Sirens: A Bombshell production

In the most ambitious crossover event since that one time on TGIF, Bombshell joins Rational Security for a very special joint episode. Radha, Erin, Loren, Shane, and Susan take on our hellscape of a government's evolving policy on family separation; Radha as a Real Life Economist schools us on the not-so-cleansing fire of the latest trade wars, and, of course we go full blast on Space Force. You knew it was coming. It's real. And it's spectacular.

Radha, Loren, and Erin invite Alex Bell to preview the Singapore Trump-Kim summit, explaining that while there's more than staring into one another's eyes for arms control, chemistry is a good start. When we recorded, the G7 had wrapped but not yet crashed and burned into a playground taunt with Canada, so Radha gives a good lesson on tariffs instead of assessing border skirmishes along the Great Lakes. If you've been distracted you may have not noticed the absurd amount of Chinese espionage activity as the OPM hacks bear fruit. The show recommends everyone keep an eye on the Pompeo-Bolton tea leaves and how Pompeo's embrace of State bureaucracy may be hamstrung. Erin kicks off a new segment, the Soapbox, on Google's rejection of military AI work and what that means for future advances in military technologies. Conflicting Civilian casualty reporting, protests in Jordan, and SOF in Somalia are somehow the lesser included events in the crazy three ring goat rodeo of a week. Credit for this week's title and general approach to life go to Jeffrey Lewis. Alexandra Bell and James McKeon, Three strikes means Bolton should be out, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists The Once and Future Framework, The Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation R Scott Kemp, North Korean disarmament: build technology and trust, Nature John Lyons, "From 'Punk Kid' to 21st Century Tyrant: Kim Jong Un Seizes His Moment," Wall Street Journal Zainab Fattah, "Saudis to Host Jordan-Support Meeting After Tax Bill Protests," Bloomberg Barbara Starr and Ryan Browne, "US service member killed in Somalia," CNN U.S. Africa Command, "U.S. Statement on Situation in Somalia," AFRICOM Shawn Snow, "One US special operations member killed, several wounded in attack in Somalia," Military Times Aruna Viswanatha, "Ex-CIA Officer's Case Highlights Fears About Reach of Chinese Spying," Wall Street Journal Adam Goldman, "Ex-C.I.A. Officer Is Convicted of Spying for China," New York Times Mike Ives, "U.S. Army Veteran Tried to Spy for China, Officials Say," New York Times Ellen Nakashima and Paul Sonne, "China hacked a Navy contractor and secured a trove of highly sensitive data on submarine warfare," Washington Post Ian Brown, "Imagining a Cyber Surprise: How Might China Use Stolen OPM Records to Target Trust?" War on the Rocks Thomas Wright, "Trump Is Choosing Eastern Europe," Atlantic Susan B. Glasser, "Under Trump, "America First" Really Is Turning Out to Be America Alone," New Yorker Neil Irwin, "What Is the Trade Deficit?" New York Times Kai Ryssdal, "How U.S. trade policy has changed over 30 years," Marketplace Heather Long, "There are 'nuggets of truth' to what Trump says about trade," Washington Post Robbie Gramer, Pompeo's Pledge to Lift Hiring Freeze at State Department Hits Big Snag, Foreign Policy Casualty Records, Department of Defense "Syria: Raqqa in ruins and civilians devastated after US-led 'war of annihilation,'" Amnesty International Helene Cooper, "U.S. Strikes Killed Nearly 500 Civilians in 2017, Pentagon Says," New York Times Sundar Pichai, "AI at Google: our principles," Google Kate Conger, "Google Backtracks, Says Its AI Will Not Be Used for Weapons or Surveillance," Gizmodo

