The award-winning, New York Times best-selling author, Nick Turse, has done some deep investigations at the intersection of Southeast Asia; the intellectual bankruptcy of US geopoliticking; and Henry Kissinger’s direct role in the slaughter of 150,000 civilians in Cambodia. A wild story and some great journalism. Van Jackson sat down with Nick to talk about it all. They also swap anecdotes about their personal run-ins with Kissinger. A must-listen. Nick’s story in The Intercept : https://theinte...
Jun 02, 2023•37 min•Ep. 158
What makes neoconservatives different from Cold War liberals? Why did Francis Fukuyama's "The End of History and the Last Man" lament the end of the Cold War? What's classical liberalism? And how do liberals like Fukuyama size up our current historical moment? Dr. Daniel Bessner joins the pod for all that and more. Bessner on Fukuyama: https://www.thenation.com/article/society/francis-fukuyama-liberalism-discontents/ Subscribe to our newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com Subscribe to the Ame...
May 27, 2023•37 min•Ep. 157
How does the narrative of a Blue Pacific complicate strategic narratives about the "Indo-Pacific?" How do the nations of the Pacific Islands region think about security? What role does the Pacific Islands Forum play in regional security? Why do most Pacific states try so hard to avoid "choosing" between the United States and China? And what would Pacific governments do if Guam determined it wanted to be its own independent nation? Van Jackson sits down with Sandra Tarte (University of the South ...
May 19, 2023•37 min•Ep. 156
From a freelance journalist in Southeast Asia to becoming a “foreign policy person,” and how to publish your first book. Can authoritarian countries practice meritocracy? How can we make sense of good governance and public trust in authoritarian governments like Vietnam when support for western democracies seems to be at an all-time low? How China’s rise has challenged democracy’s global appeal, and what does it mean if the United States reverts to MAGA autocracy? Hunter Marston speaks to Charle...
May 15, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 155
Why is it that we're spending more money and resources than ever on this thing we call “national security,” and yet not only does the world feel perpetually insecure; it feels like insecurity is getting worse for most of us? That's what the new organization Security in Context sets out to address. Van Jackson is part of bridging the gap between policy and critical scholars, and will be co-directing Security in Context's project on Multipolarity, Great-Power Competition, and the Global South. Thi...
May 04, 2023•18 min•Ep. 154
What is multipolarity? Is the unipolar moment totally over? What is a great power?How do nukes fit into these questions? And how do the left, the right, and the restrainers metabolise these questions? Dr. Benjamin Zala and Dr. Van Jackson talk about all this and more in Part II of their conversation. Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com Third Nuclear Age article by Andrew Futter and Ben Zala: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/european-journal-of-internat...
Apr 29, 2023•59 min•Ep. 153
What is the nuclear revolution and why can't we agree on it? What is the Third Nuclear Age, why is it problematic as a concept, and what special dangers or opportunities might it hold? How important is multipolarity, and what counts as a pole? What counts as "emerging technologies" and how do they affect the risks of nuclear war? Is arms control possible in advanced conventional (non-nuclear) weaponry? And why is China expanding its nuclear arsenal? Dr. Benjamin Zala and Dr. Van Jackson talk abo...
Apr 21, 2023•58 min•Ep. 152
The legendary New Leftist and historian Michael Kazin joins the pod to talk about his recent essay in Dissent, "Reject the Left-Right Alliance in Ukraine." We also talk he ended up on the New Left, socialism in the Democratic Party, why he supported Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, the politics of being anti-war, the role of World War I in leftist historical memory, and his recent book What It Took To Win: A History of the Democratic Party. Dissent Essay: https://www.dissentmagazine.org/onli...
Apr 07, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 151
What Fareed Zakaria doesn't get about the dollar supremacy debate. Why American exceptionalists can't see Asian arms-racing clearly. Why AUKUS is controversial, in Australia, New Zealand, and across Asia. A Rorschach test on the corrosive US-Saudi Arabia relationship. And what the battle against LGBTQ persecution in Uganda says about all of us. Fareed Zakaria's dollar supremacy debate segment: https://twitter.com/FareedZakaria/status/1640058728752840707 Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-d...
Apr 01, 2023•58 min•Ep. 150
How do African Americans view America's role in the world? What does it mean when Black Americans say the US should "keep out" of foreign interventions? What explains Black Republican hawkishness? What is the Suge Knight theory of national inclusion? Does Kanye West have anything to do with Democrats losing Black voters, or it Democratic Party hawkishness? Van sits down to discuss all this and more with Dr. Christopher Shell. Report on How Black Americans Feel About the Possible Use of Military ...
