The Realignment

NOTE: This is the last week of The Realignment's daily Ukraine programming. For Day 23 of The Realignment's Daily Ukraine coverage, Marshall spoke with Rupert Russell, author of Price Wars: How the Commodities Markets Made Our Chaotic World. They discussed how observing global conflicts and events through the lens of commodity markets, how Chinese coal markets may have empowered Putin pre-invasion, and alternate explanations for notable events over the past two decades, including the 2008 global food crisis, the Arab Spring, the war in Ukraine, and more. SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

NOTE: This is the last week of The Realignment's daily Ukraine programming. For Day 22 of The Realignment's Daily Ukraine coverage, Marshall spoke with Dr. Seth G. Jones, author of Three Dangerous Men: Russia, China, Iran and the Rise of Irregular Warfare and Senior VP and Director of the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic & International Studies. They discussed how the conventional military strength of great powers such as the United States and Russia are increasingly challenged by irregular warfare approaches: cyber attacks, the use of proxy forces, propaganda, espionage, and disinformation. While Three Dangerous Men focused on how China, Iran, and Russia favored irregular warfare to challenge the United States, the Ukraine war has demonstrated that irregular warfare presents a serious challenge to any nation's ambitions. SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

For Day 22 of The Realignment's Daily Ukraine coverage, Marshall spoke with Dr. Aparna Pande, author of From Chanakya to Modi: The Evolution of India's Foreign Policy and Making India Great: The Promise of a Reluctant Global Power. They discussed India's reaction to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, India's priorities, its ambitions in a multipolar world, and how the country's post-colonial and Cold War history drives its approach to the world. SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

For Day 21 of The Realignment's daily Ukraine coverage, Saagar returns to the show for a one-on-one discussion episode with Marshall to discuss recent episodes, developments in the war, and a broader discussion of the launch of CNN+. Note: After we end our daily Ukraine coverage next week, we'll be releasing these discussion episodes every two weeks on Fridays. Write in to realignmentpod@gmail.com to submit topics, questions, etc... SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

For Day 20 of The Realignment's daily Ukraine coverage, Marshall spoke with Jon Wolfsthal, a member of the Science and Security Board at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and a former adviser to President Obama. They discussed the past, present, and future of U.S. nuclear policy, Ukraine's history with nuclear weapons, whether nuclear weapons promote peace or not, and the future of disarmament after Iraq and Libya. SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

For Day 19 of The Realignment's daily Ukraine and beyond coverage, Marshall spoke with Dr. Jennifer Sciubba, author of 8 Billion and Counting: How Sex, Death, and Migration Shape Our World. They start by discussing the over-hyped idea in the American foreign policy community that Russia's declining population and rising mortality rate signaled the decline of its foreign policy ambitions and then engage in a broader discussion on the implications of lower birthrates in wealthy, industrialized countries and why left and right approaches to push replacement-level family sizes have failed. SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

For Day 18 of The Realignment's daily Ukraine and beyond coverage, Marshall spoke with Dr. Sean McFate, professor of strategy at the National Defense University and author of The New Rules of War: How America Can Win--Against Russia, China, and Other Threats. They discussed Dr. McFate's central argument that conventional warfare no longer furthers broad political objectives, why "peace" as we know it is over, and what Ukraine instructs about what's real and what's hype when it comes to predictions about the future of warfare. SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

For Day 17 of The Realignment's daily Ukraine coverage, Marshall spoke with William Drozdiak, author of The Last President of Europe: Emmanuel Macron's Race to Revive France and Save the World and Fractured Continent: Europe's Crises and the Fate of the West. They discussed the degree to which Putin's invasion of Ukraine has (and hasn't) unified a Europe fractured by Brexit, the Syrian refugee crisis, questions of identity, and economic stagnation and the significance of French President Emmanuel Macron's relationship with Putin and his broader project to reform France and revitalize Europe. SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

For Day 16 of The Realignment's daily coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Mark Valentine, Head of Federal at Scale AI and Air Force veteran/F-16 pilot, joins to discuss how artificial intelligence/machine learning tools teamed with human analysts will reshape the battlefield and scale the satellite-based reconnaissance that revealed Russia's pre-invasion buildup. SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment

For Day 15 of The Realignment's daily coverage of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Marshall spoke with Dr. Robert Farley, author of Grounded: The Case for Abolishing the United States Air Force and The Battleship Book. They discussed why Russia has failed to achieve air superiority in Ukraine, the debates over No-Fly-Zones and MiG-29 deliveries to Ukraine, the evolving nature of air combat from WWII to today, and the evolution of fighter aircraft alongside the transition from Generation 4 to 5. NYT Article on Ukraine's Air Force: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/22/world/europe/ukraine-air-force-russia.html SEND US A TIP: https://app.swapstack.co/tips/the-realignment REALIGNMENT NEWSLETTER: https://therealignment.substack.com/ BOOKSHOP: https://bookshop.org/shop/therealignment