This week we ask Emma Ashford to reveal the mysteries of Trump's Middle East policy. Then Loren, Radha, and Erin dive into the recent trade dramas before pondering whether the summit with North Korea is best understood as a Rom-Com or Telenovela. Colombian elections, change of command in Afghanistan, and the toxic culture within ICE round out the conversation before we escape to the wonders of pop-culture. Emma Ashford and John Glaser, "Unforced Error: The Risks of Confrontation with Iran," CATO Institute Emma Ashford, "Unbalanced Rethinking America's Commitment to the Middle East," Strategy Studies Quarterly Trevor Thrall and Emma Ashford, "Power Problems," CATO Institute Runrig, Loch Lomond "Colombians vote for new president with peace deal, economy at stake," Reuters Camila Zuluaga, "Colombia, trapped between extremes," Washington Post Ana Swanson, "Trump Administration Plans to Revive ZTE, Prompting Backlash," New York Times Shawn Donnan, "Trump car tariffs highlight threat of retaliatory trade war," Financial Times Jonathan Landay and Rupam Jain, "U.S. sanctions on Iran threaten vital Afghanistan trade project," Reuters Jeremy Diamond, "Peter Navarro and Steven Mnuchin feuded at Beijing trade talks," CNN Daniel W. Drezner, "Targeted Sanctions in a World of Global Finance," Research on Economic Sanctions Kanga Kong, "Budding Moon-Kim Bromance Poses Risk to Trump Pressure Campaign," Bloomberg Laura Rosenberger, "Kim Jong Un is better off now than he was before Trump agreed to a summit," Washington Post Ilan Goldenberg, "Trump Has No Idea How Diplomatic Deals Work," Foreign Policy Patrick M. Cronin and Abigail Grace, "Trump Leaves the Door Open for Another North Korea Summit," CNAS Mark Mazzetti, Ronen Bergman, and David D. Kirkpatrick, "Trump Jr. and Other Aides Met With Gulf Emissary Offering Help to Win Election," New York Times Dara Lind, "Trump's DHS is using an extremely dubious statistic to justify splitting up families at the border," Vox Dara Lind, Tweet (25 May 2018) Lizzie Plaugic, "Amazon is adapting William Gibson's The Peripheral into a TV series," Verge

This week the Bombshell crew does something different. After a crazy few days in the national security world, we break down the good, the bad, and the pop-culture remedies. From Spain to Iran, to Iraq and Lebanon, to Niger and back home to the Haspel hearings and aviation mishaps we ask ourselves: what are we doing here? Also, Arnie Hammer discovered Iran-Contra and we rank order our favorite Chrises. Revolutions Podcast Fundraiser "Spain's ETA Basque terrorists disband," Economist Richard Nephew and Ilan Goldenberg, "Here's What to Expect Now That Trump Has Withdrawn From the Iran Nuclear Deal," Foreign Policy Colin H. Kahl and Vipin Narang, "Trump thinks his North Korea strategy will work on Iran. He's wrong on both." Washington Post Armie Hammer Tweet, May 7, 2018 Alice Hunt Friend, "The Accompany They Keep: What Niger Tells Us About Accompany Missions, Combat, and Operations Other Than War," War on the Rocks Paul Szoldra, "Military Leaders Sent Them On A Hasty, Ill-Planned Mission—And Are Now Blaming Them," Task & Purpose Mieke Eoyang, "The CIA Needs an Independent Thinker—Not a Gina Haspel," Atlantic Sophie Gilbert, "Jack Melrose Is a Lacerating Tour de Force," Atlantic Michael Barbaro, "Listen to 'The Daily': Gina Haspel and the Shadow of Torture," New York Times

This week on Bombshell, Rebecca Lissner of Penn's Perry World House guest hosts with Radha and Loren to discuss the handshake heard round the world at the DMZ. The Iran Deal is on the rocks yet again, despite the entreaties of a very affectionate President Macron of France and #squadgoals eye rolls of Chancellor Merkel. The White House has some personnel wins (Pompeo's confirmation), losses (Dr. Ronny Jackson's trash fire of a VA nomination) and draws (Gina Haspel's confirmation delay). And the ladies of Bombshell are steadfastly the only people on the planet talking Tina Brown and chick-lit vs. Infinity War. Diana C. Mutz and Eunji Kim, "The Impact of In-Group Favoritism on Trade Preferences," International Organization Jeremy Page, "North Korea's Nuclear Test Site Is Largely Unusable, Chinese Scientists Say," Wall Street Journal Anna Fifield, "Talk of peace with North Korea has the South wondering: Will this time be different?" Washington Post Richard Nephew, "Trump's Middle Ground on Iran Deal Sanctions Waivers Is a Myth," Foreign Policy Carol Morello, "Pompeo says Kim Jong Un doesn't care if U.S. leaves Iran deal," Washington Post Yasmeen Serhan, "Exit Macron, Enter Merkel," Atlantic Editorial Board, "Macron and Merkel have handed Trump a road map," Washington Post Atul Aneja, "China and India are both important foreign engines for global growth: Xi," Hindu Amber Phillips, "The issues surrounding Ronny Jackson's nomination for VA, explained," Washington Post Joe Gould, "Top 3 takeaways from Mattis on Capitol Hill," Defense News Corey Dickstein, "Mattis defends new transgender policy, drawing senator's ire," Stars and Stripes

