Stay ConnectedPower Problems is a bi-weekly podcast from the Cato Institute. Host John Glaser offers a skeptical take on U.S. foreign policy, and discusses today’s big questions in international security with distinguished guests from across the political spectrum. Podcast Hashtag: #FPPowerProblems.
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Copyright: © Cato Institute 2022
Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, discusses America’s new regime of high protective tariffs under the Trump and Biden administrations and assesses what may be to come on trade policy under a future Trump or Harris administration. He discusses the overly expansive authorities presidents have to impose tariffs, the weakness of commonly employed national security justifications for them, and the economics of why tariffs fail, among other topics.
Show Notes
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Alex Yu-Ting Lin, Assistant Director and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s International Security Center, explains how China’s concerns about status interact with smaller regional states and how that in turn helps shape the US-China rivalry. He examines how states use information warfare to delegitimize adversaries’ foreign policies and applies his analysis to US-China relations. He also discusses Euro-centric bias in international relations studies, China’s approach to flashpoints like the South China Sea and Taiwan, and whether China should be considered “revisionist,” among other topics.
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Dov Levin, Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Hong Kong, examines the effects of whataboutism - essentially, charges of U.S. hypocrisy - on Americans’ foreign policy views. He explains his survey experiments to test the effectiveness of whatbaoutism on US public opinion and how it might shape policy. He also discusses his work on U.S. foreign election interference, the academic literature on hypocrisy costs, U.S. foreign policy activism, and avenues for future research on whataboutism.
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Peter Harris critiques America’s grand strategy of primacy and advocates for a move to restraint that necessarily includes wholesale reforms to domestic as well as foreign policy. He explains why primacy has persisted despite the wisdom of retrenchment and how decades of an expansive foreign policy has shaped American politics, culture, and institutions. He also discusses the problems of vested interests, partisanship, and how to make restraint more salable to the public.
Show Notes
Peter Harris, Why America Can’t Retrench (and How it Might), Polity Press, 2024.
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Daniel DePetris and Jennifer Kavanagh of Defense Priorities discuss the latest iteration of the Axis of Evil threat, this time in reference to China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, and argue their relationship is misconstrued and overhyped. They discuss threat inflation, the relationship dynamics among these four powers, including China and Russia’s relationship and how US posture has pushed them together, the state of the Russia-Ukraine war, China’s role in the Middle East, the problem of prioritizing threats and interests under primacy, and how to constructively think about core US national interests, among other issues.
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The Stimson Center’s Senior Fellow Dan Grazier and Research Associate Julia Gledhill analyze U.S. defense spending and explain how the Pentagon is creating “a budgetary time bomb set to explode in the next twenty years.” They discuss several examples of failed over-budget weapons acquisition programs and warn that future such fiascos are now in the making, with unsustainable budgetary implications, unless crucial reforms to U.S. defense and foreign policy are made.
Show Notes
Dan Grazier, Julia Gledhill, Geoff Wilson, “Current Defense Plans Require Unsustainable Future Spending”, Stimson Center Issue Brief, July 16, 2024.
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Renanah Joyce, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, and Brian Blankenship, Assistant Professor at the University of Miami, explain how great power competition for foreign military bases in third-party host countries increases the costs of securing access. They discuss the strategy behind US forward basing over time, expansion into Africa in recent years, different ways of providing compensation to host countries, increasing competition for host country access, the lack of transparency on US overseas presence, and the strategic utility (or lack thereof) of overseas basing.
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Charles Glaser, senior fellow at MIT’s Security Studies program and professor emeritus at George Washington University, discusses the dynamics of the security dilemma and international order. He explores how the security dilemma concept provides insights into America’s rivalry with its two great power rivals, Russia and China, and discusses U.S. policy with respect to the war in Ukraine, the dispute over Taiwan, U.S. interests vs commitments in East Asia, how to trim undesirable commitments, and why Washington’s flawed “liberal international order” concept leads to more conflictual foreign policies.
Show Notes
Charles L. Glaser, “Fear Factor,” Foreign Affairs, June 18, 2024
Charles L. Glaser, “Washington is Avoiding the Tough Questions on Taiwan and China,” Foreign Affairs, April 28, 2021
Charles L. Glaser “A Flawed Framework: Why the Liberal International Order Concept is Misguided,” International Security, Vol. 43, No. 4 (Spring 2019), pp. 51-87.
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Benjamin Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities, argues that the United States should immediately begin withdrawing military forces from Europe to set the stage for European defense autonomy. He discusses the history of NATO, how it’s strategic purposes have evolved over time, what NATO costs America, defensibility problems with some Eastern European members, institutional inertia, differing threat assessments of Russia, and burden-sharing vs burden-dropping, among other topics.
Benjamin Friedman, "A New NATO Agenda: Less U.S., Less Dependency," Defense Priorities, July 8, 2024.
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Emma Ashford, senior fellow at the Stimson Center, discusses recent escalations in the Ukraine war, the costs to the United States and European partners of supporting Kyiv, the effect of the conflict on Russia’s economy, the problems with Biden’s strategy, why it’s unlikely Ukraine can achieve total victory, the timing of ceasefire diplomacy and peace talks, how early negotiations proved the significance of Ukraine’s neutrality as a core issue of the war, the wayward mission of NATO and the future of the alliance, and why it’s not in US interests to bring Ukraine into NATO, among other issues.
Show Notes
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Rachel Metz, assistant professor of political science at George Washington University, explains why security assistance, one of the most ubiquitous programs in U.S. foreign policy, so often fails. She argues that bureaucratic interests, organizational processes, and perverse dynamics of civil-military relations discourage conditioning U.S. support for partner militaries. She also discusses the role of norms in the U.S. Army, the need for greater civilian oversight and management, why the policymakers need to be more selective about security assistance, and how U.S. political leaders have expanded the military’s roles and responsibilities to the detriment of an effective U.S. strategy.
Show Notes
Rachel Tecott Metz; “The Cult of the Persuasive: Why U.S. Security Assistance Fails,” International Security 2022/2023; 47 (3): 95–135.
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Jonathan Kirshner, professor of political science and international studies at Boston College, discusses his most recent book, An Unwritten Future: Realism and Uncertainty in World Politics. Kirshner provides fundamental critiques of structural realism and offensive realism and argues for classical realism’s greater explanatory power and firmer theoretical underpinnings. He also covers rationalist explanations for war, the role of change and uncertainty in world politics, the rise of China, and why effective grand strategy requires a healthy politics, among other topics.
