American Prestige Daniel Bessner & Derek Davison

Derek sits down with Laurence Broers, associate fellow at the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House and author of Armenia and Azerbaijan: Anatomy of a Rivalry, to discuss this week’s events in Nagorno-Karabkah, a predominantly Armenian enclave within Azerbaijan. They get into the complex political history of the territory, the resulting conflicts between Armenia and Azerbaijan including the 2020 war, what Azerbaijan’s recent actions seek to achieve, the roles of Russia and Turkey, the human rights situation in the enclave, and more.
Grab a copy of Laurence’s book: https://shorturl.at/bvFS9
Recorded Thursday, September 21, 2023


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Timothy Gill, assistant professor in the department of sociology at the University of Tennessee Knoxville, joins Danny and Derek for a discussion of how the US has attempted to undermine foreign governments, particularly Venezuela, by way of democracy promotion. They discuss the role of government groups like the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and parastatal actors like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), the history of US-Venezuelan relations and how they deteriorated, the two-party consensus in the US around democracy promotion interventions, how this tactic has also been used by the US in other regions, and more.
Be sure to grab a copy of Tim’s book Encountering US Empire in Socialist Venezuela: The Legacy of Race, Neo-Colonialism, and Democracy Promotion: https://shorturl.at/aiEIN


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Our journey through Philippine history continues as Danny and Derek again speak with Lisandro Claudio, associate professor at UC Berkeley. It’s now the time of Ferdinand Marcos, with the discussion exploring his origins, role in a broader regional context, declaration of martial law, interaction with student activists, figures like economist Gerardo Sic…

Danny’s on the road, but finds the time to slow down and hear Derek out! This week: humanity has breached 6 out of the 9 planetary boundaries for the climate (0:30); a Houthi delegation from Yemen visits Saudi Arabia (1:46); the Iran prisoner swap moves forward as the undead JCPOA (nuclear deal) persists (2:58); the Biden administration’s purported priority on human rights again brought into question given some recent diplomatic partners (5:52); the DPRK’s Kim meets Putin in Russia (10:13); catastrophic natural disasters in Libya and Morocco (13:00); a renewed uprising in the north of Mali (16:40); the US sends long-range artillery to Ukraine (19:10); the G20 summit in India (23:43); a New Cold War update featuring a proposed US-backed India-Europe shipping network (25:57), Biden visiting Vietnam (27:58), and Maduro in China (29:36); and the anniversary of 9/11 (30:48).
Disaster Relief:
* Morocco: https://shorturl.at/ipuK5
* Libya: https://shorturl.at/klnsF


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Danny and Derek welcome back Spencer Ackerman, publisher of Forever Wars, to discuss his new piece in The Nation, “US Foreign Policy Has an Extinction Agenda”. The group gets into the article’s bleak analysis of where US foreign policy is headed in the era of climate collapse, which includes American declarations of world cooperation despite pursuing a cold war with China and arming Ukraine, fear-mongering around inevitable upticks in migration to the global north, whether the international left has a chance of affecting policy around climate change, and more.
Be sure to also check out Spencer’s work for DC Comics in Waller vs. Wildstorm!


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

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek are back with Lisandro Claudio, associate professor at UC Berkeley, going through the history of the Philippines. This episode picks up at World War 2, exploring life under the Japanese occupation of the archipelago, post-war independence, the Partido Komunista ng Pilipinas (PKP), the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization (SEATO), the Bandu…