The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

Julia, Matt, and Van convened for a mailbag episode to answer all the questions you sent in. Is Korea Asia’s hottest flashpoint? What concerns us about Trump’s political appointees? What do we say when someone claims that Trump is “antiwar?” How should we understand the rise of ethnonationalism, and how can we beat it? What does a democratically accountable foreign policy look like?All that and more! 

Checking in on the dumpster fire that is world politics.This week:Polling shows that Liz Cheney’s endorsement depressed enthusiasm for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania and Michigan.Trump’s national security adviser co-signs Jake Sullivan’s threat perceptions.Senator Lindsay Graham’s plans to plunder Ukraine—“It’s about the money!”The Philippines’ vice president threats assassination on…the Philippines’ president.Fareed Zakaria lavishing praise on Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (!).Lessons for surviving autocracy, from a former Hungarian parliamentarian.Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.comFurther Reading:Data for Progress polling snapshotTrump’s national security pick: I’m on same page as Jake Sullivan about ‘our adversaries’Lindsay Graham on UkraineThe Philippine vice president publicly threatens to have the president assassinatedFareed Zakaria shares why he’s excited for Trump’s DOGEI Watched Orbán Destroy Hungary’s Democracy. Here’s My Advice for the Trump Era

How does the incoming Trump administration affect the future of EU defense? What obstacles does Europe face in advancing strategic autonomy? Nevada Lee joins the podcast to discuss recent initiatives to bolster European self-reliance, and why the United States should support them.Read Nevada’s policy memo on the topic, here: https://www.stimson.org/2024/eu-defense-this-time-might-be-different/Watch out for publication of her thesis, which she’s trying to un-embargo, here: https://doi.org/10.2870/0338094Follow her on X if you’re still there: https://x.com/nevadajoan

The world is a dumpster fire right now. For my own sanity, but also for yours, we need more critical takes about current events. There’s too much happening and it’s hard to keep track of everything that matters.So as a bonus for patrons of the newsletter, I’m going to check in each week with a run down of stories that deserve amplification, with critiques from the Un-Diplomatic perspective.This week:The gigification of Temu supply chains amid great-power rivalry.The Russian missile crisis and what it has to do with North Korea.The hikoi protest march in New Zealand as a beacon of hope for humanity.Further Reading:Biden Allows Ukraine to Strike Russia With Long-Range U.S. MissilesThe U.S. Chinese immigrants running Temu shipping centers from their homesLive updates: Hīkoi concludes as attention shifts to inside parliament

Free preview crossover with the Bang-Bang Podcast!Arguably the most successful revolutionary film of all time, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers boasts many legacies. For film buffs, its import derives from its landmark status in the pantheon of Italian neorealism and political cinema. For anti-imperialists, its value comes from its hardnosed but sympathetic depictions of armed struggle. And for imperialists or right-wing strongmen, the film has been deployed as a realistic guidebook for counterinsurgency. Van and Lyle relate these competing readings to the War on Terror and the latest debates around Gaza, Palestine, and liberation.Get the full episode and subscribe at https://www.bangbangpod.com/p/the-battle-of-algiers-1966.Further Reading:A Savage War of Peace (1977), by Alistair HorneDiscourse on Colonialism (1955), by Aimé CésaireThe Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Franz Fanon“Negroes are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-White” (1967), by James Baldwin“Open Letter to the Born Again” (1979), by James BaldwinOn Violence (1970), by Hannah Arendt“No regrets from an ex-Algerian rebel immortalized in film” (2007), Interview with Saadi Yacef“The Communists and the Colonized” (2016), Interview with Selim NadiHamas Contained (2018), by Tareq BaconiThe Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (2020), by Rashid Khalidi

How exactly do police end up supermilitarized? What is the imperial booming that brings militarism abroad to the Homefront? And what does the feminist standpoint offer analysts of these problems? Part of the answer are obscure programs called 1033 and 1122. The founders of the Women for Weapons Trade Transparency (W2T2) join the pod to explain. W2T2: https://www.w2t2.org Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

