American Prestige Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

Danny and Derek welcome back Jonathan Hunt, assistant professor at the U.S. Naval War College and a fellow of the Nuclear Security Program at Yale University, to talk about his book The Nuclear Club, which follows the efforts of a select few world powers to maintain exclusive access to nuclear weapons. This final episode examines President Lyndon Johnson’s approach to nuclear weapons, the 1968 Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) and how Vietnam factored into its scope, the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency (ACDA), tactical nuclear weapons, the Treaty of Tlatelolco, and more.
Note: The views expressed here are those of the author alone and do not necessarily represent the views, policies, or positions of the U.S. Department of Defense or its components, to include the Department of the Navy or the U.S. Naval War College.


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It’s Debate Day here at American Prestige, and Alexandre Lefebvre, professor of politics and philosophy at The University of Sydney, has graciously agreed to join us to discuss the major points of his book Liberalism as a Way of Life. He and Danny (along with Derek’s patented color commentary) have a spirited debate over the true nature of liberalism, h…

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Danny and Derek welcome back Alexander Aviña, associate professor of history at Arizona State University, to discuss the election happening Sunday, June 2, wherein left-wing party MORENA’s Claudia Sheinbaum will face the conservative National Action Party’s Xóchitl Gálvez and center-left Citizen’s Movement’s Jorge Máynez to see who will succeed Andrés M…

Danny and Derek are innocent, with news to boot. This week: in Gaza, Israeli bombs displaced Palestinians in tents (0:29) despite the ICJ ruling calling for a halt in that operation (4:36), global opinion on Palestine continues to shift (7:12), Egyptian-Israeli border clashes (13:59), and more; some developments regarding Iran’s nuclear program (18:19); a summit attended by representatives of China, South Korea, and Japan (22:35); the DPRK/North Korea has a failed satellite launch (25:55); an update on Sudan, namely the besieged city of El Fasher (27:56); the Burkina Faso military junta delays the transition to civilian control (29:54); in Ukraine news, Vladimir Putin hints at a ceasefire recognizing the current territorial status (34:22) while Antony Blinken hints at the US greenlighting Ukraine using American long-range weapons to strike Russia (36:09); in Mexico, a presidential election on Sunday (39:56) while Mexico City is on the verge of losing its water supply (41:59).



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We’re back with the fifth episode of the collaboration between AP and Nonzero Newsletter! Paid subscribers get a discounted membership to Nonzero— just scroll below the paywall near the bottom of the description, where you’ll also find the video for the Overtime segment.
00:07 The Nonzero-American Prestige apocalypse aversion project
1:29 Are Bob, Derek, and Danny surprised the Gaza war is still going on? 
4:31 Biden’s simple political calculus on Gaza 
13:08 Would Trump greenlight the ethnic cleansing of Gaza?
25:12 Israel’s plan (or lack thereof) for post-war Gaza  
31:49 Heading to Overtime

We all know about the United States’ deep commercial ties with China in this day and age, but has this been the case since America’s inception? Danny and Derek are joined by Stuart Rollo, postdoctoral research fellow at the Centre for International Security Studies at the University of Sydney, for a discussion of his book Terminus: Westward Expansion, China, and the End of American Empire. The group examines the United States’ imperial evolution alongside China’s parallel trajectory, considering the (sometimes oblique) role of China in major US conflicts, domestic Chinese milestones’ effect on the US-China dynamic, the watershed change in their trade relations in the 1970s, and how America is trying to manage its current imperial decline.
Note: Stuart was unfortunately ill with Covid when recording this episode, but said that the show must go on!


This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe