The Lawfare Podcast: Patreon Edition - The Lawfare Institute

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Lawfare Daily: Steve Brooks and Ben Vagle on U.S.-China Economic Competition Aug 13, 2025

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In their new book, “Command of Commerce: America’s Enduring Economic Power Advantage Over China,” Steve Brooks and Ben Vagle argue that the United States’ economic advantage over China is much larger than is commonly believed. They contend that if the United States were to cut China off from the U.S. economy and from the economies of U.S. allies, China would suffer significantly more than the United States.

Matt Gluck, Executive Editor at Executive Functions, spoke with Brooks and Vagle about the size and nature of the gap in economic power between the two countries, the importance of U.S. alliances in maintaining economic leverage over China, why decoupling from China now would undermine this leverage, and more.

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Lawfare Daily: ‘The Fort Bragg Cartel’ with Seth Harp Aug 12, 2025

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On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien sits down with Seth Harp, an investigative reporter, U.S. Army Reserve veteran, and a former Assistant Attorney General for the state of Texas to discuss Harp’s new book, “The Fort Bragg Cartel: Drug Trafficking and Murder in the Special Forces.”

They discuss Harp’s experiences reporting on the murder of two special forces operators at Fort Bragg—one of whom belonged to the secretive Delta Force unit—as well as the epidemic of PTSD, addiction, drug trafficking, violence, criminality, and impunity he uncovered across these elite U.S. military organizations in the shadow of the post-9/11 wars.

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Lawfare Daily: The Trials of the Trump Administration, Aug. 8 Aug 11, 2025

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In a live conversation on YouTube, Lawfare Editor in Chief Benjamin Wittes sat down with Lawfare Senior Editors Anna Bower and Roger Parloff, and Lawfare contributor Peter Harrell to discuss the D.C. Circuit vacating Judge Boasberg’s probable cause of contempt by the Trump administration, where the legal challenges to President Trump’s IEEPA tariffs stand, and the legal battle unfolding in Texas over the Democratic lawmakers leaving the state to prevent Republicans from redistricting the state.You can find information on legal challenges to Trump administration actions here. And check out Lawfare’s new homepage on the litigation, new Bluesky account, and new WITOAD merch.

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Lawfare Archive: A New Documentary on Surviving the War in Gaza Aug 10, 2025

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From August 6, 2024: A new film from Al Jazeera’s Fault Lines series called “The Night Won’t End” profiles three Palestinian families as they try to survive the war in Gaza.

On today’s episode, Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien speaks to the documentary’s director, Kavitha Chekuru, along with a few of the journalists and researchers who came together to work on the project, including Emily Tripp, Director at Airwars; Samaneh Moafi, Assistant Director of Research at Forensic Architecture; and Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Founder and Director of investigations at Earshot.

They discuss the three families at the center of this story, other investigations into the killings of civilians by the Israeli military in Gaza, and the role of the United States in the war since Oct. 7.

Please note that this episode contains content that some people may find disturbing, including depictions of war and violence against children. Listener discretion is advised.

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Lawfare Archive: How is Lula Doing? Aug 09, 2025

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From June 7, 2023: On January 1, 2023, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was sworn in as president of Brazil. A week later, insurrectionists in Brazil stormed government buildings, including the president’s palace, the Supreme Federal Court, and the National Congress building to violently disrupt the democratic transition of power and challenge the results of the election. Lula, however, remained undeterred and forged ahead.

It’s been roughly 150 days since those events, and Lawfare Legal Fellow Saraphin Dhanani sat down with Brian Winter, Editor-in-Chief of Americas Quarterly and a journalist with over a decade of experience living and reporting across Latin America, to discuss how Lula has fared in his first 100 days in office, his vision for reviving Brazil’s place in the world, and the political forces he’s up against.

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Scaling Laws: What Keeps OpenAI’s Product Policy Staff Up at Night? A Conversation with Brian Fuller Aug 08, 2025

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Brian Fuller, a member of the Product Policy Team at OpenAI, joins Kevin Frazier, the AI Innovation and Law Fellow at the University of Texas School of Law and a Senior Editor at Lawfare, to analyze how large AI labs go about testing their models for compliance with internal requirements and various legal obligations. They also cover the ins and outs of what it means to work in product policy and what issues are front of mind for in-house policy teams amid substantial regulatory uncertainty.

Find Scaling Laws on the Lawfare website, and subscribe to never miss an episode.

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Lawfare Daily: ‘Big Tech in Taiwan’ with Sam Bresnick Aug 07, 2025

Show notes

Sam Bresnick, Research Fellow and Andrew W. Marshall Fellow at Georgetown’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), joins Lawfare’s Justin Sherman to discuss his recently published report, “Big Tech in Taiwan: Beyond Semiconductors.” They discuss a previous report Sam coauthored with Georgetown CSET colleagues, “Which Ties Will Bind?,” looking at U.S. Big Tech companies’ exposure to China; Sam’s recent report on the 17 examined companies’ Taiwan entanglements; and how greenfield foreign direct investments (FDI), research and development (R&D) centers, data centers, supply chains, and more expose the studied U.S. companies to Taiwan. They also discuss how companies think about the geopolitical and security threat space, perspectives on “derisking” versus “decoupling” from Taiwan or China, and how U.S. policymakers could better track, identify, and potentially mitigate the risks.

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Lawfare Daily: Oona Hathaway on the Collapse of Norms Against the Use of Force Aug 06, 2025

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Lawfare Legal Fellow Mykhailo Soldatenko sits down with Oona Hathaway, Yale Law Professor and President-elect of the American Society of International Law, to discuss how the current world events are harming the norm prohibiting the use of force in international relations, why that's troubling, and what to do about it. They chat about the current U.S. administration's policies, recent strikes on Iran, and the implications for the norm from a potential negotiated settlement in the Russia-Ukraine war.

You may want to look at the following pieces relevant to the discussion:

“Might Unmakes Right: The Catastrophic Collapse of Norms Against the Use of Force,” by Oona A. Hathaway and Scott J. Shapiro
“There’s Still No Reason to Think the Kellogg-Briand Pact Accomplished Anything,” by Stephen M. Walt
“Trump's Strikes on Iran Were Unlawful. Here's Why That Matters,” by Oona A. Hathaway

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Lawfare Daily: The Fallacy of NATO's New Spending Target Aug 05, 2025

Show notes

On today’s episode, Lawfare’s Ukraine Fellow Anastasiia Lapatina sits down with Minna Ålander, an associate fellow at Chatham House Europe Programme, and Max Bergmann, the Director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, to discuss NATO’s historic decision to increase its member state’s defense spending to 5% of their Gross Domestic Product.

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July Minipod: Michael Feinberg on the Fallout of Personnel Changes in Law Enforcement Agencies Aug 04, 2025

Show notes

For this month’s minipod, Lawfare Associate Editor for Communications Anna Hickey interviews Lawfare Public Service Fellow Michael Feinberg, a former Assistant Special Agent in Charge with the FBI, discussing the significant changes in law enforcement following personnel shifts at the FBI and other federal agencies.

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