Show Notes
Jonathan Kirshner, An Unwritten Future: Realism and Uncertainty in World Politics, Princeton University Press, 2022.
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Mark Hannah, senior fellow at the Institute for Global Affairs, the nonprofit housed at the Eurasia Group, and host of the None of the Above podcast, argues that President Biden has not used the leverage US support provides over Israel in its war in Gaza and Ukraine in its war with Russia, prolonging the conflicts instead of imposing real conditions and pressing for negotiated resolutions. He discusses the recently passed aid bill, Israel’s planned attack on Rafah and Biden’s threat to withhold aid, and the politics within each party over Israel and Ukraine, as well as the American addiction to war and tendency to construe international conflicts in simplified Manichean terms, among other issues.
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David Sterman, senior policy analyst at New America’s Future Security Program, tracks U.S. counter-terrorism airstrikes, particularly with drones. He discusses the history of drone strikes in post-9/11 U.S. counter-terrorism policy from Bush to Biden, the issue of civilian casualties, Biden’s quiet use of drone strikes in Yemen and Somalia, the 2001 Authorization for the Use of Military Force, the problems of threat inflation and secrecy in covert strikes, defining endless war, and reform proposals for how to rein in America’s unachievable objectives and make U.S. counter-terrorism operations more transparent.
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James Bosworth, founder of Hxagon and columnist at World Politics Review, discusses the various "push factors" throughout Latin America and the Caribbean driving the recent upsurge in migration to the US-Mexico border. He covers US-Mexico relations as well as gang violence, poor governance problems, and other instability in Haiti, Venezuela, Cuba, Ecuador, and beyond. Bosworth also discusses the transnational network dynamics of criminal organizations throughout the region, including their involvement in human trafficking, and argues that only an internationally coordinated approach within the hemisphere can mitigate such problems. Finally, he explains why the US's drug war approach to the region is misguided and provides recommendations for how DC can better approach this hemisphere's problems.
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Jon Hoffman, foreign policy analyst at the Cato Institute and adjunct professor at George Mason University, argues for a fundamental reevaluation of the U.S.'s "special relationship" with Israel. He discusses the dire scale of Israel's siege of Gaza and why it qualifies as collective punishment, Israel's lack of clear military objectives in Gaza and plans to attack Rafah, and the widespread regional ramifications of the conflict. He also talks about the negative consequences of unwavering US support for Israel, the military-heavy US approach to the Middle East, the Abraham Accords and Biden's prospective normalization deal with Israel and Saudi Arabia, and explains what having a "normalized" U.S.-Israel relationship would look like.
Show Notes
Jon Hoffman, "Israel is a Strategic Liability for the United States," ForeignPolicy.com, March 22, 2024
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Dale Copeland, professor of international relations at the University of Virginia and author of the new book A World Safe for Commerce: American Foreign Policy From the Revolution to the Rise of China, talks about his "dynamic realism" theory of great power war and peace, emphasizing the critical causal role of future trade expectations. Copeland discusses case studies from the American Revolutionary War to the Spanish-American War and the beginnings of the Cold War and then applies his theory to U.S.-China relations across a range of policy areas, with important insights into how to avert a catastrophic war.
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Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discusses the lack of strategic focus in the Biden administration's foreign policy and argues that genuine prioritization requires retrenchment. The U.S. should draw down from Europe and the Middle East, he argues, and step away from formal security commitments there in order to avoid getting entangled in conflicts where U.S. interests are not vital. He also discusses Biden's maladroit approach to East Asian security, particularly Taiwan, the failure of his "democracy vs autocracy" rhetoric, and the prospects for a negotiated resolution to the war in Ukraine, among other topics.
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Paul Poast, associate professor of political science at University of Chicago, discusses the concept of hegemony in international relations and puts forth several models to explain a state's willingness to take on the global responsibilities of a hegemon. He also explains hegemonic stability theory, analyzes the Biden administration's democracy vs autocracy rhetoric, and suggests the United States may be a hegemon in decline.
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Elite politics shape and constrain democratic leaders in decisions about the use of force and tend to induce a hawkish bias into war-time foreign policy. So says Columbia University professor Elizabeth N. Saunders in her forthcoming book The Insider's Game: How Elites Make War and Peace. She explores how elite politics influenced presidential decisions in U.S. wars including Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, and beyond. She also discusses the problems of the public's rational ignorance of foreign policy and the tensions between an elite-centric foreign policy and democratic values, among other topics.
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Robert Manning, distinguished fellow at the Stimson Center, discusses the increasing instability in the Middle East stemming from the ongoing Israel-Gaza war, Russia's war in Ukraine and the implications for the US role in the world, and rising US-China tensions over Taiwan. He also talks about the risks of emerging economic nationalism, middle powers, the US addiction to primacy and American exceptionalism, and the problems of trying to manage global politics from Washington.
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William Hartung of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft explains the problem of retired military brass working for the arms industry and how this revolving door tends to militarize U.S. foreign policy. He also discusses China's military buildup and why it shouldn't automatically translate to bigger U.S. defense budgets. Other topics include the military industrial complex, Eisenhower's Farewell Address, the Pentagon's inability to pass an audit, and threat inflation, among others.
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Renewed conflict in the Middle East increases the costs and risks of America's entanglement in the region, and despite the strategic case for retrenchment, there is no sign of a substantial change to U.S. foreign policy there. Jennifer Kavanagh of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace discusses America's costly, security-first approach to the Middle East, the Biden administration's support for Israel, policy inertia and the reluctance to change posture, the risks of escalation, backlash, and overstretch, and why the use of force in U.S. foreign policy is increasingly ineffective.
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Weaponizing global supply chains is self-defeating and alters supply chain networks in ways that accelerate, rather than slow China’s rise. University of Connecticut assistant professor Miles Evers discusses how business-state relationships affect international relations. He also describes how economic coercion drives away potential allies and business, which allows China to innovate and increase its share of global trade despite US sanctions.
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Common but unsound conceptions of credibility and reputation in international politics have persistently promoted unnecessary militarism and prevented the United States from shedding even unnecessary security commitments abroad. Boston College assistant professor Joshua Byun explains the concepts of reputation and credibility in international politics and uses survey data to undermine the conventional wisdom that a reputation for resolve is necessary for a country’s credibility. He also discusses the implications of situational resolve and the US withdrawal from Afghanistan on allies’ opinions of US credibility.
