The World Unpacked

PROJECT MAVEN

The Iran War marks the second time in two months that Donald Trump decapitated a country without real legal justification.  But is this any different from the many times that past U.S. presidents—and other great powers—have violated international law?

Karim Sadjadpour, a foreign policy analyst and Iran expert, maps Tehran’s power vacuum after Khamenei’s death and names likely interim leaders. He probes regime command-and-control strains, elite rivalries, succession prospects, the risks of arming Kurdish forces, and how US and Israeli actions might shape Iran’s future. Short, urgent scenes of political survival and fracturing loyalties unfold.

Just weeks after ousting Venezuela’s leader, Donald Trump is now courting crises on two other continents.  Trump’s quest to own Greenland continues to roil Europe, while the Middle East braces for war as a U.S. armada barrels toward Iran.

In this episode of The World Unpacked, Sarah tells host Jon Bateman why systemic corruption looks nothing like how we picture it, how anti-corruption advocates are co-opted as enablers, and what to say if someone asks you for a bribe. There’s a gnawing feeling in America and the West that a self-serving elite has corrupted society’s rules in its favor. The Epstein files have finally pulled back the curtain on hidden ways that powerful people network together to advance their own interests and evade accountability.

The same populist forces that brought Donald Trump to office could also enable a politician from the progressive left to succeed him. How would a president in the vein of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or Zohran Mamdani change U.S. foreign policy and the world? 

Oren Kass, conservative policy thinker and founder of American Compass, reflects on how trade and industrial strategy reshaped his views. He discusses trade with China, tariffs as leverage to rebuild domestic supply, why consumption metrics hide deeper decline, and how AI and industrial policy can steer long-term economic resilience.

The Paveway bomb, invented by Texas Instruments in the 1970s, was the first truly precise munition.  It revolutionized America’s air campaign in Vietnam and allowed whole new kinds of “limited” U.S. wars in Libya, Iraq, Serbia, and beyond.But Paveway’s true legacy was psychological: it seduced generations of U.S. leaders into believing that tactical precision creates strategic victories with few costs.Jeff Stern, an intrepid chronicler of modern conflict, tells this story in his new book The Warhead: The Quest to Build the Perfect Weapon in the Age of Modern Warfare.  He joins Jon Bateman on The World Unpacked to explore the past, present, and future of precision warfare. 

You’ve probably heard of “lab-grown meat,” the sci-fi-sounding idea of 100% real meat made without animals. Yet few people understand how close this vision is to becoming reality—and how much it could change the world.  A healthier, more efficient meat source could soon rewire global supply chains and help catalyze a new bioeconomy.Find the episode transcript and streaming audio, and get the show direct to your inbox, here: https://carnegieendowment.org/podcasts/the-world-unpacked/the-global-race-to-reinvent-meat?Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman  

Drones are no longer the future of war. They’re now a defining weapon in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, and beyond—altering the course of conflicts and reshuffling the balance of military power. The pace of change has caught many by surprise, with state and non-state groups racing to mass-produce, diversify, and protect their rapidly evolving drone arsenals.Find the episode transcript and streaming audio, and get the show direct to your inbox, here: https://carnegieendowment.org/podcasts/the-world-unpacked/every-war-is-now-a-drone-war?Follow Jon on X: https://x.com/JonKBateman