This week on Bombshell, Radha, Erin, and Loren play natsec madlibs with Amanda Sloat, discussing every possible complexity of US-Syria policy during John Bolton's first week. The neverending potential for a trade war, protests in the run up to the US embassy in Israel's moving day, and Russian expulsions get a lightning round in Keeping Up Foreign Relations. And for White House mayhem they stick to the other side of the river, checking in on the disturbing trend of aviation mishaps, the anniversary of combat integration of women, and sending troops to the border. And you should all be watching Killing Eve. Amanda Sloat, "Trump's Syria whiplash," Brookings Amanda Sloat, "The West's Turkey conundrum," Brookings BBC, "Syria: The story of the conflict," BBC Morning Edition, "Analysis Of U.S.-Led Airstrikes On Syria After Suspected Chemical Attack," NPR Nancy Marshall-Genzer, Jed Kim, Renata Sago, Marielle Segarra, Danielle Chiriguayo, Jana Kasperkevic, Aaron Schrank, "Your trade war questions, answered," Marketplace Alex Capri, "Trump's 'Trade War' Irony: America Loses By Not Rejoining The TPP," Forbes Zeeshan Aleem, "Trump wasted his chance to make the TPP stronger," Vox Keith Bradsher, "Trump Weighs Return to Trans-Pacific Partnership. Not So Fast, Say Members." New York Times Rushdi Abu Alouf and Noga Tarnopolsky, "Nearly 1,000 Palestinians injured in Gaza-Israel border protests," Los Angeles Times Ilan Goldenberg, "How Trump can move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem," Politico Greg Jaffe, John Hudson, and Philip Rucker, "Trump, a reluctant hawk, has battled his top aides on Russia and lost," Washington Post Katie Rogers and Eileen Sullivan, "Trump and Western Allies Expel Scores of Russians in Sweeping Rebuke Over U.K. Poisoning," New York Times Tara Copp, "Military Times Crash Database," Military Times Tara Copp, "Navy's spike in aviation mishaps is the military's worst, up 82 percent," Military Times Doug Mataconis, "Federal Judge Blocks New Version Of Trump's Transgender Military Ban," Outside the Beltway Elliot Spagat and Luis Alonso Lugo, "US says California rejects proposed border duties for troops," AP Lindsay P. Cohn, on Twitter "Update on the Status of Women in Combat," CNAS Jen Chaney, "BBC America's Killing Eve Is Instantly Addictive Television," Vulture

Erin, Radha, and Loren make it back to the Show (where we never handle our own luggage), welcoming back all-star guest Kori Schake to talk NSC turnover, civil-military relations, and everything else that's radical in a tubular kind of way. We break down Kim Jong-Un's super-secret trip to Beijing and note that when the Saudi Crown Prince showed up for his two week tour of America, not all welcomes were warm. Meanwhile, VA Secretary Shulkin is out (sometimes you win), the president's personal doctor is in (sometimes you lose); and DoD tries to square the circle on the transgender ban (sometimes it rains). We substitute basketball for pop-culture, with predictable consequences. Oh, and when you speak of us, speak well. Loren DeJonge Schulman, "John Bolton thinks he can be tough. Can he also be fair?" Washington Post Matthew Waxman, "The John Bolton I Knew," Lawfare Alex Ward, "Kim Jong Un's secret visit to China, explained by an expert," Vox Evan Osnos, "Why Kim Jong Un went to China," New Yorker Dan De Luce, Robbie Gramer, "Congress Sours on Saudi Arabia Over Yemen," Foreign Policy Dana Stuster, "What's on Mohammed bin Salman's Agenda?" Lawfare Ryan Hass, "What we know--and don't--about the meeting between Kim Jon-un and Xi Jinping," Brookings "Doubt cast on Saudi claims of Houthi missile interception," Al Jazeera Jeffrey Lewis, "Patriot Missiles Are Made in America and Fail Everywhere," Foreign Policy Phillip Carter, "Chaos Awaits Ronny Jackson at the VA," Slate Leo Shane III, "What we've learned from David Shulkin's post-firing media blitz," Military Times Philip Rucker, "Trump's Ohio speech to promote infrastructure ranges widely, from North Korea to 'Roseanne,'" Washington Post