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Christopher Chivvis, director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, discusses the work of renowned realist thinker Reinhold Niebuhr. He explores Niebuhr’s views on war, politics, and American Exceptionalism, and argues that Niebuhr's restraint-oriented ideas are just what is needed in contemporary debates about U.S. foreign and national security policy, particularly with respect to the rivalry with China.
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Justin Logan, Cato’s director of defense and foreign policy studies, and Jon Hoffman, a foreign policy analyst at Cato, discuss the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas and the imperative of avoiding further U.S. entanglement in the Middle East. They talk about the deep problems with the Abraham Accords, Biden's misguided bid for a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal, how client states employ "reverse leverage" on their U.S. patron, whether Israel can avoid America's post-9/11 mistakes, and the prospects for a genuine change in U.S. policy towards this region, among other issues.
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The U.S.'s frequent use of force abroad erodes the international order's most fundamental principles of sovereignty and non-intervention. Yale Law School professor Oona Hathaway discusses the erosion of domestic constraints on presidential war powers and the increasing official resort to untenable self-defense doctrines to justify its military actions under international law. She also explains why chipping away at the prohibition on the use of force undermines international order, among other topics.
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Rose McDermott, Professor of International Relations at Brown University, argues that dominant theories of nuclear brinkmanship lack a nuanced understanding of the crucial factor of human psychology. She discusses the psychology of political leaders, the rational actor model, Thomas Schelling's notion of "threats that leave something to chance," the psychology of revenge, the coercive utility of nuclear weapons, and why nuclear deterrence may not be as stable as many people think, among other topics.
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Many countries in the Global South would like a more advantageous position in the international order. Sarang Shidore, director of Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft’s Global South Program, discusses why these countries are dissatisfied, what changes they would like to see, and how Washington can respond. He also discusses China strategy in light of the Global South and the role of BRICS and the seemingly tepid response from the Global South in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
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Texas A&M associate professor John Schuessler discusses the different ideological pathways to a grand strategy of restraint. He examines realist, conservative, and progressive restrainers and speculates that the rise of great power competition will be a stress test for the survival of this coalition on foreign policy. He also discusses the foreign policy changes in the GOP and restraint differences over China policy, among other topics.
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“Tripwire” forces are deployed overseas to bolster the credibility of America’s threats and promises. New research shows this key feature of U.S. foreign policy is misguided. Professors Paul Musgrave of University of Massachusetts Amherst and Steven Ward of University of Cambridge explain the logic of tripwires as a deterrent and showcase public opinion surveys that undermine that logic.
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The United States sells arms to almost any country willing to pay for them, but many recipients are risky, unstable, undemocratic, and liable to misuse the weapons. Cato defense and foreign policy studies policy analyst Jordan Cohen explains why the U.S. government sells arms to risky countries, why it doesn't give the U.S. strategic leverage, the costs and consequences of U.S. security assistance to Ukraine, the problem of cluster munitions, U.S. support for the Nigerian military (which recently executed a coup d'état), and how to reform U.S. arms sales policies.
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Michael C. Desch, professor of international relations at University of Notre Dame, discusses the disconnect between political science scholarship and policymaking and offers solutions for how to bridge the gap.
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Sameer Lalwani, Senior Expert at the United States Institute for Peace, discusses India's place in global politics, the advantages and drawbacks of deepening U.S.-India relations, India's illiberal turn, Indian relations with Russia, Pakistan, and China, and related topics. He also discusses more restrained alternatives to U.S. naval strategy.
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CNAS adjunct senior fellow Elsa B. Kania breaks down the military and political implications of artificial intelligence. She discusses the scope of military applications, battlefield "singularity" and the speed of decision-making, human vs autonomous weapons systems, AI competition with China, public-private partnerships, governance of AI, and how AI should affect strategy, among other topics.
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Show Description
Christopher Layne, distinguished professor at Texas A&M University, provides historical context around the Russian invasion of Ukraine and questions direct U.S. intervention on Ukraine's behalf. He discusses the U.S. strategy in Europe following WWII and following the end of the Cold War, NATO expansion, tensions in U.S.-Russian nuclear policies, Russian perspectives and motivations, potential resolutions to the conflict, and what could exacerbate the war.
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Quincy Institute director of East Asia, Michael D. Swaine explains how to manage the rise in China's power and influence through a restrained grand strategy, rather than through confrontation and primacy. He discusses Chinese diplomacy on the global stage, the problem with Washington's current strategy to contain and confront Beijing, how to alleviate the security dilemma, managing US alliances and altering US force posture in East Asia, and handling the problem of Taiwan, among other topics.
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Notre Dame associate professor Eugene Gholz discusses U.S. strategy, the low costs of neutrality in war, global oil markets and why the U.S. does too much militarily in the Middle East. He also advises a “defensive defense” strategy in East Asia, the ineffectiveness and overuse of economic sanctions, and decoupling from China.
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King’s College professor Richard Ned Lebow discusses his vast body of work on international politics. He talks about his cultural theory of international politics, Thucydides, realism, deterrence, Russia and the causes of the Ukraine war, and hegemonic stability theory, among other topics.
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Japan has realized that they need to take more responsibility for their security in response to China’s rise, but there remain disagreements among U.S. allies about how to confront China. Dartmouth College professor Jennifer Lind discusses the threat environment in East Asia, Japan’s military spending and relations with its neighbors, and how collective narratives about historical baggage between countries can shape policy.
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Trita Parsi, co-founder and executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, explains how China's impartial approach to diplomacy gives it an edge against America's more Manichean tendencies. He also discusses what US troops are doing in the unauthorized war in Syria, Beijing's diplomatic mediation of negotiations between Saudi Arabia and Iran -- and potentially between Ukraine and Russia, and what accounts for the slow pace of change in America's posture in the Middle East, among other topics.
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What can we learn from the great empires of history? Tulane professor and Cato adjunct scholar Christopher Fettweis is the author of The Pursuit of Dominance: 2000 Years of Superpower Grand Strategy. He discusses grand strategy, balancing means and ends, the wisdom of restraint, the temptation to overextend, and other lessons to draw from the history of empires.
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Over time, U.S. foreign policy has become increasingly activist, interventionist, and hostile despite facing fewer direct national security threats. These military interventions have also gradually become less connected to the national interest. Tufts University professor Monica Toft and Bridgewater State University assistant professor Sidita Kushi explain their quantitative research on US interventionism and explore alternative strategies.
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The United States has sent a vast amount of aid to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s invasion. Defense Priorities’ Rajan Menon and Daniel DePetris explain that while the war is likely to end in a negotiated agreement, neither side is motivated to negotiate right now. They also discuss the need for European defense autonomy.