Mar 19, 2023•52 min•Ep. 149
For the pod's first movie night, Van, Colette Shade, and Matt Duss discuss the 1998 cult political comedy, Bulworth. Did Bulworth presage Bernie Sanders? Where are the Bulworth Democrats today? How did the War on Terror set back the progressive movement 20 years? Why do reactionaries sometimes find hip-hop attractive? What does it say that politicians aren't safe among the people they represent? Could a movie like this be made today? Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com Watch ...
Mar 11, 2023•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 148
We're trying to do more to spotlight interesting journal article-based academic research in a non-boring way. So today Van sits down with Dr. Samantha Leigh Payne to talk about her new history on fears of an Atlantic revolution in the Reconstruction Era. How did the US civil war alter global power politics? What role did the US civil war play in the abolition of slavery elsewhere? What role did slaves themselves play in the revolutionary potential of that post-civil war moment? And what role is ...
Mar 03, 2023•34 min•Ep. 147
Kate and Hunter are back with Van. What's up with the "Rage Against the War Machine" protests? Is it really antiwar? Working class versus middle class--what's the diff? Cambodia versus economic statecraft. Biden's parochial progressivism. Congressional competency on foreign policy. And the nonsensical, unaccountable, dictator-loving Biden doctrine for the Middle East. Also this episode: a quick primer on racial capitalism! Ryan Morgan Tweet: https://twitter.com/ryanheadedsouth/status/16245367321...
Feb 24, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 146
Van does battle with voices ranging from John Mearsheimer and Robert Kagan to Joseph Nye and Hillary Clinton in this book launch at the Institute for Peace and Diplomacy for his book, Pacific Power Paradox: American Statecraft and the Fate of the Asian Peace. Must listen! Original Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoVm4MrK4aU&t=412s Buy Pacific Power Paradox: https://www.amazon.com/Pacific-Power-Paradox-American-Statecraft/dp/0300257287/ref=sr_1_1?crid=KE1Q04ZJVROB&keywords=pacific+...
Feb 19, 2023•55 min•Ep. 145
Part II of Van's interview with Dr. Matthew Specter, discussing his new book, The Atlantic Realists. Was Hans Morgenthau a Leftist? Is great-power competition just offensive realism? Is realism a resource for progressives or cosmopolitans? Tun in to find out! Buy the Book: https://www.sup.org/books/title/?id=28906 Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/undiplomatic
Feb 11, 2023•35 min•Ep. 144
Van's interview with Dr. Matthew Specter discusses his new book, The Atlantic Realists. They get into the diverse understandings of the realist tradition, trace its roots to imperial competition in the 19th century, the bizzare intellectual inspirations the Nazis found in US history, whether realism is useful for progressives and the left, and some surprising history about a cast of characters ranging from Hans Morgenthau to Alfred Thayer Mahan to Carl Schmitt. Buy the Book: https://www.sup.org/...
Feb 05, 2023•46 min•Ep. 143
What is the real nature of the "China problem?" How did Sino-US detente and collaboration become great-power competition and rivalry? What did Obama's pivot to Asia have to do with all of it? And why did Van end up a critic of the national security state? In this special cross-over episode with the Realignment Podcast, Van goes into all that and more. Realignment Podcast Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCY1cQJ1-uk&t=180s Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com Buy Me a...
Jan 28, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 142
What is empathy, and why is it important in making strategy? Why is "strategic empathy" so problematic? Can empathy be institutionalized? How did neoliberals steer empathy wrong? Dr. Claire Yorke sits down with Van to chat about all that and more. Claire Yorke on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClaireYorke Claire's review essay on empathy and strategy: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/... Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/undiplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com...
Jan 23, 2023•42 min•Ep. 141
Does Southeast Asia matter? How does SE Asia view and respond to great power competition, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and tensions in the Taiwan Strait? And how can the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) work to solve the crisis in Myanmar in 2023 under Indonesia’s chairmanship? With regular co-host Hunter Marston to discuss these issues are special guests Elina Noor (Asia Society Policy Institute, Washington, DC), Evan Laksmana (National University of Singapore Lee Kuan Yew School of P...
Jan 17, 2023•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 140
How's Biden doing on foreign policy? Where is the "Biden doctrine" going wrong? Matt Duss and Stephen Wertheim--leading voices in progressive foreign policy--come on the pod to hit all the issues with Van and Kate--Ukraine-Russia, a disastrous defense strategy, Iran, Saudi-Yemen war, China, Afghanistan and counter-terrorism, and more. Matt and Stephen's essay in The New Republic: https://newrepublic.com/article/169598/better-biden-doctrine Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com Buy Me a Coffe...
