The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

Lyle Jeremy Rubin joins the podcast to talk about his new memoir "Pain Is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine's Unbecoming." Lyle and Van discuss the way that hypocrisy radicalizes people, the trouble with imperialism, the psychosexual insecurities mixed into military life, how personal violence affects foreign policy, the Karate Kid, the paradoxically traumatizing lack of combat on the front lines of war, and much more. Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body: https://www.boldtypebooks.com/titles/...Guest Website: https://www.lylejeremyrubin.comPodcast: https://www.undiplomaticpodcast.comBuy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/undiplom...Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.comReadings:Aime Cesaire, Discourses on Colonialism: https://www.amazon.com/Discourse-Colonialism-Aimé-Césaire/dp/1583670254William James, "The Moral Equivalent of War": https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/James/James_1911_11.htmlNikhil Pal Singh, Black is a Country: https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674019515Nikhil Pal Singh, Race and America's Long War: https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520318304/race-and-americas-long-warChristopher Lasch, The True and Only Heaven: https://www.amazon.com/True-Only-Heaven-Progress-Critics/dp/0393307956

Central banks are using inflation to fight a class war. America's Pacific sphere of influence is making it paranoid--what ham-fisted skullduggery in the Marshall Islands reveals. Was George W. Bush more fascist than Trump? Taiwan policy is on militarist auto-pilot--why Chris Murphy is worried. Why red-scare propaganda is bad for democracy.  What about an Un-Diplomatic newsletter (note: this episode was recorded just a few days before Van Jackson launched the Un-Diplomatic newsletter).Subscribe to our new newsletter! https://www.un-diplomatic.comMurtaza Hussain's Tweet: https://twitter.com/MazMHussain/status/1566465216275259392Seva Gunitsky's Tweet: https://twitter.com/SevaUT/status/1555655359683084293Senator Chris Murphy's Tweet: https://twitter.com/chrismurphyct/status/1565107656284684289?s=21&t=bF1yJ8IZr8wNAJRte2lRxwAlexander McCoy's YouGov Poll Tweet: https://twitter.com/AlexanderMcCoy4/status/1569343414432407554Contributors: Hunter Marston, Tejas Menon, Jake Dellow

This episode is from an original release in January 2022. Dr. Van Jackson sits down with John Feffer, co-director of the Foreign Policy in Focus project at the Institute for Policy Studies.  They talk about John's new book, Right Across the World: The Global Networking of the Far-Right and the Left Response.  They also talk about writing novels and plays as a foreign policy analyst, or doing foreign policy analysis as a playwright.  Remembering the way arms control used to be a reactionary arguments against disarmament.  Institute for Policy Studies: https://ips-dc.orgSplinterlands Trilogy of Novels: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/1039-splinterlandsFoamers Novel: https://www.abebooks.co.uk/first-edition/Foamers-Berson-Jon-Scribner-New-York/231272502/bdRight Across the World Book: https://www.amazon.com/Right-Across-World-Networking-Far-Right/dp/0745341896

Why self-determination for Guam is better strategy than persisting as an American colony. Why oligarchic concentrations of wealth in the US and China need ethnonationalism...and why that's dangerous. The Atlantic Council scandal. Are we in a new Taiwan Strait crisis? Clarifying the #NotAMarxist thing. And what Brazilian jiu jitsu can and can't do for international relations. Contributors: Hunter Marston, Celia McDowall, Gaby MagnusonLev Nachman Tweet: https://twitter.com/lnachman32/status/1553480322695811073Daniel Denvir Tweet: https://twitter.com/DanielDenvir/status/1554511916487397377Sayaca Chatani Tweet: https://twitter.com/SayakaChatani/status/1545346494601244673?t=naUanTNn1Lp1UEwZhhARPw&s=19Christian Davies Tweet: https://twitter.com/crsdavies/status/1541596433299546113?s=20&t=QV_Wff9yeisoIF0jvU2ZvQNikhil Pal Singh article: https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2022/06/america-new-civil-war-crisis-industrial-complexGuam Decolonization Report: https://decol.guam.gov/wp-decol-content/uploads/2021/12/Decolonization-Newspaper-Insert-DIGITAL.pdf