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Michelle Murray, associate professor at Bard College, explains how states aspire to major power identity and status, how the struggle for recognition in world politics produces conflict, and the social dimensions of the security dilemma. She also discusses the history of US and German naval expansion in the 19th century, realism and constructivism, and how to avoid war with a rising China, among other topics.
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Ahsan Butt, associate professor at George Mason University, discusses the problems in Pakistani politics and government, the changes in U.S.-Pakistani relations since the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban, India, and China. He also explains his theory of why the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003.
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Stephen Wertheim and Matt Duss of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace analyze President Joe Biden’s foreign policy performance two years into his administration. They discuss US policies on Ukraine, Russia, on the use of economic sanctions, the war in Yemen, the stalled Iran deal, the politics of progressive foreign policy, and more.
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Does international law actually impose real constraints on states? Michael Poznansky, associate professor at the U.S. Naval War College, discusses why states choose to pursue overt vs. covert action, the role of plausible deniability, and the “hypocrisy costs” associated frequent violations of the non-intervention principle.
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A common argument against U.S. troop withdrawals points to the risk of creating strategic vacuums that rival powers could then fill to great advantage. Benjamin H. Friedman, director of policy at Defense Priorities, explains why such fears are without merit. He discusses, among many topics, the value of territory in contemporary international politics, how power generates paranoia, and whether the U.S. should reduce its force posture abroad.
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Pusan National University professor Robert E. Kelly looks back at Trump era policies toward North Korea, discusses what a deal with Pyongyang might entail, the impact of South Korean politics, and whether changes in US posture can alter the persistent status quo on the peninsula.
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Jasen Castillo, associate professor of international affairs at Texas A&M University, discusses the role of nuclear weapons and deterrence in the ongoing war in Ukraine.
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Brian Finucane, senior adviser at International Crisis Group, and Brianna Rosen, Senior Fellow at Just Security, discuss how the Global War on Terror is still ongoing and has allowed the executive branch to usurp war making authority from Congress, with disastrous and illiberal results.
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Stephen M. Walt, Harvard University professor of international affairs, discusses the prospects for a negotiated ceasefire in the Russia-Ukraine war, the risk of nuclear escalation, and the potential for a prolonged stalemate. He also proposes a new future for NATO as well as suggestions for how to stabilize great power rivalry on both the economic and military fronts, particularly with China.
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Stimson Center senior fellow Emma Ashford and University of Birmingham professor and Cato adjunct scholar Patrick Porter discuss the intensification of the war in Ukraine, Putin's nuclear threats, realist perspectives on Russian objectives, and possible US policy responses.
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The increasingly competitive U.S.-China relationship is subject to various perverse incentives and negative feedback loops. Jessica Chen Weiss, Cornell University Professor for China and Asia-Pacific Studies, discusses China’s rise and how to avoid a zero-sum and conflict-prone great power relationship.
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When Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, many cyber security analysts expected Russia to rely far more heavily on cyber tactics. Marine Corps University distinguished senior fellow Brandon Valeriano discusses the pitfalls of cyber security policy and research.
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Award winning journalist Peter Beinart discusses the messy U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan one year later and questions the wisdom of entering the war in the first place. He conjectures about why U.S. foreign policy does not seem to evolve much or reflect popular opinion as much as domestic policy.
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Defense Priorities fellow Bonnie Kristian discusses the Beijing’s reaction to Speaker Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, the risks of escalation in America’s Ukraine policy, continued U.S. presence in the Middle East, the overuse of national emergency declarations, and unchecked executive war powers.
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Author Robert Wright discusses the post-Cold War history of US policies, particularly in Europe, that increased the likelihood of today's ongoing war in Ukraine and the psychological factors influencing the climate of discourse in a time of war.
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Despite campaign promises to re-enter the 2015 Iran Nuclear Deal, also known as the JCPOA, President Joe Biden has yet to show the political will required to make progress. Quincy Institute co-founder and executive vice president Trita Parsi discusses why the Biden administration has been slow to act and what the consequences will be.
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Jeremy Shapiro, research director at the European Council on Foreign Relations, discusses the current state of transatlantic relations, how they shifted during the Trump administration, the need for European defense autonomy, the ongoing Russian war in Ukraine, and why US foreign policy has a prioritization problem.
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Lyle Goldstein, Director of Asia Engagement at Defense Priorities and visiting professor at Brown University, discusses strategies toward Russia and China in this so-called era of great power competition, with a focus on the territorial disputes each rival has with its neighbors.
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Georgia Tech associate professor Jon R. Lindsay discusses the role and ethics of AI in war, the risks and dangers in developing military and national security applications, and how AI applications will alter the nature of international conflict.
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Joshua Landis, professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma, discusses the civil war in Syria, the fragmentation of the country, the history of US interventions in the conflict, how America's strategy there works against itself, and how best to stabilize and potentially resolve what has become a protracted quagmire.
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Retired CIA officer Paul R. Pillar discusses the tensions between the intelligence community and policymakers, concerns over domestic abuses of the CIA and NSA, the continuing legacy of post-9/11 policy mistakes, the Russian war in Ukraine, the Biden administration's diplomacy with Iran, and how hyper-partisanship undermines national security policy.
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Tulane University associate professor and Cato adjunct scholar Christopher Fettweis discusses political psychology on the international and domestic levels, explains how misperceptions drive conflict, and argues that "enemy images" can be subdued by greater exposure to adversaries and political opponents.
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The image of public harmony between elected officials and an entrenched national security bureaucracy collapsed in the Trump years, according to Tufts University professor Michael Glennon. Glennon discusses the massive transfer of power from the Madisonian institutions of government to a behemoth national security bureaucracy, the problems this poses for policymaking, and how our politics have become a fight over prevailing "myth systems."
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The war in Ukraine has prompted calls for armed neutrality as a resolution to the conflict. Audrey Kurth Cronin outlines the history of neutral states and why it is a promising solution in Ukraine.
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Atlantic Council senior fellow Emma Ashford discusses how Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has played out so far, what the broader implications for international security and the global economy will be, and what comes after the conflict for the United States, Europe, Russia, and China.
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MIT professor Barry Posen joined the show to discuss the crisis in Ukraine, the origins of the conflict, what diplomatic approaches are available, and how US strategy is pushing China and Russia together.
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Should the United States classify as much information as it does? Yale Law School professor Oona A. Hathaway explains how the U.S. government overclassifies information, why incentives generate more secrecy, the threat to democracy this system poses, and what to do about it.
