Security Dilemma The John Quincy Adams Society

This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and Michael D. Culp interview Brandan P. Buck, a historian of right-wing opposition to U.S. foreign policy and the national security state through the Cold War.



We talk about the origins of the "Old Right" through the first World War, the perspective they offered in the rise of American internationalism in the second World War, their decline around the Vietnam War and the state of right-wing opposition to U.S. imperialism through the Global War on Terror.



Brandan P. Buck is a Ph.D. candidate at George Mason University. He’s previous served with the U.S. Army and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency.

This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay interviewed Dr. Osamah Khalil, the author of the new book A World Of Enemies: America's Wars at Home and Abroad from Kennedy to Biden. This book covers the history of how endless wars have affected American domestic policy, from Vietnam and COINTELPRO to the Global War on Terror.

Dr. Khalil is a history professor at Syracuse University and the author of America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State, which was named the Best Book of 2017 by Foreign Affairs magazine. This is his second book and it came out recently on April 16th.

This episode is also announcing a new JQAS reading group - if you're eligible and sign up in time, we'll send you a copy of A World Of Enemies. If you're in DC, join us for a group conversation over dinner. If not, hop on a zoom call to discuss the book.

Sign up for the JQAS reading group.

Purchase A World Of Enemies.

Purchase America's Dream Palace.

This week on Security Dilemma, John Allen Gay and Patrick Carver Fox talk with John Byrnes and Tyler Koteskey of Concerned Veterans for America. This episode covers how veteran communities have been affected by the Global War on Terror, the use and misuse of reservists and national guardsmen, naval procurement and more.

John Byrnes is strategic director for Concerned Veterans for America. He joined the marine corps in 1991 out of high school and served four years, deployed to Somalia in 1993. He joined the New York National Guard, serving at ground zero after the September 11th terrorist attacks and was deployed to both Iraq and Afghanistan before retiring from the National Guard in 2018. 

Tyler Koteskey is policy director for Concerned Veterans for America, a Fall 2020 Marcellus Policy Fellow with JQAS and now writes about key national security issues including Ukraine Aid, naval policy and more.



Tyler's article on Navy VLS Systems
Tyler's article on Ukraine Aid




(This is the first time we've had two guests and the first time we've recorded in the same room with them, so apologies for any audio inconsistencies.)

This afternoon, John Allen Gay sat down to give his thoughts on recent developments in the Middle East and the threat of Iranian retaliation.


John Allen Gay is the Executive Director of The John Quincy Adams Society, Security Dilemma host and co-author of War With Iran: Political, Military and Economic Consequences, published in 2013.

This week on Security Dilemma, John Allen Gay and Patrick Carver Fox speak with Dr. Gregory Brew about the changing paradigms of energy markets, from "the great de-risking" to the green energy transition, and what all this means for U.S. national security. Dr. Brew is an analyst at the Eurasia Group and a researcher on the formation of the global oil economy and contemporary energy transition.



Dr. Brew's new piece in War on the Rocks.

Apply to the JQAS Summer Conference by May 7th!

This week on Security Dilemma, John Allen Gay and Patrick Carver Fox spoke with Dr. Paul R. Pillar, a 28-year veteran of the Central Intelligence Agency who served as the National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia from 2000 to 2005.

A Vietnam veteran, he rose to serve as the Executive Assistant to CIA Director William Webster, the Deputy Director of the CIA Counterterrorism Center and now is a valuable critic of U.S. foreign policy as a non-resident fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security Studies.

Today, we’re going to talk about Israeli airstrikes on Iranian diplomatic facilities in Damascus, tensions with Hezbollah, the Biden Administration's approach to the offensive in Gaza, the prospect of Israeli elections and more.