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.F. Gregory Gause bioF. Gregory Gause, “Should We Stay or Should We Go? The United States and the Middle East,” Survival, Fall 2019.Gregory Gause, “Why the U.S. Should Stay Out of Saudi Politics,” Foreign Affairs, December 2018.John Glaser and Emma Ashford, “Unforced Error: The Risks of Confrontation with Iran,” Cato Institute Policy Analysis , October 9, 2017.Robin Wright, “Trump’s Close-Call Diplomacy with Iran’s President,” New Yorker, September 28, 2019U.S. Institute of Peace, “Timeline: Tensions between Washington and Tehran,” May 8, 2019. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jonathan Caverley of the Naval War College joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to discuss the defense industry and the arms trade. Jonathan Caverley bioJonathan Caverley, “Slowing the Proliferation of Major Conventional Weapons: The Virtues of an Uncompetitive Market,” Ethics & International Affairs, Vol. 31, No. 4, Winter 2017Jonathan Caverley, “America’s Arms Sales Policy: Security Abroad, Not Jobs at Home,” War on the Rocks, April 6, 2018Security Assistance MonitorSIPRI Arms Transfers DatabaseA. Trevor Thrall and Caroline Dorminey, “Risky Business: The Role of Arms Sales in U.S. Foreign Policy,” Policy Analysis, No. 836, March 13, 2018Ray Rounds, “The Case against Embargos, Even for Saudi Arabia,” War on the Rocks, April 16, 2019 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Hilde Restad bioHilde Restad, American Exceptionalism: An Idea that Made a Nation and Remade the WorldCato Unbound, “The Clash of Civilizations?,” February 2017 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Matthew Goodman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies joins Emma Ashford and Trevor Thrall to discuss Trump’s trade war with China.Matthew P. Goodman bioMatthew P. Goodman and Ely Ratner, “A Better Way to Challenge China on Trade: Trump’s Harmful Tariffs Aren’t the Answer,” Foreign Affairs, March 22, 2018Eswar Prasad, “Which country is better equipped to win a U.S.-China trade war?” Washington Post, August 9, 2019. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Monica Toft bioMonica Toft, “The Dangerous Rise of Kinetic Diplomacy,” War on the Rocks, May 14, 2018The Military Intervention Project Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Heather Hurlburt bioHeather Hurlburt, “Making Sense of the Grand Strategy Debate,” Lawfare, June 7, 2019Emma Ashford, Hal Brands, Jasen Castillo, Kate Kizer, Rebecca Lissner, Jeremy Shapiro, and Joshua Shifrinson, “New Voices in Grand”Daniel Drezner, Mira Rapp‐​Hooper, Rebecca Lissner, Stephen Walt and Kori Schake, “Searching for a Strategy,” Foreign Affairs, May/​June 2019Ben Sasse, “The End of the End of History,” Texas National Security Review, February 2019Emma Ashford, “The Gentleman from Nebraska Misfires on Foreign Policy,” War on the Rocks, May 6, 2019Ganesh Sitaraman, “The Emergence of Progressive Foreign Policy,” War on the Rocks, April 15, 2019Colin Dueck, Elliot Abrams, Emma Ashford, John Fonte, Henry R. Nau, Nadia Schadlow, Kelley Vlahos, Dov Zakheim, “The Future of Conservative Foreign Policy,” Texas National Security Review, November 30, 2018Van Jackson, Heather Hurlburt, Adam Mount, Loren Schulman, Thomas Wright, “The Future of Progressive Foreign Policy,” Texas National Security Review, December 4, 2018The John Quincy Adams Society Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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. Maggie Tennis bioAmerica’s Nuclear Crossroads Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Todd Harrison bioAmerica’s Nuclear CrossroadsAerospace Security Project at CSIS, “Commanding Space: The Story Behind the Space ForceTodd Harrison, “A Space Force is Worth the Price” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.Peter Mandaville bioKamron Bohkari and Peter Mandaville, The Muslim Brotherhood and American Muslims, Center for Global Policy, August 11, 2018Peter Mandaville and Shadi Hamid, “Islam as Statecraft: How Governments Use Religion in Foreign Policy,” Brookings Institute, November 2018 Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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.” Peter Juul bioCenter for American Progress, “America Adrift: How the U.S. Foreign Policy Debate Misses What Voters Really Want”Eurasia Group Foundation, “Worlds Apart: U.S. Foreign Policy and American Public Opinion”Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs, “America Engaged: American Public Opinion and US Foreign Policy” Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.