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Richard Hanania argues that the existence of a consistent, top-down, overarching U.S. grand strategy is an illusion. Instead of a unitary actor adhering to a coherent strategy over time, the state is subject to a set of concentrated interests that have outsize influence on U.S. foreign policy.
Show Notes:
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Quincy Institute Senior Fellow Anatol Lieven discusses the origins of the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, Russia's strategic perspective, the mistakes of NATO enlargement, and why the Biden administration has options to defuse tensions but is not pursuing them. Post-withdrawal Afghanistan policy and strategic competition with China are also covered.
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What do quantum mechanics have to do with international relations? Ohio State University professor Alexander Wendt lays out a theory of the physical world based on quantum effects and explains how it might inform our approach to social science, including international politics.
Show Notes
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The desire for high status drives great powers’ foreign policies. Cambridge University professor Steven Ward discusses how status concerns motivate rising powers like China as well as declining powers like the United States, and how that can produce belligerent policies and exacerbate international tensions.
Show Notes
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Despite the popular Cold War concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD), the United States and Soviet Union engaged in risky, escalatory nuclear competition despite the costs and risks. University of Cincinnati associate professor and Cato adjunct scholar Brendan Rittenhouse Green discusses what drove this competition and explains the role of nuclear arms today, with a focus on the future of U.S.-China nuclear relations.
Show Notes
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Marquette University Associate Professor Risa Brooks discusses civil-military relations in the United States, the role of military leaders and institutions in the making of foreign policy, and what reforms are needed to re-exert civilian primacy over the armed forces. Brooks touches upon concerning episodes, from Obama's Afghanistan surge to Trump's explicit politicization of the military, to suggest the proper norms around civil-military relations have eroded in recent years.
Show Notes
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The U.S. military budget is larger than those of the next 11 highest spenders combined. William Hartung, Director of the Arms & Security Program at the Center for International Policy discusses what cuts would make military spending more efficient.
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Access to oil is so vital that powerful countries can take extraordinary measures to protect themselves from ever being vulnerable to oil coercion. Rosemary A. Kelanic, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Notre Dame University, discusses the recent history of great powers’ quest for oil security and what kind of future military postures the United States and China may take toward the Persian Gulf.
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President Joe Biden claimed he would defend human rights around the world, but his track record paints a different picture, especially in the Middle East. Quincy Institute senior fellow Annelle Sheline discusses how U.S. policies in the region have protected oppressive leaders while undermining American interests.
Show Notes
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Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for Peace. He discusses 20 years of failed post-9/11 national security policies, the strategy of global military dominance, and the ongoing the battle of ideas on the U.S. role in the world.
Show Notes:
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U.S. Naval War College professor Peter Dombrowski argues that the most pressing problems Americans face are internal domestic challenges and non-military risks like pandemics and climate change. But national security policy devotes disproportionate time and resources to confronting inflated threats from external actors. He joins the show to discuss the problems with an overly militarized grand strategy that has failed to properly identify or prioritize threats.
Show Notes
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The chaos that accompanied the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan does not negate the wisdom of bringing the war to an end, despite protestations in Washington about U.S. credibility and the "sustainability" of endless war. Benjamin H. Friedman, policy director at Defense Priorities, weighs in.
Show Notes
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The now-popular "ending endless wars" slogan has generated more political rhetoric than real policy changes. David Sterman, senior policy analyst at New America, helps define the concept of "endless war" as a strategy based on unachievable objectives and offers practical policy solutions for a substantive shift away from the War on Terror.
Show Notes
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Boston University’s Joshua Shifrinson weighs in on a new critique of the restraint school in U.S. foreign policy debates and explains why the strategy proposed by some liberal internationalists to confront a rising China - a strategy he terms "neo-primacy" - is bound to fail.
Show Notes
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9/11 set the course for U.S. national security policy in the 21st century, often with counterproductive results. Cato Institute senior fellow Justin Logan explains how post-9/11 foreign policy went off the rails and thrust America into disastrous elective wars and wasteful spending sprees. The lack of accountability for those who carried out such failures bodes ill for the future.
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As the U.S. military withdraws from Afghanistan, the Biden administration is retaining some presence nearby. Tactics are shifting, but U.S. intervention looks far from over. Cato research fellow Sahar Khan discusses the debate over building bases in Pakistan and the role of U.S. security contractors in the so-called Forever War.
Show Notes
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Many realists assume that national leaders are rational. But are they? University of Southern California professor Brian Rathbun draws on classical realism to argue that realpolitik is a demanding psychological standard that is less prevalent than often assumed. Constructive diplomacy obligates policymakers, therefore, to better account for both their own subjective biases and those of other states.
Show Notes
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The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has erupted again, but the politics in both Israel and the United States on this longstanding issue appear to be undergoing change. Jeremy Pressman, a political scientist at the University of Connecticut and an expert on the conflict, explains the historical context of the recent outbreak in violence, argues the cycle of military force undermines the objectives of both sides, and discusses the current tensions in the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
Show Notes
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One longstanding predicate of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East -- that America's military presence in the Persian Gulf region protects the free flow of oil -- is false. That is according to University of Pennsylvania professor Robert Vitalis, along with a growing academic literature scrutinizing the claim. Because of the global nature of the oil market, even infamous past disruptions, such as the so-called Arab oil embargo of 1973, have not had as significant an effect as commonly believed. This erroneous basis for U.S. strategy, Vitalis explains, also justifies a misguided emphasis on Washington's close relationship with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, among other costly consequences.
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The renewed debate in Washington over U.S. foreign policy reflects changing attitudes in public opinion. George Mason University professor and Cato Senior Fellow A. Trevor Thrall discusses how generational differences are changing views on U.S. military activism and America's global role. Millennials and younger people generally support international engagement while rejecting excessive military intervention.
Show Notes
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Jessica Trisko Darden joins John Glaser to discuss how U.S. foreign aid tends to support state violence and coercion. Economic and military aid often helps undemocratic regimes secure and sustain their power and carry out human rights abuses. Even aid conditioned on good behavior and respect for democratic norms is highly fungible and often misused in ways that contradict the stated intentions of U.S. policymakers. Dr. Darden discusses the three case studies she details in her book to draw those conclusions.
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What are China's international ambitions and how does Beijing seek to achieve them? Johns Hopkins professor Daniel S. Markey joins the show to discuss how the People’s Republic of China has pursued evolving strategies in discrete regions and to explore what strategic options are open to the United States in response.
