Although President Biden has ended the war in Afghanistan, America’s twenty-year global war on terror has not yet drawn to a close. Initiated by the Bush administration, and waged in various forms under four presidents, the war on terror has shaped not just US foreign policy, but many aspects of American life. This week, the Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah is joined by Spencer Ackerman, whose new book, Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump contends that the Trump administration was no aberration. Charting the war on terror through the Bush, Obama, and Trump administrations, Ackerman shows how this war inflamed America’s nativist impulses  and spurred authoritarian tools of domestic surveillance.  To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.  Spencer Ackerman is the author of Reign of Terror: How the 9/11 Era Destabilized America and Produced Trump and the Substack, Forever Wars. He is also a contributing editor at the Daily Beast, where he was a senior national correspondent from 2017 to 2021.

None of the Above

Episode 14: Insecure

Tensions have been high on the Korean Peninsula this past month. In mid-September, both North and South Korea tested ballistic missiles just hours apart. And though Pyongyang had signaled interest in convening discussions to formally end the Korean War, it launched a short-range missile on Tuesday. This week on None Of The Above, we’re bringing back another one of our favorite episodes from Season 1 with Korea expert Sue Mi Terry. When we sat down with Sue in 2019, Donald Trump was president, and the United States was engaged in talks with North Korea on the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. Though talks have since stalled, Sue’s analysis of the discussions and her case for a unified Korea, remain just as thought-provoking today. Sue Mi Terry is the Korea Chair at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, and a contributor to NBC News and MSNBC. She previously served as a senior analyst on Korean issues at the CIA and as a member of the National Security Council. You can follow Sue on Twitter at @SueMiTerry. To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter. 

Episode 13: The Germany of Asia? (from the archive)

Since the end of World War II, policymakers have puzzled over the proper way to approach Russia. U.S.-Russia relations have arguably deteriorated to their lowest point since the end of the Cold War as a myriad of issues strain the relationship. From election interference to cyberattacks and Russia’s military expansion Westward, is America’s response effective? Or, does the United States need to consider a new approach? This week, Eurasia expert Terrell Jermaine Starr joins us to discuss the future of U.S.-Russia relations. According to Terrell, the U.S. strategy is hobbled by racism, groupthink, neoliberalism, and military primacy. Terrell advocates for a more inclusive strategy that emphasizes diversity of thought and securing domestic institutions at home.  Terrell Jermaine Starr is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center and Senior Reporter at The Root, where he writes about U.S.-Russia politics and race in America. He is the founder and host of the Black Diplomats podcast. To listen to more episodes or learn more about None Of The Above, go to www.noneoftheabovepodcast.org. To learn more about the Eurasia Group Foundation, please visit www.egfound.org and subscribe to our newsletter.   

Episode 12: Moscow Meddling

In April, President Biden announced he would withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. Within months, Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, fell to the Taliban. The Biden administration’s evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats and Republicans, including one of this week’s guests, Representative Peter Meijer (R-MI-3). But Meijer is also a critic of America’s twenty-year war in Afghanistan, something he shares with our second guest, Representative Ro Khanna (D-CA-17). On this week’s episode of None Of The Above, you’ll listen to our conversations from back in May with Representatives Meijer and Khanna, conversations which help us reflect on the current debate over America’s global role. As the heartbreaking events in Afghanistan unfold, their reflections on how the U.S. has found itself perpetually at war can serve as a guide for current and future policymakers who wish to avoid the mistakes of the last twenty years. These two Congressmen agree on very little, but are united in their belief of a less interventionist U.S. foreign policy.  Congressman Ro Khanna represents California’s 17th congressional district in the United States House of Representatives. He sits on the House Armed Services Committee and is the Congressional Progressive Caucus Vice-Chair. Congressman Peter Meijer represents Michigan’s 3rd congressional district in the United States House of Representatives and is a veteran of the Iraq War. He also sits on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Additional: Reps From Both Political Parties Deliver Anti-War Message (NowThis and Eurasia Group Foundation, June 9, 2021)  