This week, the ladies of Bombshell welcome Lindsey Ford, from the ‎Asia Society Policy Institute, to chat about this spring's Appointment in Helsinki: the US-North Korea presidential summit. Then, they set an Iran Deal death watch and puzzle through what happens when Red Sparrow meets real life in the nerve-agent poisoning of a Russian double agent in the UK. White House mayhem continues to say "hold my beer" with the firing of Rex Tillerson and what it means for Trump administration Kremlinology. Finally, the pop culture world is looking up, with the return of Occupied, the digital release of Last Jedi, and much more. Karoun Demirjian, "Corker prediction: Trump will pull out of Iran nuclear deal in May," Washington Post Ankit Panda and Vipin Narang, "The Trump-Kim Summit and North Korean Denuclearization: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly," War on the Rocks Ellen Barry, "Britain Says It Has Proof Russia Stockpiled Lethal Nerve Agent," New York Times Andrew Jeong, "North Korea to Meet for Talks With U.S., South Korean Delegations in Helsinki," Wall Street Journal Heidi Blake, Tom Warren, Richard Holmes, Jason Leopold, Jane Bradley, Alex Campbell, "From Russia With Blood," BuzzFeed Derek Chollet and Julie Smith, "The Clock Is Already Ticking On Mike Pompeo," Foreign Policy Ilan Goldenberg, "A Requiem for Rex's Redesign," Foreign Policy Ilan Goldenberg and Elizabeth Rosenberg, "How to Save the Iran Nuclear Deal," Foreign Affairs Alex Ward, "Trump finally decided to get tough on Russia. But did he go far enough?" Vox Ellen Barry, "Britain Hints at Tougher Blow Against Russia: Stripping Tycoon's Assets," New York Times Asia Society Policy Institute event, "Drones, Bots, and Smart Weapons: Artificial Intelligence and Asian Security"

This week, the ladies of Bombshell welcome Sarah Margon, Washington Director of Human Rights Watch, to explore a side of the Syria conflict we discuss too little on this show: the human dimension. The ladies wade through three different political maelstroms in Italian elections, President Xi's quest for immortality, and President Putin's land of misfit nukes. Hairstyles, process, and wrongheaded beliefs about trade deficits explain the White House, and Radha plugs spoken word cookbooks (written by spies). Economist, "Send in the clowns," Economist Laura McGann, "When does Hope Hicks get to be a 'wunderkind' instead of a 'former model'?" Vox Sarah Margon, "Giving Up the High Ground," Foreign Affairs Marc Freeman, "'M*A*S*H' Finale, 35 Years Later: Untold Stories of One of TV's Most Important Shows," Hollywood Reporter Evan Osnos, "Xi Jinping May Be President For Life. What Will Happen to China?" New Yorker Philip Rucker, Ashley Parker, and Josh Dawsey, "'Pure madness': Dark days inside the White House as Trump shocks and rages," Washington Post William J. Broad and Ainara Tiefenthaler, "Putin Flaunted Five Powerful Weapons. Are They a Threat?" New York Times

This week, the Bombshell ladies welcome Lauren Fish of the Center for a New American Security to talk all things FY19 defense budget, including why this big funding increase may not be all that it seems. While finding future employment for Navy SEALs on the skeleton track, we talk North Korea's charm offensive, how we and maybe everyone else have totally lost the plot in Syria, and why the Munich Security Conference was the party everyone wanted to bail on. We offer everything you wanted to know about security clearances and deployability (and then everything you didn't know you wanted to know). And oh yeah, Erin's seen Red Sparrow. Center for New American Security, "The Bottom Line," CNAS David Wharton, "'Peace Village,' a fake city just outside the DMZ, serves as metaphor for North Korean athletes at the Olympics," LA Times Motoko Rich and Choe Sang-Hun, "Kim Jong-un's Sister Turns On the Charm, Taking Pence's Spotlight," New York Times Scott Neuman, "'Dozens' Of Russian Mercenaries Reportedly Killed In U.S. Airstrikes In Syria," NPR Isabel Kershner, Anne Barnard, and Eric Schmitt, "Israel Strikes Iran in Syria and Loses a Jet," New York Times J. Dana Stuster, "Israel Strikes Iranian Targets in Syria after Drone Incursion," Lawfare Aaron Mehta, "Mattis: Unclear if Russia directed attack against U.S. allies in Syria," Military Times Eliot A. Cohen, "Witnessing the Collapse of the Global Elite," The Atlantic Henry Meyer and Patrick Donahue, "U.S.-Russia TEnsion Flares Over Nuclear Arms Control Now at Risk," Bloomberg William J. Antholis, "Rob Porter Is a National Security Scandal, Too," Politico Tara Copp, "It's official: DoD releases new 'deploy or get out' policy," Military Times Dahlia Lithwick, "Rob Porter's History of Domestic Abuse Wasn't a Secret. It's Just That No One Cared." Slate