Dr. Matthew Kroenig , Vice President and Senior Director at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a member of the Vandenberg Coalition advisory board, joins Flash Focus to discuss the recent summit between Russia’s President Putin and China’s President Xi in which the two autocrats signed a joint statement on a “new era” of partnership. Matt outlines the history and significance of the Sino-Russian alliance, the modern defense coordination between the two nations,...
May 23, 2024•15 min•Ep. 16
Bonnie Glick , Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Senior Adviser with the Project on Prosperity and Development at CSIS, and Advisory Board member of the Vandenberg Coalition, joins Flash Focus to discuss the Middle East’s most recent developments—the crash of a helicopter carrying Iran’s President and Foreign Minister on board and the International Criminal Court’s issuance of arrest warrants for Israeli leaders. These events have thrown an already unstable region into ...
May 21, 2024•22 min•Ep. 15
Secretary Robert Wilkie joins Flash Focus to discuss the Biden Administration's unprecedented move to threaten an arms embargo of Israel, a vital U.S. partner in the Middle East currently embroiled in war. In order to defeat Hamas in Gaza, it is imperative that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) eliminate Hamas's final brigade in Rafah. Efforts by the United States to delay or obstruct such an operation, including the Biden Administration’s most recent pause on sending critical armaments, will onl...
May 10, 2024•28 min•Ep. 14
On this episode, we are joined by Carine Hajjar —an opinion and editorial writer at The Boston Globe —to discuss her recent coverage of American college campuses embroiled in anti-Israeli protests and encampments. A recent graduate of Harvard, Carine returned to her alma mater, along with the campuses of NYU, Columbia, and MIT, to gain an understanding of the chaos as it unfolds. She joins us to discuss the wave of anti-Israeli and anti-American sentiment and assess the degradation of higher edu...
May 02, 2024•17 min•Ep. 13
Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) joins TVC Executive Director Carrie Filipetti to discuss his role on the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense, and his role as Chairman of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs at a time of global uncertainty in the strength of American leadership aboard. This special episode is part of the Vandenberg Coalition's Future of Conservative Foreign Policy series, where we discuss the challenges facing the United States ...
Apr 19, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Zack Cooper joins Flash Focus to discuss Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's state visit to Washington this week. What are the top-takeaways and how should policymakers think about our relationship with the country that is arguably our most important ally? Japan is central to America's alliance network in the Indo-Pacific and the Administration sees a willing security partner in Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida. During the Prime Minister’s state visit in Washington this week, the United...
Apr 12, 2024•19 min•Ep. 12
Vandenberg is joined by authors Matthew Kroenig & Dan Negrea to discuss their new book, We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War . Many argue that today's Republican Party is divided, but this book argues that the outline of a GOP foreign policy consensus is emerging just beneath the surface. We call this emerging Republican foreign policy doctrine the Trump-Reagan fusion. Trump and Reagan were the most influential Republican presidents of the past several decades, a...
Mar 28, 2024•55 min
Juan Cruz and Ana Quintana join Flash Focus guest host Carrie Filipetti to dissect the unfolding crisis in the Caribbean island nation. For months, unrest has been growing and violence has escalated in the streets. Meanwhile, Haiti's prime minister is trapped in Puerto Rico, Kenya has promised to send a security force to the island, and the United States has promised financial support. Juan Cruz is a senior advisor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and has previously served i...
Mar 18, 2024•20 min•Ep. 11
Richard Fontaine joins Flash Focus to discuss the war in Ukraine on the eve of the second anniversary of Russia's invasion (Feb. 24th). Since 2022, Ukraine has held the line against Russia and maintained its independence, but not without great cost. Congress is now debating whether or not to approve another aid package to the embattled country. Richard is the CEO of the Center for a New American Security and has previously served in government at the U.S. Department of State, the National Securi...
Feb 23, 2024•23 min•Ep. 10
As Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine approaches its second anniversary, the U.S. Congress is debating whether to continue providing military aid to Kyiv. Lost in the noise, however, is what is actually happening on the ground. Flash Focus welcomes Heather Nauert , former spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, to discuss her recent visit to the war-torn country and the conditions for people on the ground that Americans don't always see on the nightly news. While there have been s...