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Dominic Tierney, associate professor at Swarthmore College, explains how the “negativity bias” affects international relations. Negativity bias causes threat inflation, leads policymakers to maintain failing policies out of loss aversion, and produces misconceptions that make conflict more likely. Biden administration policies towards Iran, Afghanistan, and China are discussed, among other issues.
Show Notes
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Former career diplomat Elizabeth Shackelford recounts how her experiences working for the State Department caused her to grow disillusioned with U.S. diplomatic policy. She emphasizes the advantages of adopting a more diplomatic rather than militarized foreign policy and offers policy prescriptions to help make that transition.
Show Notes
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Why has international war become more uncommon and unpopular since World War II? Sure some states still meddle in others’ civil wars or launch cyber offensives, but overall the world is experiencing an unprecedented era of peace. Some international relations experts claim that U.S. adventurist foreign policy has held off international war. This week’s guest, Ohio State University political scientist and Cato’s own John Mueller, argues against that premise in his new book The Stupidity of War: American Foreign Policy and the Case for Complacency. He says that after two world wars, most people have realized that there are better solutions to disagreements than international war.
Show Notes
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Geopolitical changes in East Asia call for new ideas to inform much needed policy reforms. Jessica J. Lee from the Quincy Institute joins John Glaser to discuss how policymakers can approach a rising China, traditional East Asian allies, and a nuclear North Korea.
Show Notes
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What is the future of conservative foreign policy? The Republican Party is divided on many issues of national security as it searches for a new direction in the post-Trump age. The American Conservative senior editor Daniel Larison joins the show.
Show Notes
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Is the United States on course for a new Cold War with China? Campbell Craig tells John Glaser that there may be a chance to cooperate and ease tensions with Beijing. They discuss how changes in the U.S. military budget, threat perception, nuclear posturing, alliances, and domestic politics can help the two superpowers avoid a potential standoff.
ShowNotes
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Did Russia commit a cyber attack or cyber espionage? What is the difference and how does it affect the U.S. response and future of cybersecurity? Cato Institute’s own Brandon Valeriano and Atlantic Council’s Erica Borghard join host John Glaser to discuss the severity of the SolarWinds hack and its implications for the broader cybersecurity political landscape.
1. Brandon Valeriano bio: https://www.cato.org/people/brandon-valeriano
Erica Borghard bio: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/expert/erica-borghard/
2. Sean Lawson and Brandon Valeriano, “The Russian ‘Cyber Peral Harbor’ That Wasn’t,” The American Conservative, December 18, 2020.Benjamin Jensen, Brandon Valeriano, and Mark Montgomery, “The Strategic Implications of SolarWinds,” Lawfare Blog, December 18, 2020.
3. Erica D. Borghard, “The SolarWinds Compromise and the Strategic Challenge of Information and Communications Technology Supply Chain,” Council on Foreign Relations, December 22, 2020.
Erica Borghard and Jacquelyn Schneider, “Russia’s Hack Wasn’t Cyberwarfare. That Complicates US Strategy,” Wired, December 17, 2020.
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Peter Beinart and host John Glaser discuss the problems of "global leadership" in U.S. foreign policy, why Washington over-spends on the wrong threats, the implications of President-elect Biden's incoming national security team, and how America should approach an increasingly influential China.
1. Peter Beinart bio: https://www.gc.cuny.edu/Page-Elements/Academics-Research-Centers-Initiatives/Doctoral-Programs/Political-Science/Faculty-Bios/Peter-Beinart
2. Peter Beinart, Biden Wants America to Leader the World. It Shouldn’t., New York Times, December 2, 2020.
3. Peter Beinart, How I Changed My Mind, The Beinart Notebook, December 7, 2020.
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After four years of an unpredictable commander-in-chief, it’s time to think about the future of U.S. foreign policy. John and David Hendrickson discuss the Trump to Biden transition, the illiberal nature of the "liberal order," and the impact of domestic politics on foreign policy, among other issues.
1. David C. Hendrickson bio: https://www.coloradocollege.edu/academics/dept/politicalscience/people/profile.html?person=hendrickson_david
2. David C. Hendrickson, Republic in Peril: American Empire and the Liberal Tradition, (New York City: Oxford University Press, 2017).
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President Donald Trump has shown excitement about the newly created Space Force division of the military. Is it worth the hype? According to Robert Farley, there is still too much unknown to make that call.
1.Robert M. Farley bio: https://www.uky.edu/~rmfarl2/
2. There is no link yet to his Cato paper referenced as it has yet to be published. It’s a PA titled: Space Force: Ahead of Its Time, or Dreadfully Premature?
Also mentioned:
Robert M. Farley and Davida H. Issacs, Patents for Power: Intellectual Property Law and the Diffusion of Military Technology (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 2020).
Robert M. Farley, Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force (Louisville, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2014).
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How will President-elect Biden change US foreign policy? John Glaser talks to Emma Ashford of the Atlantic Council about the transition from Trump to Biden, and from host Emma to host John.
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Power transitions are a hot topic in international relations! David Kang and Xinru Ma join Emma Ashford to discuss why we should look outside Europe for insight.
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Is American influence declining? Emma Ashford talks to Ali Wyne and Gabby Tarini of the Rand Corporation about their new report on America in the world.
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Emma Ashford talks with MIT’s Taylor Fravel about ongoing China-India tensions and what China wants from the world.
1. Taylor Fravel bio: https://polisci.mit.edu/people/m-taylor-fravel
2. Taylor Fravel, “Why are India and China Skirmishing at their Border?” Washington Post.
3. Taylor Fravel, “China’s Sovereignty Obsession,” Foreign Affairs.
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Paul Staniland of the University of Chicago joins Emma Ashford to discuss current events in India, Pakistan, and South Asia.
Show Notes
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Donald Trump has taken America’s relationship with Europe from bad to worse. Emma Ashford chats with Rachel Rizzo of the Truman Project about the prospects for transatlantic relations.
1. Rachel Rizzo Bio.
2. Tom McTague, "Remember the 90s, Don't Long for a Return," The Atlantic.
3. Emma Ashford, "Biden Wants to Go Back to a Normal Foreign Policy. That's the Problem," The New York Times.
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In a special crossover episode, Emma sits down with the hosts of the Pop & Locke podcast and members of the Cato Foreign Policy team to explore how pop culture interacts with nuclear weapons, and why we should stop worrying and learn to love the bomb.
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In the third of our series on the world after the coronavirus, we talk about great power politics and U.S.-China relations, with returning guest Joshua Shifrinson of Boston University.
