None Of The Above

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are underway and more than just athletic competition has drawn international attention. Amid calls for a complete boycott due to China's crackdown on Hong Kong and its persecution of the Uyghurs and other vulnerable populations, the United States has issued a diplomatic boycott of the games. On this episode of None of The Above, we revisit an important conversation between Isaac Stone Fish and Stephen Orlins, two China experts with divergent points of view on the US-China relationship. Against the backdrop of protests in Hong Kong and the Trump administration's trade war with China in 2019, we discussed many of the issues and questions currently accentuated by the Olympics: How should the United States approach China, and how should the US respond to China's human rights violations? 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. Stephen Orlins is the president of the National Committee on United States-China Relations. Prior to that, he was the managing director of Carlyle Asia and the chairman of one of Taiwan's largest cable television and high-speed internet providers. Isaac Stone Fish is the founder and CEO of Strategy Risks. He is also a contributing columnist for The Washington Post, a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council, and an adjunct instructor at New York University's Center for Global Affairs.

Eight years after it annexed Crimea and instigated a civil war in Eastern Ukraine, Russia has mobilized 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border. With the threat of a Russian invasion looming, negotiations between Washington and Moscow are at an impasse. Moscow's demands, which call for a transformation of the US-backed security order in Europe, were summarily dismissed by Washington. But according to our guests this week, the authors of the recent Politico article, "How to Get What We Want From Putin," there is still room for a diplomatic resolution. On this episode of None Of The Above, The Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah is joined by Thomas Graham and Rajan Menon, who provide a roadmap for negotiation which, combined with shrewd strategic thinking and skilled diplomacy, could not only quell the immediate crisis but lay the foundations for a more stable Europe. 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. Thomas Graham is a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and a senior advisor at Kissinger Associates, Inc. During the George W. Bush administration, he was the senior director for Russia on the National Security Council. Rajan Menon is the director of the grand strategy program at Defense Priorities. He is also the Anne and Bernard Spitzer Professor of International Relations at City College of New York and a senior research scholar at the Saltzman Institute of War and Peace at Columbia University.

World War II is nostalgically remembered throughout American culture as the "good war"––a conflict where Americans idealistically banded together to free the world from tyranny. Of course there is more to this story, but is this simplified popular understanding dangerous? In this week's episode of None Of The Above, the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah talks with West Point English professor Elizabeth Samet about the importance of literature for preparing America's future officer corps for life in and out of uniform, and about Americans' collective memory of the Second World War. Elizabeth shows how our romanticized reading of history has led US policymakers to overstate the effectiveness and righteousness of military force. 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. Elizabeth Samet is the author of Looking For the Good War: American Amnesia and the Violent Pursuit of Happiness and a Professor of English at West Point. The views Elizabeth expresses here do not reflect the official policy or position of the Department of the Army, the Department of Defense, or the US Government.

Speaking at the United Nations Climate Conference this November, President Biden called climate change "the existential threat to human existence." And in October, the Department of Defense issued its own warning, noting the effects of climate change are "exacerbating existing risks and creating new security challenges for U.S. interests." But while the Pentagon takes climate change's risks seriously, it remains one of the worlds largest emitters of greenhouse gasses. This week, we're revisiting another favorite episode from season 1 with Murtaza Hussain, a political and national security reporter for The Intercept, who helped us understand the ecological and health ramifications of America's wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and how the military's expansive footprint exacerbates the climate crisis. Murtaza Hussain is a journalist for The Intercept whose work focuses on national security, foreign policy, and human rights. He is the author of the 2019 article, "Industrialized Militaries Are a Bigger Part of the Climate Emergency Than You Know."

President Joe Biden argues the contest between democracy and autocracy will be the defining challenge of the twenty-first century. Meanwhile, Freedom House observes democracy around the world has experienced its steepest drop in its fifteen-year decline. Seeking to reverse this trend, the United States is hoping to "set forth an affirmative agenda for democratic renewal" this week when it brings together 110 countries for a two-day virtual Summit for Democracy. But can the US effectively lead this charge when, as Freedom House has shown, America's own democracy is in decline? This week, the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah is joined by Freedom House president Michael Abramowitz, who guides us through the 2021 edition of his organization's flagship report, "Freedom in the World." Along the way, Abramowitz discusses the democracy summit's challenges and opportunities, and America's nonmilitary tools for supporting democracy and human rights around the globe. Michael Abramowitz is president of Freedom House. Previously, he was a White House correspondent for the Washington Post before becoming director of the US Holocaust Memorial Museum's Levin Institute for Holocaust Education. 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.