Episode 11: Unlikely Alliance

This week, we’re bringing back an episode from Season 1 with journalist and political analyst Peter Beinart. When we spoke with Peter last spring, we discussed the questionable value of America’s extensive overseas military network and the limits of America’s global role. From Taiwan to Afghanistan, what price are Americans willing to pay to pursue stability and security around the globe? Does American expansionism around the globe make the U.S. more powerful and influential? While some suggest the threat or use of military intervention promotes American interests around the world, our guest insists a lack of humility in U.S. foreign policy undermines America’s values, credibility, and security. From discussing the potential American withdrawal from Afghanistan to the crisis of illiberalism in Israel, and pandemic preparedness, our conversation foreshadowed some of 2021’s most pressing foreign policy concerns. Peter Beinart is a CNN political commentator, a columnist for The New York Times, and an editor-at-large of Jewish Currents magazine. He is the author of The Icarus Syndrome: A History of American Hubris and The Crisis of Zionism. You can follow Peter on Twitter at @PeterBeinart  

Episode 10: The Burden of American Power (from the archive)

 On July 1, the Communist Party of China celebrated its 100th anniversary. General Secretary Xi Jinping delivered a speech that unsettled some China watchers with provocative comments about the existing world order. Symptomatic of increasing U.S.-China tensions, Xi’s speech comes amid efforts in both countries to decouple these two large and intertwined national economies. But is decoupling in either country’s best interests? This week, the Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah is joined by China experts Ryan Hass and Susan Thornton, who suggest a different approach. While competition may define the U.S.-China relationship for decades to come, Hass and Thornton argue that leaders would be wise to not overlook areas of cooperation or become so focused on the other that they put their domestic aspirations at risk. Ryan Hass served in the Obama White House and is now Senior Fellow and the Michael H. Armacost Chair at the Brookings Institution. He is the author of the book, Stronger: Adapting America’s China Strategy in an Age of Competitive Interdependence. You can follow Ryan on Twitter at @ryanl_hass.   Susan Thornton served in the United States Department of State for nearly thirty years, focusing on East and Central Asia issues. Currently, Susan is Senior Fellow at the Yale Paul Tsai China Center. You can follow Susan on Twitter at @suea_thornton.  

Episode 9: Linked Destinies

President Biden campaigned on a swift return to the Iran nuclear deal. But with Iran freezing what have become laborious negotiations until the new hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, takes office next month, the prospect for a revitalized agreement remains uncertain. Is Tehran solely to blame for this impasse? This week, Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah is joined by Barbara Slavin and John Glaser to make sense of U.S.-Iran relations and the implications of Raisi’s election. While a deal may be closer than headlines might lead you to believe, Barbara and John argue that prospects for détente continue to remain hindered by hardliners on both sides of the negotiating table — and decades of deep-seated animosity.   Barbara Slavin is a career journalist and the director of the Atlantic Council’s Future of Iran Initiative. She is the author of the book, Bitter Friends, Bosom Enemies: Iran, the U.S., and the Twisted Path to Confrontation. You can follow Barbara on Twitter at @barbaraslavin1. John Glaser is the director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute. He is also the host of the Power Problems Podcast and coauthor of the book, Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America's Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse (and How We Can Recover). You can follow John on Twitter at @jwcglaser.

Episode 8: In Spite of Hardliners

This week, we’re bringing back another one of our favorite episodes from Season 2. When we sat down with Bishop Garrison last summer, he was directing national security outreach at Human Rights First. Today, Bishop’s new role has become the center of much discussion in Washington, as he attempts to tackle white supremacy and racism in the ranks of the U.S. military as Senior Advisor to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.  America’s institutions continue to reckon with their roles in legacies of slavery and racism, a year after the mass protests surrounding the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. The U.S. military is no exception. This week, Bishop Garrison, a U.S. Army veteran and former homeland security and defense official, joins None Of The Above to discuss this reckoning. From the renaming of Army bases named after Confederate figures to the recruitment of veterans by white nationalist organizations and the importance of diversity in the enlisted and officer ranks, Bishop delves into the moral and strategic importance of representation in America’s most vital national security institutions.  Bishop Garrison is Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon on a range of issues concerning Human Capital and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) throughout the department. You can follow Bishop on Twitter @BishopGarrison.

