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Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenched powers that have driven the U.S. to wage nearly 400 wars and interventions.
Each episode, they’ll be joined by journalists, advocates, and experts to uncover who profits from America’s endless conflicts, and to imagine how we can build a better, more peaceful U.S. foreign policy.
Learn more about the Quincy Institute: quincyinst.org
Contact the show: alwaysatwar@quincyinst.org
17 Episodes
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Courtney and Alex go deep with tech journalist Taylor Lorenz on how social media shapes our perceptions of US foreign policy, and why war hawks like Hillary Clinton want to make it harder for Americans to get access to independent info on war and peace. First, they discuss how the internet went from being treated by US politicians as an emancipatory tool during the Arab Spring to a dangerous source of misinformation during the war on Gaza. Next, they unpack the role of social media sites li...
Courtney and Alex are back to break down the latest stories that help explain why the US is always at war. First, they break down a pair of recent stunning statements by former Obama speechwriter Sarah Hurwitz and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton about how young people are getting the wrong ideas about Israel from the terrible images they're seeing of the genocide in Gaza. The solution, of course, is not to prevent such carnage in the first place, but to try and game and...
This week, Courtney and Alex discuss the news stories from around the world that caught their attention. First, they get into how American arms companies are profiting off of the push for regime change in Venezuela and the military buildup in the Carribean. Next, they unpack the Pentagon's "acquisition reform" — a terrible idea that will make it easier for the military-industrial complex to build and profit off of dysfunctional weapons (this time, with even less oversight!) Finall...
On this episode of Always at War, Courtney and Alex talk with Jim Lobe, contributing editor at Responsible Statecraft, about the life and legacy of Dick Cheney after his death this week at the age of 84. Together, they unpack Cheney's long and gruesome record, from working with Donald Rumsfeld to derail Kissinger's strategy of detente with the Soviet Union, to helping the perpetrators of Iran-Contra get pardoned, to selling the American people on a catastrophic invasion of Iraq. J...
In this episode of Always at War, hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan are joined by Lara Friedman — President of the Foundation for Middle East Peace (FMEP) — to examine the recent Gaza ceasefire deal. Together, they discuss what makes ceasefire deals work, America's sordid history as a "peacemaker" in the Middle East, why the current deal is unlikely to restrain Israeli aggression against Palestinians in Gaza, the shifting politics on Israel in Washington, and much more. Learn mo...
Courtney and Alex discuss why the leaders of both of America’s major political parties still support America’s disastrous pursuit of global military primacy, and take a look at some of the individuals and interests that help uphold our crappy foreign policy consensus. ### Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenched powers that have driven the U.S. to wage nearly 4...
In this episode of Always at War, hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan are joined by Greg Grandin — Professor of History at Yale University and author of America, América: A New History of the New World — to discuss the USA's relationship with the other America: Latin America. Together, they explore the missed opportunities for true fraternity between the two Americas, the long history of Washington using Latin America as a testing ground for its foreign policy adventurism, and how the myt...
Does having 750 military base sites all around the world make America safer—or does it just make war more convenient? In this episode of Always at War, hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan reveal the costs and consequences of America's massive worldwide military footprint and examine how it enables Washington's disastrous quest to maintain global military primacy, no matter the costs. ### Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and ...
In this episode of Always at War, hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan are joined by the Quincy Institute's Ben Freeman & Nick Cleveland-Stout to discuss how America's top think tanks profoundly shape our country's approach to the world — and the golden opportunity these institutions represent for arms companies and foreign governments trying to buy influence over Washington's foreign policy. ### Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and ...
In this episode of Always at War, hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan discuss how the headlines about Gaza in most mainstream U.S. media outlets have consistently obfuscated the reality of Israel's genocidal campaign, and downplayed America's role in enabling and defending Israeli war crimes. ### Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenched powers that have dri...
In this episode of Always at War, hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan are joined by American Prestige's Daniel Bessner to discuss how Americans have come to understand — and however begrudgingly, accept — the costs and consequences of our nation’s military empire. ### Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenched powers that have driven the U.S. to wage ne...
Courtney and Alex discuss America's long and sordid history of pursuing regime change around the world in light of the recent U.S. airstrikes on Iran, which triggered bipartisan calls from Washington for the Trump administration to try and topple the government in Tehran. ### Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenched powers that have driven the U.S. to wage ne...
Courtney and Alex speak with national security legal scholar Elizabeth Beavers about how the U.S. government defines terrorism and discuss whether America's terrorist designations and counterterrorism wars prolong conflict and advance political agendas, rather than make Americans safer. ### Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenched powers that have driven ...
Courtney and Alex join Robert Wright's Nonzero podcast to discuss America's addiction to war in light of Trump's airstrikes on Iran. This episode is a special collaboration between Always at War and Nonzero. To access the full "Overtime" conversation, go to: https://www.nonzero.org/p/the-eternal-causes-of-war-robert ### Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenche...
In this episode of "Always at War," hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan explore how congressional stock trading enables U.S. policymakers to profit off of America’s constant wars and interventions , and speak with Public Citizen’s Savannah Wooten about how the military-industrial complex works to push U.S. military spending higher and higher — now approaching $1 trillion a year. ### Take a deep dive into Congressional war stock trading: https://readsludge.com/2024/09/12/here-are-the-membe...
In this episode of Always at War, we examine the Vietnam War on the 50th anniversary of its effective conclusion (April 30, 1975) and explore how it established the template for America's subsequent "forever wars." Through powerful imagery and historical analysis, hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan, joined by scholar Andrew Bacevich, trace the direct connections between Vietnam and the War on Terror, revealing how both conflicts shared similar patterns of mission creep, civilian casualt...
In this inaugural episode of "Always at War," hosts Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan explore America's continued investment in nuclear weapons despite their catastrophic potential. With the help of Quincy Institute Senior Research Fellow and military-industrial complex expert Bill Hartung, Courtney and Alex examine how defense contractors and lobbyists influence policy decisions to maintain a $315 billion nuclear program that many experts consider unnecessary and dangerous, and investi...
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