As the United States competes for influence around the globe, and as authoritarianism gains ground in places like Brazil, what will US engagement in the region look like? US intervention and influence in the region is nothing new, especially in Brazil, which this week's guest walks us through. Professor Riordan Roett takes us on his journey as a young Fulbright Scholar living in northeast Brazil during the Cold War, to becoming one of America's leading experts on the country. Seeing firsthand the consequences of US intervention, Roett argues that Washington should take a more grassroots approach to development support, bolster its diplomatic corps, and invest more in cultural engagement to strengthen ties with the region. Riordan Roett is Professor and Director Emeritus of the Latin America Studies Program at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. 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.

This week we bring back a timely episode from season 1 with journalist Amanda Sperber and anthropologist Catherine Besteman, who helped us understand an important, yet underreported topic: America's military involvement in Somalia. Since we last spoke to Catherine and Amanda, The New York Times has reported that the terrorist organization, Al Shabab, is at its "strongest in years" and that the Biden administration may be debuting a new Somalia policy in the coming weeks. But will the administration, which has prided itself on ending "relentless war," pursue a policy less reliant on drone strikes than its Republican and Democratic predecessors? Though much is still to be seen, airstrikes in July and the Biden administration's touting of its "over-the-horizon capabilities" to attack a globally "metastasized" terrorist threat doesn't augur much change. Catherine and Amanda explore the history of Al Shabab and America's involvement in Somalia and argue that the human costs of current policy lay bare the strategic and moral failings of America's global war on terror. Amanda Sperber is a Nairobi-based award-winning investigative journalist, foreign correspondent, and multimedia storyteller. Her work focuses on East Africa, specifically on Somalia, and the consequences of U.S. drone strikes. Catherine Besteman is Francis F. Bartlett and Ruth K. Bartlett Professor of Anthropology at Colby College in Maine. Her work focuses on U.S. militarism in Somalia. She is the author of The Costs of War in Somalia from Brown University's Costs of War Project, and Militarized Global Apartheid (2020). 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.

What impact did Colin Powell, America's 65th secretary of state under President George W. Bush, who passed away last week, make on US foreign policy? What is the legacy he leaves behind, and how does it inform where the United States is headed? This week, the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah is joined by Ravi Agrawal, Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy magazine to discuss Powell's lasting impact. Though much remains to be seen, Agrawal assesses the defining attributes of an emerging Biden doctrine -- from confronting China's ascendence and the spread of autocracy, to a focus on domestic issues and a possible revival of Powell's professed -- if not actualized -- principles of judicious prudence. Ravi Agrawal is Editor in Chief of Foreign Policy magazine. Previously, he worked for CNN in various roles on three different continents, and is the author of India Connected: How the Smartphone Is Transforming the World's Largest Democracy. 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.

Although President Biden has ended the war in Afghanistan, America's twenty-year global war on terror has not yet drawn to a close. Initiated by the Bush administration, and waged in various forms under four presidents, the war on terror has shaped not just US foreign policy, but many aspects of American life. This week, the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah is joined by Spencer Ackerman, whose new book, Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump contends that the Trump administration was no aberration. Charting the war on terror through the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, Ackerman shows how this war inflamed America's nativist impulses and spurred authoritarian tools of domestic surveillance. 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. Spencer Ackerman is the author of Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump and the Substack, Forever Wars. He is also a contributing editor at the Daily Beast, where he was a senior national correspondent from 2017 to 2021.

Tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula this past month. In mid-September, both North and South Korea tested ballistic missiles just hours apart. And though Pyongyang had signaled interest in convening discussions to formally end the Korean War, it launched a short-range missile on Tuesday. This week on None Of The Above, we're bringing back another one of our favorite episodes from Season 1 with Korea expert Sue Mi Terry. When we sat down with Sue in 2019, Donald Trump was president, and the United States was engaged in talks with North Korea on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Though talks have since stalled, Sue's analysis of the discussions and her case for a unified Korea, remain just as thought-provoking today. Sue Mi Terry is the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. She previously served as a senior analyst on Korean issues at the CIA and as a member of the National Security Council. You can follow Sue on Twitter at @SueMiTerry. 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.