The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

Van Jackson
  • 4.6 (53)
  • POLITICS
  • UPDATED BIWEEKLY
The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

Global power politics, for the people. Hosted by Van Jackson, Julia Gledhill, and Matt Duss. The views expressed are theirs alone (not those of any institution or employer).

  1. 1 DAY AGO

    Non-Aligned Europe | Primacy-Multipolarity | Nuking the Nuclear Triad | Ukraine's Critical Minerals | Ep. 224

    Explaining Europe's shift to strategic non-alignment. The false god of nuclear deterrence--why the nuclear triad is overrated. Making sense of the Pentagon's fake spending cuts. Privateer forces and American imperialism--the $25 billion Erik Prince proposal. Gen Z and Millennials can't afford a home. Expelling Canada from a Five-Eyes that nobody wants. Why great-power competition with China is still happening.

    1h 2m

  2. FEB 22

    Three Kings (1999) w/ Kevin Fox | Bang-Bang Podcast Crossover | Ep. 223

    Free preview episode cross-over with the Bang-Bang Podcast. A madcap collage of American Berserk—that’s one way to describe David O. Russell’s Three Kings, and it’s exactly how Van, Lyle, and screenwriter Kevin Fox dive into it. This two-part episode (the second installment drops shortly) unpacks the film’s wild genre mash-up: comic book absurdities collide with nods to Star Wars and Apocalypse Now, all while a grim commentary on U.S. militarism and society simmers underneath. The group digs into how the film disorients viewers with slapstick humor and sudden, brutal violence—like Mark Wahlberg’s character, whose torture by an Iraqi soldier (grieving the loss of his son to an American bombing) flips the script on American power. When Wahlberg’s character feebly defends U.S. actions as “maintaining stability in the Middle East,” the soldier shoves a CD-ROM in his mouth—a searing metaphor for the imposition of U.S. hegemony. From cartoonish “United States of Freedom” patriotism to cow guts and milk truck explosions, Three Kings might not be the perfect vehicle for telling Americans—and all the privileged in the Global North—what they need to hear. But at times, it sure comes close.

    48 min

  3. FEB 15

    White Nationalism and China | Ukraine's Imperial Peace | Tupac and the Pentagon | Mercenary Monroe Doctrine | Democratic War Hawks | Ep. 222

    In the Trump era, being anti-anti-China is worse than being a white nationalist. What Tupac predicted about the defense budget. Pete Hegseth unveils Trump's imperialist peace plan for Ukraine. The Monroe Doctrine means mercenary imperialism. Why the Democratic Party can't critique Trump's lies about being antiwar.

    58 min

  4. FEB 11

    Live Lecture! What Good is the National Interest? Rethinking the Foundations of Peace, Democracy, and War

    Dr. Van Jackson gave a public lecture at the Havens Wright Center for Social Justice in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin on February 4, 2025. This episode is the full set of remarks plus Q&A from that lecture. About the lecture: The concept of the “national interest,” Van Jackson argues, has become an under-appreciated source of global insecurity. Not because there is anything intrinsically wrong with people having interests that must be preserved, promoted, or protected. Rather, the “national interest” as such obscures whose interests are served (and harmed) by the efforts of policy elites to secure the state. Governments routinely use the language of the national interest to justify a politics of violence, secrecy, and exclusion while bracketing off explicit questions of morality and justice. And national frameworks for mobilizing resources and collective action are logically mismatched against global threats like climate change. But rather than wishing away the modern nation-state or simply suggesting changes to the words that governing elites use, this lecture argues that addressing the contradictions in the national interest—as well as some of international security studies’ most cherished strategic constructs—is a start point for constructing more durable forms of security.

    1h 15m

  5. FEB 7

    Palantir is Evil | USAID w/out World War III | ICE Performing Terror | Imagining Restraint in Asia | Foreign Influence is the New Cocaine | Ep. 220

    Why Palantir and the new Silicon Valley defense-industrial cartel is bad news for humanity. How to talk about USAID without starting World War III (w/ cameo from Senator Chris Murphy). ICE immigration raids are trying to perform terror. Foreign influence is the new cocaine--legal for white folks. And imagining what a restraint-based, antimilitarist foreign policy could look like in Asia if the Philippines could make a missiles-for-peace deal with China.

    35 min

  6. JAN 31

    Perils of Christian Patriotism | We're All Antifascist (Right?) | How to Cut the Pentagon Ep. 219

    Why JD Vance's understanding of Christian patriotism fundamentally misunderstands christianity...on purpose. ANTIFA is not a terrorist organization, and we should all be antifascist. Why Burmese scholarships are not woke and DOGE has cut too far. And how to cut the Pentagon intelligently.

    43 min

  7. JAN 24

    How Saudi Arabia Bought Trump, DEI and Militarism, Nuclear No First-Use, Elon Musk and the Far Right | Ep. 218

    The gang's back with another variety episode. Why Saudi Arabia throws so much money at Trump. Matt's trip to Israel amid ceasefire negotiations. The truth about DEI initiatives and the Pentagon. The best time for nuclear no first-use was 4 years ago; the second best time is now. What's Elon Musk doing with far right parties in Europe? And why is "the quad" both a joke and Steve Bannon's Asia fantasy?

    51 min

  8. JAN 21

    Live! Guest Daniel Bessner on The Crisis of Liberalism, The Failure of Democrats, and the Truth About Chomsky | Ep. 217

    Guest Daniel Bessner of The American Prestige Podcast joins the Un-Diplomatic livestream to talk about many topics. Is international relations dead or just irrelevant? Where did Democrats go more wrong, on domestic or foreign policy? What was the problem with Noam Chomsky's theory of change? And what even is a crisis of liberalism?

    45 min
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4.6
out of 5
53 Ratings

About

Global power politics, for the people. Hosted by Van Jackson, Julia Gledhill, and Matt Duss. The views expressed are theirs alone (not those of any institution or employer).

Information

  • Creator
    Van Jackson
  • Years Active
    2019 - 2025
  • Episodes
    226
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2019 Un-Diplomatic
  • Show Website
    The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

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