None Of The Above

A year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the war grinds on. Early Russian advances were successfully rolled back, but intense fighting continues in the east, where a renewed Russian offensive looms. The United States and many of its European allies remain resolute in their support for Ukraine. In a sign of their commitment, the United States and Germany recently overcame their initial reluctance and decided to provide Ukraine with tanks. But with neither a victory nor a peace settlement on the horizon, can the United States sustain its assistance indefinitely? Even if its interests diverge from Ukraine's war aims? Even if the threat of nuclear weapons use becomes more plausible? These are some of the questions which likely weigh on President Biden as he prepares for tonight's State of the Union address. In this episode of None Of The Above, The Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah sits down with CNN White House reporter Natasha Bertrand and nuclear weapons expert James Acton. They discuss Washington's efforts to support Ukraine under the nuclear shadow. Natasha Bertrand is a CNN White House and National Security Reporter. Previously, Natasha was a correspondent for POLITICO and Business Insider. James Acton is the Jessica T. Mathew Chair and Co-director of the Nuclear Policy Program at Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. James is a physicist by training and is the author of the recent War on the Rocks article, "The Case for Caution on Crimea."

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, observers anxiously watched China's reactions as many feared a similar conflict would break out in the Taiwan Strait. In recent years, it appears China has been increasingly determined to enforce its One-China policy, first against Hong Kong and now against Taiwan. From afar, the United States is caught between deterring China from an all-out military conflict and supporting a democratic Taiwan. A few months ago, President Joe Biden broke away from America's traditionally ambiguous stance and said the US would defend Taiwan if China attacks. However, Eurasia Group Foundation's annual survey found that the number of Americans who support US intervention to help Taiwan is waning. So, how likely is it that a conflict between China and Taiwan breaks out? Is it possible for the US to navigate conflicting interests without resorting to involving itself in another war? In this episode, EGF senior fellow Mark Hannah sits down with Bonnie Glaser of the German Marshall Fund to discuss the state of US-China relations and the future of Taiwan. Bonnie Glaser is the managing director of the Indo-Pacific program at the German Marshall Fund. Glaser has worked at the intersection of Asia-Pacific geopolitics and US policy for more than three decades. To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.

Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to be sworn in as Israel's 15th prime minister in the coming days. Israel's government, which is expected to be the most right-wing in the country's history, has raised questions about the role the United States should play, if any, in what could be a high consequence and volatile year for Israelis and Palestinians. But before we can begin to think about America's current role, we wanted to explore what role the United States has played historically in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Has the United States always been an ardent supporter of Israel? Has it ever taken meaningful steps to help de-escalate the conflict? In this week's bonus episode, Eurasia Group Foundation research fellow and guest host Zuri Linetsky sits down with historian Rashid Khalidi to unpack over a century of American relations with Palestine and Israel. Rashid Khalidi is the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University. His latest book is The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017. To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.

In early December, just weeks after Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party won Israel's parliamentary election (again), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked that America's commitment to Israel has "never been stronger." The incoming governing coalition that Netenyahu is forming is expected to be the most right-wing in Israeli history. What does this mean for Israel and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? Does this change US policy vis-à-vis one of its closest partners in the Middle East? This week, guest host and EGF research fellow Zuri Linetksy speaks with journalists Neri Zilber and Muhammad Shehada who help us break down what affect Bibi's new government might have on Israeli-Palestinian relations, and offer thoughts on what the United States can do to mitigate potential violence coming from both sides of the Green Line. Neri Zilber is an Israeli journalist and analyst living in Tel Aviv, and host of the Israel Policy Pod. Muhammad Shehada is a Palestinian journalist and analyst from the Gaza Strip. To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.

Last month, President Biden warned of "nuclear Armageddon" as tensions with Russia reached their highest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis. While the Biden administration appears to be working around the clock to prevent this kind of nuclear catastrophe, the American public has been largely kept in the dark about how the United States would respond if Russia used a tactical nuclear weapon against Ukraine. To help us make sense of all of this, and to walk us through what options are on the table for the United States to de-escalate tensions with Russia, we are joined by none other than Rose Gottemoeller. Rose was the chief negotiator of New START, the last remaining strategic arms control treaty between the two nuclear-armed countries. With the treaty set to expire in 2026, and recent news of Russia delaying talks on a potential New START renewal, is there hope for the easing of tensions via diplomacy? Or, is a new arms race to out-compete Russia (and other nuclear-armed countries like China) the answer to avoid nuclear war? Rose Gottemoeller is the Steven C. Házy Lecturer at Stanford University's Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and its Center for International Security and Cooperation. Rose recently served as Deputy Secretary General of NATO and the Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security at the U.S. State Department. She is the author of Negotiating the New START Treaty (2021). To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.