1. Joshua Shifrinson Bio: https://www.bu.edu/pardeeschool/profile/joshua-shifrinson/
2. Joshua Shifrinson, International Security, “Partnership or Predation? How Rising States Contend With Declining Great Powers.”
3. Emma Ashford and Matthew Kroenig, Foreign Policy, “Is This The Beginning of a New Cold War with China?”
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In the second of our series on the world after the coronavirus, we look at the impact on Pentagon spending. Will the coronavirus prompt us to reconsider the defense budget?
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Special episode! As Trevor Thrall prepares to depart the show, our hosts chat about the show’s run and how U.S. foreign policy has changed since we've been on the air.
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In the first of a three-part series, Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall explore what international relations might look like after coronavirus. Today’s guest is Dan Drezner, a professor at Tufts University, who joins them to talk about global economic relations.
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Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall chat with Peter Singer of New America about his new novel Burn In, and why fiction can be useful for our understanding of national security policy.
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Eric Gomez and Christopher Preble join Emma Ashford to discuss their new paper, “Building a Modern Military,” and how COVID-19 will change the U.S. military.
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Mark Hannah of the Eurasia Group Foundation joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to talk about how the world views America and American-style democracy in the age of COVID-19.
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Alice Hunt Friend of the Center for Strategic and International Studies joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to talk about the increasingly strained relations between civilian and military leaders in the Trump administration.
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Greg Koblentz of George Mason University joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to talk about the international security implications of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Dan Nexon of Georgetown University joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to talk about his new book, Exit from Hegemony.
Show Notes:
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Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall are joined by Brandon Valeriano to discuss the Cyberspace Solarium Commission’s official report.
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Emma Ashford and John Glaser are joined by political scientist Ellen Wald to discuss how global oil markets interact with U.S. foreign policy.
Show Notes
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Join Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford as we discuss public engagement in the Trump era with Paul Poast, Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago.
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Join Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford as we discuss the failures and history of regime change with Ben Denison, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Fletcher School at Tufts University.
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Adam Mount, Senior Fellow and the Director of the Defense Posture Project at the Federation of American Scientists, joins Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford to discuss the future of progressive foreign policy.
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Dan Ikenson, director of Cato’s Herbert A. Stiefel Center for Trade Policy Studies, joins Trevor Thrall and guest host John Glaser to discuss the economic and foreign policy implications of Trump’s recent trade deals.
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Michael Swaine, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, joins Trevor Thrall and guest host John Glaser to discuss the crisis in Hong Kong, the plight of the Uighurs, and China’s recent authoritarian turn.
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Negar Mortazavi, diplomatic correspondent for The Independent, joins Trevor Thrall and guest host John Glaser to discuss the impact of U.S. sanctions on Iran, recent Iranian protests, and the future of the JCPOA.
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Jim Goldgeier, former dean of the School of International Service at American University and resident scholar at the Brookings Institution, joins Trevor Thrall and guest host John Glaser to discuss President Trump’s use of irregular channels of foreign policy making in Ukraine.
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Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, joins Trevor Thrall and guest host John Glaser to discuss the launch of Washington D.C.’s newest foreign policy think tank.
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David Burbach from the U.S. Naval War College joins Trevor Thrall and guest host John Glaser to discuss civil‐military relations and public attitudes towards the military.
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Christopher Preble and John Glaser join Trevor Thrall to discuss their new book, Fuel to the Fire, which assesses Donald Trump’s foreign policies and makes the case for greater restraint in international affairs.
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Vipin Narang of the M.I.T. Department of Political Science joins Trevor Thrall and guest host Eric Gomez to discuss nuclear trends and the nuclear balance in Asia.
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Gregory Gause from the Bush School at Texas A&M joins Trevor Thrall and John Glaser to discuss U.S. policy and strategy in the Middle East in the wake of the missile strike on the Saudi oil facilities.
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Jonathan Caverley of the Naval War College joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to discuss the defense industry and the arms trade.
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Hilde Restad, a professor of International Relations at Bjorknes College in Oslo, Norway, joins us to discuss Trump’s foreign policy, nationalism, and the view from Europe.
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Matthew Goodman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to discuss Trump’s trade war with China.
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Monica Toft, Professor at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, joins us to discuss the growth in U.S. military interventions and the decline of diplomacy.
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In our special live episode of Power Problems, Emma Ashford chats with Heather Hurlburt of New America about ongoing debates on the future of U.S. grand strategy.
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In part two of the focus on America’s Nuclear Crossroads, Emma Ashford and guest host Eric Gomez delve into the future of arms control agreements with Maggie Tennis of the Brookings Institute.
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Todd Harrison from the Center for Strategic and International Studies joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to discuss the proposed Space Force, war in space, and his chapter in the forthcoming Cato report America’s Nuclear Crossroads.
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With new protests in Sudan, ongoing conflict in Syria, and continued regional tensions, the legacies of the Arab Spring are everywhere in the Middle East. Peter Mandaville joins us to discuss.
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What kind of foreign policy do Americans want? Not the one they have, apparently. To learn more Emma and Trevor chat with Peter Juul from the Center for American Progress about a new report from the Center for American Progress, “America Adrift: How the U.S. Foreign Policy Debate Misses What Voters Really Want.”
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American presidents often praise U.S. foreign policy as a force for global freedom and liberty. We chat with Chris Preble about his new book, Peace, War, and Liberty.
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Arguments about the Iraq War loom large over pretty much every foreign policy debate in Washington. Does the Trump administration have similar intentions towards Iran? Lawrence Wilkerson joins us to discuss.
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Women play an increasingly important role as insurgents and rebels in civil conflicts all over the world. But most often their story goes untold and their impact has been poorly understood. Jessica Trisko Darden, co‐author of Insurgent Women, joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to discuss her new book to discuss.
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Pundits seem increasingly undecided whether we’re living in a new Cold War, or simply making a return to the 1930s. Ali Wyne of the RAND corporation joins us to discuss great power competition, the problem of foreign policy by analogy, and what the global order might look like in the future.
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The cyber era has amplified the impact of non‐state actors on international relations. From election meddling to sabotage to espionage, states are using non‐state actors as proxies to do their dirty work. Tim Maurer from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace joins Trevor Thrall and John Glaser to talk about the rise, reach, and implications of these cyber mercenaries.
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Donald Trump’s second summit with Kim Jong Un has come and gone, this time in abject failure. Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall are joined by Harry Kazianis of the Center for the National Interest to discuss where U.S.-North Korean relations go from here.