Is the War on Terror really over? Or is it just less visible? Julia is joined by Sarah Yager and Yumna Rizvi to discuss the makings of a militarized, counterterrorism-based U.S. foreign policy, how it impacts the world, and how to change it.Sarah is the Washington Director at Human Rights Watch, where she leads the organization’s engagement with the United States government on global human rights issues, with a particular focus on national security and foreign policy. She has previously served at both the Department of Defense and the U.S. Mission to the United Nations. Yumna is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Victims of Torture, focusing on human rights, national security, and refugee and asylum protections. She previously served as a human rights expert with Huqooq-e-Pakistan, a joint project of the European Union and Pakistani government aimed at improving the country’s compliance with international treaty obligations.Further Reading:Counterterrorism Copy Cats: https://www.lawfaremedia.org/article/counterterrorism-copy-catsOther recent work by Sarah and Yumna:Opinion: A debate tip for the candidates — there’s a correct answer on weapons to Israel, Sarah Yager: https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2024-09-09/debate-philadelphia-kamala-harris-donald-trump-gazaThe Abu Ghraib case is an important milestone for justice, Yumna Rizvi: https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/4/28/the-abu-ghraib-case-is-an-important-milestone-for-justice

Does foreign policy matter in the presidential election? The answer might surprise you. Chris Shell joins the pod to discuss recent survey findings about foreign policy and the presidential election. Gaza, Ukraine, immigration, climate change, and China all feature in the discussion, as well as what's really going on with the African American vote. Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com How Do Americans Feel About the Election and Foreign Policy?: https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/10/american-voters-election-foreign-policy?lang=enRace, Foreign Policy, and the 2024 Presidential Election: https://carnegieendowment.org/research/2024/10/election-survey-2024-foreign-policy-race?lang=enFind Chris on Twitter: https://x.com/ChrisShell95

Crossover episode! Van appeared on Convergence Magazine’s Block and Build podcast, hosted by Convergence founder Cayden Mak, to talk about Kamala Harris’s foreign policy. They end up covering all the big issues--Ukraine, Israel-Palestine, and China rivalry. They also gab about what it’s like working as an unpaid foreign policy adviser to a presidential campaign. Subscribe to Block and Build: https://convergencemag.com/podcast/the-future-of-american-foreign-policy-with-van-jackson/Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

Free preview of the Bang-Bang Podcast. “We tortured some folks.” Katherine Bigelow and Mark Boal’s cinematic blockbuster about the Bin Laden assassination was alternately ballyhooed and panned upon its release. Fans praised its purported cinematic achievements while critics lamented its alleged militarism or pro-torture sympathies. What’s remarkable today is the attention it received in all directions, perhaps a universal attention no longer possible in a society so fragmented and lost. Van and Lyle try to make sense of the movie as a contested event, and what its ambiguous ending might tell us about what came next. They also recall where they were when Obama ordered Seal Team Six to pull that trigger.Get the full episode--and all episodes--at: https://www.bangbangpod.com

Matt and Van chop it up about the Veep debate between Tim Walz and JD Vance; how Ta-Nehisi Coates has taken up the mantel of James Baldwin; the Biden administration's expanding role in Middle East war; and the fanaticism of about China that is dividing America, predictably.Subscribe to the Bang-Bang Podcast: https://www.bangbangpod.com

Crossover episode! In addition to Un-Diplomatic, Van is now co-hosting Bang-Bang--a new show about war movies, with an anti-imperialist twist. Van and his co-host, Lyle Jeremy Rubin, are military veterans, war critics, and film junkies. Enjoy this free cross-over episode where Van and Lyle discuss Combat Obscura, a 2018 documentary from Miles Lagoze about Marines in Afghanistan (and Lyle’s experience as a Marine in Afghanistan at the same time this was filmed). Subscribe to the Bang-Bang Podcast: https://www.bangbangpod.com/

Van spoke at the New Zealand Fabian Society about how the Democratic and Republican Party’s views on foreign policy are changing, and what those changes (and continuities) mean in the context of the US presidential election.Written remarks: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/p/live-world-war-iii-and-the-presidential