It's Election Day in the U.S. Americans across the country head to the polls to cast their vote in this year's midterm elections. Much is at stake for the Biden administration: Republicans are poised to take control of the House of Representatives, if not both houses of Congress. What are the issues motivating Americans to vote (or not)? A month after we at the Eurasia Group Foundation released its annual survey of Americans' foreign policy views, EGF's Caroline Gray and Lucas Robinson traveled to Pennsylvania, the site of one of this year's fiercest Senate races. Caroline and Lucas spoke with Pennsylvanians in Kennett Square, the self-proclaimed mushroom capital of the world, and West Chester to hear about the issues they care about most. Though foreign policy is not at the top of most Americans' minds when they cast their ballot, they have a lot to say about the war in Ukraine and how much of America's tax dollars should be spent on defense.

Iran is in upheaval. The death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iran's "morality police" has sparked an uprising throughout the country. Protesters have turned the current regime's revolutionary iconography against it. Faced with what might be the biggest test to its legitimacy since 1979, the Iranian government has imposed a brutal crackdown on dissent. Countries and human rights organizations around the world condemn the government's violence. In the United States, President Biden has paused nuclear negotiations and expressed his administration's support for the protesters. But there is little consensus on how and whether this support should transform into official U.S. policy. This week on None Of The Above, EGF's Mark Hannah speaks with Assal Rad and Reza Aslan, two experts on Iranian politics and culture. They discuss Iran's history of uprisings and revolutions, the importance of international solidarity, and why Iran's future is ultimately in Iranian hands. To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter. Assal Rad is the research director at the National Iranian American Council and the author of The State of Resistance: Politics, Culture, and Identity in Modern Iran (2022). Reza Aslan is a scholar, writer, and television producer. He is the author of numerous books including his most recent, An American Martyr in Persia: The Epic Life and Tragic Death of Howard Baskerville (2022). Reza is a Professor of Creative Writing at the University of California, Riverside.

Brazilians head to the polls Sunday to elect their next president and other key legislators in Brazil's general election. If neither presidential candidate – Brazil's current right wing president Jair Bolsonaro or Brazil's former left wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – wins a majority of the vote, a runoff election will take place on October 30th. Election watchers worry Bolsonaro will contest the election results should he lose, prompting a violent insurrection which might look even worse than the January 6th protests in the US. What is the likelihood Bolsonaro and his supporters will stage a coup-like event in Brazil? And, how has the Brazilian right been inspired or influenced by the events of January 6th? Is America's example, for good and bad, really that powerful in Brazil? Foreign Policy's Catherine Osborn joins the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah to dig into all of this and more as the world awaits the election results of the Western hemisphere's second largest democracy. Catherine Osborn is the writer of Foreign Policy's weekly Latin America Brief. She is a print and radio journalist based in Rio de Janeiro. To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.

In early August, the FBI seized boxes of classified documents, some suspected to contain nuclear secrets, from former president Donald Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago. News of the FBI's raid ignited a political firestorm but it also shed light on an obscure aspect of US foreign policymaking — America's "nuclear secrecy regime." From its WWII origins in the development of the atomic bomb to the latest controversy miring Trump, nuclear secrecy has cast a shadow over the development and execution of US national security policy. In this episode, historian Alex Wellerstein joins the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah to help us make sense of America's byzantine classification system, the bureaucratic process that makes it work, and its inherent tensions with democracy. Alex also explains how a president's ability to declassify information is more complicated than some would have us think. Alex Wellerstein is an associate professor at Stevens Institute of Technology, where he is the director of Science and Technology Studies in the College of Arts and Letters. Alex is the author of the book, Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States (2021), and the creator of NUKEMAP, an online nuclear weapons effects simulator. To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world and home to some of the world's most critical developing economies. But historically, US foreign policy has treated the continent as a monolith and a site for great power competition, ignoring the role of African nations in deciding their own future. This week, None of the Above is joined by Horn of Africa expert Michael Woldemariam, and journalist Robbie Gramer, to discuss America's relationship with Sub-Saharan Africa. How should Washington balance the often conflicting priorities of human rights and security in the region? Can Washington develop productive partnerships with African states, outside the prism of competition with Russia and China? And is there even room for coexistence on the continent between the United States and these competitors? As the Biden administration begins to reveal its strategy, guest host and Eurasia Group Foundation research fellow Zuri Linetsky asks Michael and Robbie whether Biden's Africa strategy represents something new, or is more of the same. To listen to previous episodes and learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.​​ Michael Woldemariam is an associate professor of international relations at Boston University's Pardee School of Global Studies, who focuses on security and politics in the Horn of Africa. Michael is the author of the book, Insurgent Fragmentation in the Horn of Africa: Rebellion and its Discontents (2018). Robbie Gramer is a diplomacy and national security reporter at Foreign Policy, who covers the US State Department, the Pentagon, and most recently the Biden administration's new US-Africa strategy.