Feb 14, 2024•14 min•Ep. 9
On Saturday (1/13), voters in Taiwan elected incumbent vice president Lai Ching-te to serve as president, the first time an incumbent party has won a third successive presidential election. What was the PRC's reaction and what does Lai's election mean for cross-strait relations and the U.S.-Taiwan relationship? Flash Focus welcomes Russell Hsiao , executive director of the Global Taiwan Institute, and Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Riley Walters to discuss Taiwanese democracy in action and the d...
Jan 19, 2024•20 min•Ep. 8
For weeks, Iran-backed Houthi terrorists have attacked civilian shipping as well as U.S. & allied warships in an attempt to blockade the southern approach to the Suez Canal through the Red Sea. Last night (Jan. 11) after weeks of defensive convoy operations by a multinational naval coalition, the U.S. and U.K. launched missile and airstrikes to take out Houthi missile and drone launching sites ashore. Captain John Konrad joins us to discuss the ramifications for global shipping of the Houthi...
Jan 12, 2024•29 min•Ep. 7
Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis—across the Middle East, chaos and violence can be traced back to the Islamic Republic of Iran through its terrorist proxy groups. Vandenberg Coalition founder & chairman Elliott Abrams joins us to discuss the state of the Israel-Hamas War and how it relates to the broader Middle East. 00:01:00 Update on the situation in Israel & Gaza 00:02:35 The ground war and what to expect going forward 00:03:40 Israel determined to eliminate Hamas and wary of the threat from...
Dec 21, 2023•14 min•Ep. 6
The Vandenberg Coalition's Executive Director, Carrie Filipetti, sat down with Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-IA) to discuss her role on the House Select Committee on the CCP, securing the national defense at a time of fiscal uncertainty, the importance of American leadership, and more. This special episode is part of the Vandenberg Coalition's Future of Conservative Foreign Policy series, where we discuss the challenges facing the United States and how conservative policymakers should approach ...
Dec 15, 2023•49 min
We are joined by Vandenberg's Ana Quintana & former U.S. Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Amb. J. Peter Pham , to discuss the collapse of governance in Haiti and why Kenya has taken the lead of the UN-sanctioned multinational security force being sent to the island country. 00:01:25 Situation in Haiti and why the UN approved an outside intervention 00:05:08 Why is Kenya the lead country of the multinational security force? Kenya's history with peacekeeping missions 00:10:45...
Dec 07, 2023•23 min•Ep. 5
We sit down with the Hudson Institute's Luke Coffey to discuss the current state of the war in Ukraine, the fight brewing in Congress over additional U.S. military aid, and the course of the war as it enters its second year. Mentioned in the Episode: The Fourteen Facts About U.S. Aid to Ukraine The Decisive Moment for Ukraine: A Conversation with Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Vandenberg Coalition Website Follow us on X/Twitter...
Nov 17, 2023•24 min•Ep. 4
Vandenberg's own Carrie Filipetti joins Flash Focus to unpack this week's opposition presidential primary in Venezuela, how the Maduro regime maintains its grip on power, and how political change in Venezuela would affect U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere.
Oct 25, 2023•17 min•Ep. 3
We sit down with Richard Goldberg —a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies & Vandenberg Coalition Advisory Board member—to discuss President Biden's trip to Israel yesterday, the IDF's ongoing campaign against Hamas, and the still-unfolding ramifications of Hamas' brutal terrorist attack on Israel almost two weeks ago. This episode was recorded on Thursday, October 19th.
Oct 19, 2023•20 min•Ep. 2
We sit down with Joe Truzman from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies to discuss the ongoing Hamas attack on Israel, Israel's likely responses, and implications for the United States. Early on the morning of Saturday, October 7th, Hamas launched a massive attack from Gaza into Israel on the 50th anniversary of the Yom Kippur War. Fighting is ongoing, but this attack is unprecedented in both scale and in the scope of the strategic surprise Hamas achieved over Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin...
Oct 07, 2023•15 min•Ep. 1