Jan 11, 2023•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 139
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? Are We Really Prisoners of Geography?: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/nov/10/are-we-really-prisoners-of-geogra...
Dec 29, 2022•29 min•Ep. 138
Why do geopoliticians blow off climate change and environmental degradation? Is geography really an insurmountable force? What do "geopolitical risk consultants" really do? And what should we make of the fact that geopolitics has its origins in imperialism? What did Nazis, in particular, see appealing in geopolitics? Van sits down w/ Professor Daniel Immerwahr (author of How to Hide an Empire) to discuss a new essay in The Guardian long reads section. They also talk about Daniel's recent chapter...
Dec 27, 2022•41 min•Ep. 137
What does war and violence abroad do to politics at home? Why were early Cold War intellectuals obsessed with who "lost China?" And what did the realists of the 1940s and 1950s believe about not just the limits of American power but how US hegemony might be the road to fascism in America? John Delury sits down with Van to discuss all that and more as part of his new book, Agents of Subversion: The Fate of John T. Downey and the CIA's Covert War in China. Buy the book: https://www.cornellpress.co...
Dec 22, 2022•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 136
In this interview episode, Van sits down with Professor Jeanne Morefield to discuss critiques of liberalism and empire. Why does liberalism seem to always be obsessed with crisis and triumphalism, often at once? What is the shared DNA of Edwardian imperialism, neoconservatism, and liberal internationalism? Why has G. John Ikenberry's theoretical project of liberal hegemony recently pivoted from Woodrow Wilson to Franklin Roosevelt as the standard bearer? And isn't liberal hegemony just a ruling ...
Dec 19, 2022•36 min•Ep. 135
In this interview episode, Van sits down with Professor Jeanne Morefield to discuss critiques of liberalism and empire. Why does liberalism seem to always be obsessed with crisis and triumphalism, often at once? What is the shared DNA of Edwardian imperialism, neoconservatism, and liberal internationalism? Why has G. John Ikenberry's theoretical project of liberal hegemony recently pivoted from Woodrow Wilson to Franklin Roosevelt as the standard bearer? And isn't liberal hegemony just a ruling ...
Dec 13, 2022•40 min•Ep. 134
Van, Kate, and Hunter unpack the mass uprisings in China, situating them in the context of ongoing worker struggles. They probe weaponized anti-semitism. They discuss the origins of Sino-US rivalry and the analytical perils of American exceptionalism. And. bring forth tons of data showing the difference between left and right radicalism. Dove and Crane Collective Statement: https://www.doveandcrane.com/statements/dcc-statement-on-foxconn-and-the-protests-against-covid-zero-in-mainland-china Caro...
Dec 07, 2022•1 hr 6 min•Ep. 133
In this episode, Van chats with David Parsons, host of The Nostalgia Trap. They talk about his upbringing in Ventura, California during the 1990s, why he's obsessed with '90s pop culture and film, the nightmarish state of being a perpetual precarious academic historian, and what got him into the podcast game. They also discuss his fascinating book, Dangerous Grounds: Antiwar Coffeehouses and Military Dissent in the Vietnam Era. Nostalgia Trap: https://nostalgiatrap.com Nostalgia Trap Patreon: ht...
Dec 01, 2022•1 hr 37 min•Ep. 132
What is neoliberalism and why did developing democracies embrace labor repression? Why is military Keynesianism both dangerous and unsustainable? What are the causes of inflation right now, and how does monetary policy undermine the Biden presidency? And what happened to the "East Asian model" of economic development? In this political economy episode, Van Jackson sits down with Adam Dean and Tim Barker to talk about all that and more.
Nov 16, 2022•1 hr 22 min•Ep. 131
Where have all the peace intellectuals gone? How do you make enemies into friends? What's it like to be mixed-race in national security? Should we do away with economic sanctions entirely? Is it easier to shape the world than to shape China? What's Russia's freaking problem? Seva Gunitsky Tweet: https://twitter.com/SevaUT/status/1462766445121650696 Ben Scott Tweet: https://twitter.com/Ben_G_Scott/status/1460444100008628224 Mike McFaul Tweet: https://twitter.com/McFaul/status/1462624691680514060?...
Nov 10, 2022•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 130
In this special one-off episode of the pod, Van Jackson joins a panel hosted at Australian National University's Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs, alongside Greg Raymond, Ian Hall, and Yun Jiang. The topic: "Whataboutism" and the China debate. The great American political scientist Seymour Lipset once said, “they that know only one country, know no countries”. This panel addresses the issue of comparisons in our political discourse, and in particular “whataboutism” - the response China ...
Nov 01, 2022•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 129
