American Prestige

Abby Mullen, assistant professor at the US Naval Academy, joins the program to talk about her book To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800–1805. The group explores the conflict, American geopolitics in its infancy, the Barbary States and piracy committed on their behalf at the time, how US naval expeditions in an era without a global network of bases functioned, the myth of the war in "The Marines' Hymn", and more.

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this time to talk about foreign policy and the election. They discuss the professionalization of the Democrats, the Harris campaign's decision to ally themselves with the likes of the Cheney family, national security FP, Trump as the "peace candidate", how defense spending might exceed $1 trillion going forward, the fate of Ukraine, Israel/Palestine/Lebanon, and more. Subscribe now for the full episode and more content! Grab a copy of Stephen's book Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy.

It's another edition of the bi-monthly collaboration between AP and Nonzero Newsletter continues! For the full version of this episode, subscribe now at Supporting Cast, where you'll also get a discounted subscription for Nonzero Newsletter! Part one video 0:00 Another high-synergy, brilliant collaboration 1:15 Is Elon our first true oligarch?  9:57 Trump assembles his Justice League of hawks 16:29 Biden’s awful foreign policy team 21:25 Trump’s plan to purge the military  33:06 Will Trump go full-on authoritarian? 40:21 Left-wing capitalists—and a discount offer

Your weekly news roundup from two happy warriors. This week: struggles at the UN COP29 climate change conference (1:48), not the least of which is the incoming climate denier president of the US (5:45); in Israel-Palestine, the US shockingly doesn't follow through on its 30-day humanitarian aid deadline (7:57), Trump appointments signal imminent formal annexation of Palestinian territories (12:24), and Qatar withdraws from ceasefire talks (16:48); in Lebanon, Israel is working on a ceasefire as a "gift" for Trump (18:33); Xi and Biden to meet in China (21:35); the Japanese government survives a confirmation vote (23: 45); a new report on horrifying death toll figures in the Sudan war (25:48); in Russia-Ukraine, Russia pushers to retake Kursk (28:01) while Europe and Ukraine show new flexibility to exchange land for a peace deal (30:25); Germany prepares for a snap election in February in the wake of the government coalition collapsing (32:38); in Haiti, the transitional council fires the PM (34:44) while the US bans flights there (36:15); and Trump announces a number of new appointments for his second term (37:35). Subscribe now at Supporting Cast for more content like our election-related specials: The 2024 US Presidential Election The U.S. Presidential Election, the Latino Vote, and the Deportation Regime w/ Alexander Aviña What Would Secretary of State Marco Rubio Look Like? w/ Steven Cohen

Danny and Derek speak with Steven Cohen, PhD candidate in history, working on drug war political economy in the Americas, about what we might see if, as expected, Marco Rubio is named as secretary of state in the new Trump administration. Subscribe now for the full episode!