Matt reports out on his recent trip to China. Israel's terrorism in Lebanon and the horizontal escalation happening before our eyes. And Pakistan as a case study of why geopolitics, climate adaptation, and the sovereign debt crisis must be addressed together or not at all. Matt's remarks from the Xiangshan Forum: https://internationalpolicy.org/publications/the-right-way-for-china-and-the-us-to-get-along/ Van's remarks at the NZ Fabian Society: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/p/live-world-war-iii-and-the-presidential

The MAGA foreign-policy braintrust in Trump world is militarism all the way down. The unpopularity of the Democratic Party's popular front. The problem with threat inflation about disinformation. A defense budget out of control. And why Washington's manufacturing fetish is key to a convergence of jingoism, patriarchy, and oligarchy.Further Reading:Ken Klippenstein, “Russian Influence Operations Are A Joke"Van Jackson, “Why the Working Class Strategizes Against Genocide”Christian Lorenzten, “Not a Tough Crowd"Thomas Brodey, “Disinformation Dilemma: US Hands Are Way Dirty, Too"Gisela Cernadas and John Bellamy Foster, "Actual U.S. Military Spending Reached $1.537 Trillion in 2022—More than Twice Acknowledged Level: New Estimates Based on U.S. National Accounts"Black Alliance for Peace, "Black Alliance for Peace Condemns the Federal Indictments of Uhuru 3 and Denial of their Fundamental Human Rights to Speech, Association, Information and Political Dissent"Further Listening:Dead Prez, “Police State"

The election is nearing, and students are going back to school. What does this mean for student organizers demanding a ceasefire in Gaza? For the uncommitted movement? In this episode, Julia facilitates an intergenerational conversation about anti-war organizing. Guests Phyllis Bennis and Roua Daas reflect on campus demonstrations in the spring and share their thoughts on what lies ahead for the ceasefire now movement.Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) Fellow Phyllis Bennis directs the New Internationalism Project at IPS, focusing on the Middle East, U.S. militarism, and UN issues. She is also a fellow of the Transnational Institute in Amsterdam. In 2002, she co-founded United for Peace and Justice, a coalition against the Iraq war. In 2001, she helped found the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights and more recently spent six years on the board of Jewish Voice for Peace, where she now serves as its International Adviser. She works with many anti-war and Palestinian rights organizations, writing and speaking widely across the U.S. and around the world. She has served as an informal adviser to several top UN officials on Middle East issues and was twice short-listed to become the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.Phyllis has written and edited 11 books. Among her latest is the 7th updated edition of her popular Understanding the Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, published in 2018. She is also the author of Before & After: U.S. Foreign Policy and the War on Terror and Challenging Empire: How People, Governments, and the UN Defy U.S. Power.Roua Daas is a Palestinian organizer with Students for Justice in Palestine. She attended Butler University for undergrad, where she co-founded the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter and led several campaigns, including a successful defeat of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which falsely conflates anti-Zionism and antisemitism, and a campaign against an authoritarian university administration decision to cancel a student-led event featuring abolitionist, scholar, and activist Angela Davis. Currently, she is a graduate student in Pennsylvania State University’s Clinical Psychology and Women, Gender and Sexuality Studies program, where she organizes with Penn State Students for Justice in Palestine.Their recent work:How we passed a cease-fire resolution in our town, Roua Daas, American Friends Services CommitteeUncommitted voters sending a clear message to Biden about slaughter in Gaza, Phyllis Bennis, Institute for Policy Studies

What are the differences between nuclear disarmament and nuclear abolition? How do disarmers and abolitionists balance the need for policy change with the need for sustainable, intersectional organizing? In this episode, Jasmine Owens discusses how Black and Indigenous thinkers inform her vision for the future of the nuclear abolition movement. She reminds us that “small is all” when it comes to organizing, and that community is everything.Transformative justice is integral to community building. Indigenous folks are on the frontlines of radiation exposure from nuclear tests, uranium mining, and the dumping of nuclear waste. In 1990, the U.S. government created the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act (RECA) to aid some of those harmed, but the program has expired. This September, members of several Indigenous communities and allies are traveling from New Mexico to D.C. with a simple message: Pass RECA before we die. Please consider donating to help bring Indigenous radiation survivors to D.C.: https://chuffed.org/project/pass-recaAnd read Jasmine’s recent work, here:The false equivalency of nuclear disarmament and nuclear abolition, The Bulletin of Atomic ScientistsUnderstanding the Gap Between Vision and Practice: Understanding Emergent Strategies for Authentic Intersectional Organizing in the Nuclear Abolition Movement, Win Without WarBuilding The World Anew: The Case for Radically Redefining the Nuclear Abolition Movement, Win Without War