In this deliciously radical episode, Dr. Van Jackson sits down with Malcolm Harris, author of Kids These Days: The Making of Millennials, and the forthcoming Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the World.  Malcolm explains how political economy made Millennials, what's wrong with thinking of yourself as human capital, the crisis of student debt, and how he moved from anti-war protests to the Occupy Movement.  Malcolm also makes the case the Millennials will either be the first genuine to push American oligarchy off its ledge, or the first generation of true American fascists. Van and Malcolm also talk leftist strategy and revolution.Readings Mentioned During the Episode:Malcolm Harris, Kids These Days: The Making of MillennialsMalcolm Harris, Palo Alto: A History of California, Capitalism, and the WorldMalcolm Harris, "Bad Education," N+1 magazineHarry Braverman, Labor and Monopoly CapitalPaul Adler, "The Future of Critical Management Studies"Erik Olin-Wright, Envisioning Real UtopiasMelinda Cooper, Family Values: Between Neoliberalism and the New Social ConservativsmBarbara Ehrenreich and John Ehrenreich, "Death of a Yuppie Dream"On Monopoly-Finance Capital: https://monthlyreview.org/2006/12/01/monopoly-finance-capital/

In this special episode, Dr. Van Jackson sits down as part of a guest lecture/seminar at the Catholic University of America with Dr. Andrew Yeo (CUA, Brookings Institution).  They talk foremost about how we got North Korea policy so wrong and how to fix it, but in so doing they also talk about best practices of strategy, risk realism, and how Van's background shapes his thinking about war and national security generally.

If you pit human rights against security, you're doing foreign policy wrong.  How to think about LGBTQIA-plus rights and strategy.  Being realistic about China-Cambodia relations.  Why Biden is still ambiguous about Taiwan.  Dissecting what's wrong with the national security "Blob."  The role of a PMC technocracy in a social democratic order.  The importance of libraries to society. Peter Beinart v. the Blob: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/02/opinion/biden-the-blob-china-us.html?smid=tw-shareBlake Herzinger on Cambodia: https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/06/10/cambodia-navy-china-bombing/ Kelsey Atherton Tweet: https://twitter.com/AthertonKD/status/1531685221682356231JP Bristol Tweet: https://twitter.com/JPierreBrissot/status/1528754834953932803?t=Dl2ib1LBBfQV5_xCU-lVlg&s=19Buffy the Psych Prof Tweet: https://twitter.com/drpsybuffy/status/1533459570747744258?s=21&t=lSlEy8gkkjW9U7yl0y-yKwAdam Mahoney Tweet: https://twitter.com/AdamLMahoney/status/1531851079276560384Contributors: Tejas Menon, Hunter Marston, Ciara Mitchell, Jake Dellow 

What's the difference between good strategy and bad strategy? Why is understanding strategy as a theory of success so powerful? What is a framework for good strategy? And how grand is grand strategy? Dr. Van Jackson sits down with Dr. Jeff Meiser (University of Portland) to discuss. They also talk about Richard Rumelt's classic book, Good Strategy/Bad Strategy.

The deep dive on the Philippines presidential election and what it means that they elected Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. Have Democrats become the party of war? Yes, but maybe not for long. Is the right running a restraint foreign policy?  Hell no.  The prospects of a Putin nuclear war.  Why new hip-hop is not as good as the old stuff.  Military Keynesianism is a sucker's bet.  Feminism and intersectional struggles for progressive--what the Handmaid's Tale is good for (and not).Contributors: Gaby Magnuson, Celia McDowall, Alex Auty, Hunter Marston

The realists versus leftists thing, again. Re-imagining international cooperation. Why peace and anti-militarism should be non-partisan. Oligarchs like Elon Musk will be the end of us all.  The curious case of Kamala Harris's restrainer space policy. Our new YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_42j11ZVmlF5jVbqdVcdogMatt Duss Tweet: https://twitter.com/mattduss/status/1516046414723399680Eric Van Rythoven Tweet: https://twitter.com/EricVanRythoven/status/1517588528250724352Good Politic Guy Tweet: https://twitter.com/GoodPoliticGuy/status/1518318360005599232?t=16MadbdXfjW00QYCzo9RuQ&s=19James Palmer Tweet: https://twitter.com/BeijingPalmer/status/1514682777513377797?t=u55XQ1dALYpdSZaHqEP6xg&s=19Sam Haselby Tweet: https://twitter.com/samhaselby/status/1518906179711385602Tiziana Stella and Campbell Craig on international cooperation: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2022/04/18/is-international-cooperation-possible/Contributors: Tejas Menon, Gaby Magnuson, Hunter Marston, Ciara Mitchell