The Un-Diplomatic Podcast Van Jackson
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Global power politics, for the people. Hosted by Van Jackson, Julia Gledhill, and Matt Duss. A podcast of the Center for International Policy.
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Think Tank Life, Chiquita Banana Death Squads, The New Yorker Treatment, Defund ICBMs | Ep. 185
Navigating the politics of Washington think tanks. Matt's interview with The New Yorker's Isaac Chotiner. Robert O'Brien wants the entire Marine Corps to relocate to Asia. Arundhati Roy is a target of Modi's Hindu-fascist turn. The case for defunding ICBMs. And Chiquita Banana death squads.
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The Logic of Peacemaking: A Live Event on Nukes and Statecraft | Ep. 184
“One man’s deterrence is another man’s escalation.” Van spoke at an event rolling out a recent report, What Should Be Done? Practical Policies to Prevent Nuclear Escalation. At the event and in the report, Van laid out a logic of peacemaking, relating the strategic, the political, and the nuclear all together. Listen further if you want to know why peace requires movement from Warming Actions-->Unilateral Restraint-->Reciprocal Transformations. Or if you want to know what the politics of Gaza has to do with nukes. Or why the North Korea strategic situation is so messed up.
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Fake 'peace through strength,' Mexico's election, A.I. hasn't changed War, D-Day's Legacy | Ep. 183
Van, Julia, and Matt discuss how to think about Biden's Gaza ceasefire deal. Why "peace through strength" is a chauvinist meme. A.I. is a violent grift that hasn't changed war. Mexico's election of Claudia Sheinbaum highlights a potential contradiction between industrial policy and geopolitics. Thinking about the meaning of D-Day in light of militarism today.
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Working-Class Foreign Policy and the Pivot to Asia | EP. 182
Van made an appearance on the Squaring the Circle podcast, a military-facing show that got into his origins in the national security state. The discussion talks about the importance of a working-class perspective in foreign policy, what was really wrong with Obama’s pivot to Asia, why Van is critical of “great-power competition,” and a number of other issues.
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Best of: Daniel Immerwahr on Star Wars as Low-Key Anti-Imperialism | Ep. 181
This re-released conversation with Daniel Immerwahr is one of our all-time top ten episodes, initially released on December 30, 2022. In Part II of Van's sit-down w/ Professor Daniel Immerwahr (author of How to Hide an Empire), they talk about Daniel's recent chapter about the politics and ideology of George Lucas's Star Wars. Was the Galactic Republic really an empire the entire time? What made Star Wars a Vietnam movie? What's the deal with the Ewok? And what's wrong with Lucas's version of anti-imperialism?
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Best of: Daniel Immerwahr on Why Geopolitics is a Racket | Ep. 180
This re-released conversation with Daniel Immerwahr is one of our all-time top ten episodes, initially released on December 28, 2022. Why do geopoliticians blow off climate change and environmental degradation? Is geography really an insurmountable force? What do "geopolitical risk consultants" really do? And what should we make of the fact that geopolitics has its origins in imperialism? What did Nazis, in particular, see appealing in geopolitics? Van sits down w/ Professor Daniel Immerwahr (author of How to Hide an Empire) to discuss a new essay in The Guardian long reads section. They also talk about Daniel's recent chapter about the politics and ideology of George Lucas's Star Wars.