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Controversy is growing over the Trump administration’s approach to Venezuela, where the United States has backed opposition leader Juan Guaido in his attempt to remove President Nicolas Maduro from power. Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford are joined by Venezuela expert Moises Rendon to discuss the situation.
Show Notes:
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The Trump administration has emphasized the reemergence of great power competition as the organizing principle for U.S. foreign policy. How will international relations change in an era when new actors are challenging the status quo? In Part II of our great power special, Professor Stacie E. Goddard of Wellesley College joins Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford to talk about her recent book, When Might Makes Right, about the relationship between rising powers and existing great powers.
Show Notes:
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Great Power competition is back. How will international relations change in an era when new actors are challenging the status quo. In Part I of our great power special, Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford are joined by Joshua Shifrinson, author of Rising Titans, Falling Giants, a book on great power rise and decline.
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From trade to immigration, the Trump administration takes a much broader view of national security than prior administrations. Cato Senior Policy Analyst Alex Nowrasteh joins Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford to talk about the links between immigration and national security.
Show Notes:
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Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford are joined by Cato colleague Eric Gomez for a discussion of the year in review, and a preview of 2019. From nuclear weapons and North Korea to the U.S.-Saudi relationship, it’s been a wild year.
Show Notes:
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Attorney and Cato Institute adjunct scholar Scott Lincicome joins Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford to discuss the Trump administration’s trade strategy and the role of international trade in U.S. foreign policy.
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In a special crossover episode, Trevor and Emma sit down with the hosts of the Free Thoughts podcast for a wide‐ranging discussion of how libertarians view foreign policy.
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In the second half of our election special, Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford are joined by Jake Sullivan, a former senior advisor to Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, to discuss the future of foreign policy in the Democratic party.
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Bryan McGrath, Deputy Director of the Center for American Seapower at the Hudson Institute, joins Trevor and Emma to discuss the evolution of conservative foreign policy during the Trump era.
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Elizabeth Rosenberg, a sanctions expert at the Center for a New American Security joins Trevor and Emma to discuss the Trump administration’s eclectic approach to sanctions policy, and the impact of looming Iran sanctions.
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Bonus Episode! Harvard’s Steven Walt joins Emma Ashford and guest host Caroline Dorminey to discuss his new book, The Hell of Good Intentions, and why America’s foreign policy failures helped to elect Donald Trump.
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As Emma Ashford returns to the podcast, she and Trevor Thrall join Cato colleague John Glaser to review the Trump administration’s take on U.S. foreign policy in 2018.
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Patrick Porter joins Sahar Khan and Trevor Thrall to discuss the debate over the past, present, and future of the liberal international order. Porter is a professor of international security and strategy at the University of Birmingham, UK and a Senior Associate Fellow at the Royal United Services Institute in London. He researches how power and ideas shape U.S. and U.K. defense and foreign policy, and how both shape conflicts both the United States and United Kingdom are involved in.
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Vanda Felbab‐Brown is a senior fellow in the Center for 21st Century Security and Intelligence in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution. She is also the director of the Brookings project “Improving Global Drug Policy: Comparative Perspectives and UNGASS 2016” and co‐director of “Reconstituting Local Orders.” She is an expert on international and internal conflicts and nontraditional security threats, including insurgency, organized crime, urban violence, and illicit economies.
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Barbara Slavin of the Atlantic Council joins Sahar Khan and Trevor Thrall to discuss developments in Iran and America’s Iran policy.
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C. Christine Fair is a Provost’s Distinguished Associate Professor in the Peace and Security Studies Program within Georgetown University’s Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service. She joins Sahar Khan and Trevor Thrall to discuss the ongoing Rohingya crisis in Myanmar and its implication on the Trump administration’s policy toward South Asia.
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U.S. counterterrorism has been a mixture of unilateral policies and multilateral partnerships. Stephen Tankel of American University joins us today to discuss the trajectory of U.S. counterterrorism strategy under the Trump administration.
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Julie Chernov Hwang from Goucher College joins Trevor Thrall and Sahar Khan to discuss why Indonesian jihadists leave militancy in her new book, Why Terrorists Quit.
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Bruce Jentleson from Duke University joins Trevor Thrall and Sahar Khan to discuss the importance of statesmanship and his new book, The Peacemakers.
Show notes:
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Show description: In a special 2‑part episode, Emma Ashford, Trevor Thrall, and new co‐host, Sahar Kahn, discuss North Korea and the prospects for a nuclear summit with Cato Policy Analyst Eric Gomez.
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Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall shift from military affairs this week to talk about humanitarian aid with American University’s Jessica Trisko Darden.
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Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall are joined by David Edelstein of Georgetown University to discuss how great powers respond to rising challengers.
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Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall are joined by Cato’s own Caroline Dorminey to discuss U.S. arms sales in the Trump era.
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Today Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall discuss the expansion of the U.S. war on terror into Africa with Bronwyn Bruton from the Atlantic Council.
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Vladimir Putin won re‐election handily, but the future of U.S.-Russia relations is a tougher question. We chat with Matthew Rojanksy of the Woodrow Wilson Center.
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We discuss the ongoing war in Yemen and U.S. involvement with Kate Kizer from Win Without War.
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Hans Kristensen from the Federation of American Scientists joins us today to discuss the Trump administration’s Nuclear Posture Review.
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Kathleen Hicks from CSIS and Hal Brands from Johns Hopkins SAIS join us to talk about Trump’s foreign policy at the one year mark.
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In a special live recording of the podcast, we explore the President’s relationship with the military, the defense budget, and what the Pentagon wants for Christmas with our guest Aaron Mehta.
Show Notes
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Syria’s use of chemical weapons calls into question the utility of international norms. We discuss those norms and how to enforce them with Greg Koblentz.
Show Notes:
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We chat with Brian Katulis from the Center for American Progress about ongoing chaos in the Middle East, the regional security environment, and the options for America’s future role in the region.
Show Notes
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We talk Trump and the future of the Iran nuclear deal with Colin Kahl, former national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden.
Show Notes:
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Tensions are rising on the Korean peninsula, between North Korea’s nuclear and missile tests and Trump’s inflammatory tweets. We discuss the situation with Joshua Pollack. Show notes:
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Today we talk about Trump’s new Afghanistan strategy with Sameer Lalwani. Is there anything new here?
Show notes:
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This week we ask John Glaser: why does the U.S. have so many military bases around the world? Show notes:
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Christopher Preble joins us to discuss what restraint in foreign policy means and what it would look like in practice.
Show notes:
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