American Prestige Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

Danny welcomes 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 second part of the discussion picks up in the mid-1950s after Eisenhower’s “Atoms for Peace” speech, non-proliferation movement leaders like Irish foreign minister Frank Aiken, the flexible response policy and other changes to America’s nuclear posture under the Kennedy Administration, the 1963 Partial Test Ban Treaty, proliferation optimists vs pessimists, and more through the late 1960s.
Check out the first episode here.
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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The AP trifecta once again reunites to answer your thoughts, queries, and, in one case, riddles. This edition broaches such topics as which nations would respectively sanction Jake and Derek, how Danny maintains such a prolific output, whether we’re already in a regional war in the Middle East, Kurt Cobain as a proxy for the end of history, and more.
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Danny and Derek welcome to the podcast Khalid Medani—associate professor of political science, director of the Institute of Islamic Studies, and chair of the African Studies Program at McGill University—for a deep dive into the conflict that has engulfed Sudan since last Spring. They delve into its roots going back to the 1989 coup, break down the makeup of the primary combatants (the Sudanese Armed Forces and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces), how these groups are able to continue recruiting and maintain support networks, the conflict’s catastrophic humanitarian crisis and regional effects, foreign mercenaries and whether it has become a proxy war, efforts of local civil leaders to quell the fighting, and what things might look like moving forward.
As Khalid noted, two places to which he recommends you donate are the Sudanese Doctors Union or the Sudan Solidarity Collective.
Some of Khalid’s recent work:
* “The Struggle for Sudan” from Middle East Report’s Spring 2024 issue is a primer on Sudan.
* Middle East Research and Information Project’s Spring 2024 issue has multiple contributors, including Khalid, writing about the conflict.
* His book Black Markets and Militants: Informal Networks in the Middle East and Africa, which is free via Open Access.
* “Opinion: The brutal conflict in Sudan is not a civil war. It’s a war on civilians” from The Globe and Mail.


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In light of the untimely death of engineer/producer/musician Steve Albini, we wanted to share an interview Danny did with him for an upcoming (non-American Prestige) podcast on grunge music. This was recorded in August 2020.


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Derek welcomes back to the pod , associate professor in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati and non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute, to discuss the situations in Niger and Chad now that the two nations have respectively kicked out most US troops. They discuss the State Department’s underwhelming treatment of some African heads of state, how this dynamic differs when working with a military junta, what specifically precipitated the US withdrawals from Niger and Chad, AFRICOM’s security-focused framing, how Russia’s role in the region factors into things, and more.
Be sure to check out Alex’s new Substack Sawahil, the successor to his excellent Sahel Blog.


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Danny and Derek are back with Bryan Pitts, assistant director of the Latin American Institute at UCLA, talking about the history of Brazil. We’re now into the 19th century and Brazilian independence. The group discusses what led to this moment, the changing racial dynamics, liberalism in Brazil vs its European form, the emergence of coffee as its predom…