Official Positions ©

Davis Ellison

Official Positions is a podcast that tries to shake the hornet's nest of the security and defense world and see what comes out. It asks questions about security studies, working in defense, and unpacks the assumptions that we have about the world that claims to keep us all safe.

Episodes

  1. 05/21/2025

    Decolonising our reading lists

    The good, the bad, and the ugly of our security studies reading lists.... From the episode: The meta-writers: Empires Without Imperialism: Anglo-American Decline and the Politics of Deflection by Jeanne MorefieldHow to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel ImmerwahrThe Atlantic Realists: Empire and International Political Thought Between Germany and the United States by Matthew SpecterThe bad: Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power by Niall FergusonThe Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror by Michael IgnatieffThe Return of Marco Polo's World: War, Strategy, and American Interests in the Twenty-first Century by Robert D. KaplanColonialism: A Moral Reckoning by Nigel BiggarConfronting Saddam Hussein: George W. Bush and the Invasion of Iraq by Melvyn LefflerThe good: Revolusi: Indonesia and the Birth of the Modern World by David van ReybrouckCongo: The Epic History of a People by van ReybrouckKing Leopold's Ghost: A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa by Adam HochschildCulture and Imperialism + Orientalism by Edward Said (amongst many others)Rise of the Warrior Cop: The Militarization of America's Police Forces by Radley BalkoThe Wretched of the Earth + Black Skin, White Masks by Frantz FanonPrimitive Rebels + On History by Eric HobsbawmUncivil War: The British Army and The Troubles, 1966-1975 by Huw BennettHomeland: The War on Terror in American Life by Richard BeckOne Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This by Omar El Akkad

    31 min

About

Official Positions is a podcast that tries to shake the hornet's nest of the security and defense world and see what comes out. It asks questions about security studies, working in defense, and unpacks the assumptions that we have about the world that claims to keep us all safe.