Cross-promotion! Van Jackson joined the Hegemonicon podcast and is sharing the experience here with Un-Diplomatic listeners. Van and show host William Lawrence discuss the dangerous strategy of global primacy that drives US foreign policy from many angles. What are the contradictions in US industrial policy? How does primacy relate to China and great-power competition? What kind of international order is emerging? What is the political coalition that can keep us out of catastrophe?Become a subscribing member of Convergence at convergencemag.com/donateThe Hegemonicon PodcastConvergence Magazine

"This is what courage looks like." Today Matt talks to three people -- two Biden appointees and one career military -- who made the courageous choice to resign in protest over US support for the Gaza war. We hear from each of them how they came to work in the administration, how they made the decision to leave it, and how that choice has impacted them. Tariq Habash most recently served as a political appointee and policy advisor in the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development. Tariq worked to overhaul the broken student loan system, provide relief to millions of borrowers, and address inequities across American higher education. He was the second government official, and the first political appointee to publicly resign from the Biden Administration due to its policy on Gaza and unrestricted support for Israel’s aggression against Palestinians. Prior to joining the government, Tariq was a cofounder of the Student Borrower Protection Center, a national research and advocacy nonprofit where he led the organization’s investigative work on student loan and consumer finance policies. He also spent years working at The Century Foundation, specializing in higher education affordability, accountability, and consumer protection issues. Tariq holds degrees from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and the University of Miami. Harrison Mann is a former U.S. Army major and executive officer of the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) Middle East/Africa Regional Center who resigned in protest of his office’s support for Israel during its Gaza campaign. He previously served as a Middle East all-source intelligence analyst and led a crisis cell coordinating intelligence support for Ukraine. Prior to DIA, he worked at the U.S. Embassy Tunis Office of Security Cooperation and led Army Civil Affairs teams combatting regional smuggling under U.S. Naval Forces Central Command (NAVCENT) in Bahrain. Harrison began his Army career as an infantry officer. He received a B.A. from the College of William & Mary and a Master in Public Administration from the Harvard University John F. Kennedy School of Government. Lily Greenberg Call is a former Special Assistant to the Chief of Staff at the Department of Interior. She has nearly a decade of experience in politics, movement organizing, and domestic and international human rights work. She worked on President Biden's 2020 campaign and served in the administration until May 15, 2024, when she became the first Jewish political appointee to resign in protest of US policy in Gaza. Lily grew up doing pro-Israel advocacy with AIPAC and other organizations throughout high school and college, and later became invested in Palestinian rights and Jewish anti-occupation movements. She has appeared as a guest on MSNBC, CNN, NBC, and given commentary for the Washington Post, Politico, and the Associated Press. Lily holds a B.A. in Political Science and Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.Further Reading: The Moral Limits of Public ServiceState Department Official ResignsBiden Staffers Mobilising Non-Violent Resistance Against the US Government 

What just happened in Venezuela? Matt Duss is joined by two great Latin America experts to talk about Maduro's very shady re-election, and how the US should respond. Paarlberg's piece: https://internationalpolicy.org/publications/venezuelas-people-not-government-deserve-solidarity/Michael Paarlberg is an associate professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University and associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies. His research focuses on Latin America, migration and security issues. He previously worked for the Service Employees International Union and was a journalist with the Guardian, and was a Latin America adviser for the Bernie 2020 campaign. María José Espinosa is the executive director of the Center for Engagement and Advocacy in the Americas (CEDA) and a Senior Non-Resident Fellow with CIP. Her work focuses on shaping U.S. foreign policy toward Latin America and the Caribbean on issues such as U.S.-Cuba relations, regional migration cooperation, climate, LGBTQ+ and women’s rights, and protections for refugees and migrants.