The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

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. 

J.D. Vance imagines a global color line. Kamala Harris has an unprecedented opportunity to move beyond primacy and embrace a progressive foreign policy—will she take it? Biden's claim that America is no longer at war is at odds with...facts. Netanyahu's speech to Congress was evil but says something important about how the Democratic Party has changed. And a rant about the violent throughline that connects America’s war on the homeless with campus protest arrests, economic nationalism, MAGA’s Handmaid’s Tale fantasy, and the national security state.Stephen Semler in the Forever Wars Newsletter: https://www.forever-wars.com/cops-arrested-over-3-500-pro-gaza-campus-protesters-new-data-shows/?ref=forever-wars-newsletterMatt Duss's piece on Kamala Harris in Foreign Policy: https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/07/24/kamala-harris-gaza-israel-democrats-united-states-presidential-race/?tpcc=recirc_trending062921International Crisis Group Report on War Powers: https://www.crisisgroup.org/united-states/009-bending-guardrails-us-war-powers-after-7-octoberSubscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

What can a revolution with progressive values look like? What kinds of non-violent resistance against oppression are possible? And what does everyday guerilla warfare do to people with humanist commitments? Dr. Justine Chambers talks about her new research with co-author Saw Ner Dhu Da, understanding how Myanmar's Gen Z led a nationwide revolution against a military coup in Feb. 2021 and has been living everyday revolution ever since. Read "'Living With' Revolution: The Everyday Experiences of Myanmar’s Generation Z Revolutionaries" in Journal of Contemporary Asia: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00472336.2024.2359373 Justine Chambers on Twitter: https://x.com/DrJustineCSubscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

The vegetable versus the fascist? The Democratic Party is in chaos. Why AOC and the Squad back Biden (for now). Biden's Trumpian turn. The truth about Biden's foreign policy record. 

An emergency live episode of the Un-Diplomatic podcast. Van explains the situation the Democratic Party faces: who will replace Biden, why it's likely Kamala Harris, why Bernie should be her running mate, and what all that means for foreign policy.Livestream on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSc9-8Qra5w&t=842sUn-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

Navigating the politics of Washington think tanks. Matt's interview with The New Yorker's Isaac Chotiner. Robert O'Brien wants the entire Marine Corps to relocate to Asia. Arundhati Roy is a target of Modi's Hindu-fascist turn. The case for defunding ICBMs. And Chiquita Banana death squads. Un-Diplomatic Newsletter on the politics of think tanking: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/p/a-political-map-of-washington-thinkEliana Johns on ICBMs: https://inkstickmedia.com/faith-as-small-as-a-titan-relying-on-icbms-in-a-post-cold-war-world/Isaac Chotiner's interview with Matt Duss: https://www.newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/is-bidens-israel-policy-cynical-or-naive

“One man’s deterrence is another man’s escalation.” Van spoke at an event rolling out a recent report, What Should Be Done? Practical Policies to Prevent Nuclear Escalation. At the event and in the report, Van laid out a logic of peacemaking, relating the strategic, the political, and the nuclear all together. Listen further if you want to know why peace requires movement from Warming Actions-->Ripening Actions-->Reciprocal Transformations. Or if you want to know what the politics of Gaza has to do with nukes. Or why the North Korea strategic situation is so messed up. Read the Report: https://www.apln.network/projects/nuclear-weapon-use-risk-reduction/what-should-be-done-practical-policies-to-prevent-nuclear-catastropheWatch the full event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41-28QIUDbQ&t=4842sSubscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

Van, Julia, and Matt discuss how to think about Biden's Gaza ceasefire deal. Why "peace through strength" is a chauvinist meme. A.I. is a violent grift that hasn't changed war. Mexico's election of Claudia Sheinbaum highlights a potential contradiction between industrial policy and geopolitics. Thinking about the meaning of D-Day in light of militarism today. William Hartung and Michael Brenes on A.I. and the War Industry: https://michaelbrenes.substack.com/p/better-defense-through-technologyJamaal Bowman on The Breakfast Club: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/p/white-supremacy-aipac-and-us-foreignRoger Wicker's peace-through-strength chauvinism: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/29/op... Brian Rathbun, Christopher Parker, and Caleb Pomeroy, "Separate but Unequal: Ethnocentrism and Racialization Explain the 'Democratic' Peace in Public Opinion": https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/separate-but-unequal-ethnocentrism-and-racialization-explain-the-democratic-peace-in-public-opinion/0BEEE1D2EC35BFD9EE6A8BA8E344643A 

Van made an appearance on the Squaring the Circle podcast, a military-facing show that got into his origins in the national security state. The discussion talks about the importance of a working-class perspective in foreign policy, what was really wrong with Obama’s pivot to Asia, why Van is critical of “great-power competition,” and a number of other issues.Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.comSquaring the Circle: https://shows.acast.com/squaring-the-circle/episodes/discussion-on-foreign-policy-and-the-pivot-to-asia-with-dr-v

This re-released conversation with Daniel Immerwahr is one of our all-time top ten episodes, initially released on December 30, 2022. In Part II of Van's sit-down w/ Professor Daniel Immerwahr (author of How to Hide an Empire), they talk about Daniel's recent chapter about the politics and ideology of George Lucas's Star Wars. Was the Galactic Republic really an empire the entire time? What made Star Wars a Vietnam movie? What's the deal with the Ewok? And what's wrong with Lucas's version of anti-imperialism?Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.comAre We Really Prisoners of Geography?: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/10/are-we-really-prisoners-of-geography-maps-geopoliticsIdeology in US Foreign Relations (the volume containing "Galactic Vietnam"): https://cup.columbia.edu/book/ideology-in-u-s-foreign-relations/9780231201810