origins of American military supremacy, the upcoming U.S. presidential election, and what it all means for the future of America's global role.
Stephen Wertheim is a historian of American foreign relations and the co-founder and deputy director of research and policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His forthcoming book is Tomorrow, The World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy. You can follow Stephen on Twitter @stephenwertheim.
Commentators describe the first presidential debate of the 2020 general election as a "hot mess inside a dumpster fire," "a bad reality TV show," and "a complete disaster." What insights on American foreign policy might we – and the rest of the world – draw in its aftermath? In this episode, host Mark Hannah is joined by Doug Wilson, the national security policy advisor for Mayor Pete Buttigieg's erstwhile presidential campaign. Doug also served in the Obama administration as the former Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs.
We reflect on the first presidential debate in the context of U.S. national security policy, and on how the politics of American foreign policy is interpreted by America's friends and foes. Doug discusses his involvement in the Buttigieg campaign, the importance of democratic legitimacy for statecraft, and the most recent survey of American public opinion on foreign policy from the Eurasia Group Foundation's Independent America project
The United States has been mired in endless war for more than a generation. This week, journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept sits down with the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah to discuss the true costs of America's militarized foreign policy.
Are journalists so used to reporting on the polarization of the American electorate that they miss the close collaboration between Democrats and Republicans in Congress to pursue pro-war policies? Ultimately, Glenn argues, "the policies that both parties endorse, a posture of endless war, of militarism, of aggression, of blind support for Israel, not only are amoral, but are actually contrary to the interest of the American people."
Glenn Greenwald is co-founder of The Intercept. He is a journalist, constitutional lawyer, and author of four New York Times best-selling books. Glenn has won numerous awards for his reporting on mass surveillance and human rights abuses against the backdrop of the War on Terror. You can listen to his new show System Update and follow him on Twitter @ggreenwald.
In the wake of protests surrounding the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, America's institutions are reckoning with their roles in legacies of slavery and racism. The U.S. military is no exception. This week, Bishop Garrison, a U.S. Army veteran and former homeland security and defense official, joins None Of The Above to discuss this reckoning. From the renaming of Army bases named after Confederate figures to the recruitment of veterans by white nationalist organizations and the importance of diversity in the enlisted and officer ranks, Bishop delves into the moral and strategic importance of representation in America's most vital national security institutions.
Bishop Garrison is the director of national security outreach at Human Rights First and is president and co-founder of the Joseph Rainey Center for Public Policy. His most recent article is "Challenges to Improving Racial Representation in the Military." You can follow Bishop on Twitter@BishopGarrison.
The U.S. bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago this month. Although nuclear weapons haven't been used in combat since, they continue to proliferate across the globe. This week, two activists from New Mexico explain the lesser known costs of the production of nuclear weapons, from the devastation inflicted on indigenous communities by impact testing and mining around the Los Alamos National Laboratory, to the risks modernization poses to national security. As the U.S. prepares to embark upon a major nuclear modernization program, will the impact on civilians worsen?
Beata Tsosie-Pena is the environmental health and justice program coordinator at Tewa Women United and a Los Alamos National Laboratory downwinder.
Jay Coghlan is the executive director of Nuclear Watch New Mexico and has worked on nuclear weapons and environmental issues for the past 25 years.
In May 2020, the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor touched off some of the largest protests in U.S. history and shone a spotlight on police militarization. This week, the ACLU's Hina Shamsi explains the connections between brutal police tactics and the ongoing War on Terror, from the Insurrection Act to drone strikes overseas. More than fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. warned of the interconnected evils of racism and militarism, can America overcome police violence at home and endless war abroad?
Hina Shamsi is the director of the ACLU's National Security Project and an adjunct lecturer at Columbia Law School. She previously served as senior advisor to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions. You can follow Hina on Twitter @HinaShamsi.
This episode marks the end of the first season of the Eurasia Group Foundation podcast, None Of The Above. We conclude our season with a topic that gets far too little attention in the mainstream media: the history of the U.S. military's involvement in Somalia, a country deeply mired in terrorism, poverty, and war. Mark sits down with Nairobi-based journalist Amanda Sperber and anthropologist Catherine Besteman to unpack why the United States is waging an unofficial drone war in Somalia and explores the history and human costs of this conflict. They discuss the evolution of Al-Shabaab (an affiliate of Al-Qaeda), civilian casualties from U.S. airstrikes, and how Somalia exemplifies what many consider to be the strategic and moral failings of America's global war on terror. Have a listen, let us know what you think, and we'll see you in August when we return for Season 2.
Amanda Sperber is a Nairobi-based award-winning investigative journalist, foreign correspondent, and multimedia storyteller. Her work focuses on East Africa, specifically on Somalia, and the consequences of U.S. drone strikes. She is the author of "Ilhan Omar Demands Answers on Civilian Deaths in Somalia" in The Daily Beast. @hysperbole
Catherine Besteman is Francis F. Bartlett and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor of Anthropology at Colby College in Maine. Her work focuses on U.S. militarism in Somalia. She is the author of The Costs of War in Somalia from Brown University's Costs of War Project, and the upcoming book Militarized Global Apartheid (2020).
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