Episode 7: Reclaiming History

For many, America’s Cold War victory validated the country’s self-image as a “shining city upon the hill,” whose democratic ideals were worthy of emulation. More than thirty years later, as authoritarianism and ultranationalism surge around the world, it is worth asking whether a dark undercurrent of America’s international conduct is somehow responsible. This week, the Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah sits down with Ben Rhodes, President Obama’s deputy national security advisor. Ben grapples with this in his new book, After the Fall: Being American in the World We’ve Made. Though America in many ways remains a worthy exemplar of democracy, Ben identifies several trends in the United States, which eerily echo in Hungary, Russia, and China.    Ben Rhodes is the author of the New York Times bestseller, The World as It Is: A Memoir of the Obama White House, co-host of the podcast, “Pod Save the World,” and a contributor to MSNBC. He served in the Obama administration as Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications and Speechwriting. You can follow Ben on Twitter at @brhodes.  

Episode 6: The World We’ve Made

This week, we're brining back on of our favorite episodes from Season 1. When we caught up with Rosa Brooks two summers ago, Donald Trump was president, and despite his stated desire to end endless wars, the conclusion of America's war in Afghanistan was not yet in sight.   What happens when the distinction between war and peace starts to disappear? Together, Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah and Rosa Brooks explore the causes and consequences of this alarming trend, and discuss its antecedents in other cultures. As the seemingly never-ending War on Terror is used to justify increasing government power and intrusions on civil liberties, are we sacrificing too much freedom in the name of security? Rosa Brooks is the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law and Policy at Georgetown University where she runs a program on innovative policing. She is the author of Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City and How Everything Became War and the Military Became Everything: Tales from the Pentagon.

Episode 5: Totalized War (from the archive)

In 2015, following Myanmar's first free election in a quarter-century, Western governments, including that of the United States, staked their hopes for democracy on Myanmar’s de facto civilian leader, Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi. Once regarded as a nascent democracy, Myanmar has sharply backslid in recent years. Suu Kyi’s denial of what the United Nations deems a genocide of the country’s Rohingya population coupled with her fall from power in February’s military coup, shows the limits, and perhaps naivety, of Western-backed democracy promotion.    This week, guest host and Eurasia Group Foundation research fellow Caroline Baxter speaks with journalist Francis Wade. They discuss America's attempts to curb the humanitarian and political crises in Myanmar, and the options (or lack thereof) confronting the Biden administration.   Francis Wade is a freelance journalist with extensive experience reporting on South and South-East Asia. He is also the author of Myanmar’s Enemy Within: Buddhist Violence and the Making of a Muslim ‘Other’. You can follow Francis on Twitter at @Francis_Wade.  

Episode 4: Empty Promises

After the Cold War, many in the United States believed democracy was fait accompli around the world. Thirty years later, it is on shaky ground. U.S. allies such as Turkey, Hungary, and Poland are sliding into authoritarianism .In the wake of the 2008 global financial crisis, dreams of economic and social stability are finding renewed purchase over more liberal values. President Biden plans to host a global summit for democracies to restore American alliances and revive democracy’s competitiveness. But is this the wisest or best response? On this week’s episode of None Of The Above, the Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah is joined by James Goldgeier and Elmira Bayrasli to dig into the history of America’s alliance building strategy, a history which is shaped more by shared security interests than by shared values. James Goldgeier is a Robert Bosch senior visiting fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution. He is also a professor of International Relations at American University's School of International Service. You can follow Jim on Twitter at @JimGoldgeier Elmira Bayrasli is the founder and CEO of Foreign Policy Interrupted. She is also the director of the Bard Globalization and International Affairs program, and the host of Project Syndicate's podcast “Opinion Has It.” You can follow Elmira on Twitter at @endeavoringE

Episode 3: Illiberal Allies

On September 14th, 2001, Congress passed a 60-word joint resolution granting President George W. Bush nearly unchecked authority to fight a “War on Terror." Congresswoman Barbara Lee of California was the sole vote against that resolution. She warned that the broad authorities granted by its Authorization for the Use of Military Force (AUMF) would be abused by the executive branch. Nearly twenty years later, Representative Lee's concerns have tragically been validated, as the war authorizations passed in 2001 and 2002 have been used to justify military action from North Africa to the Philippines, far beyond what the authorities for which the AUMF was intended.    On today’s episode of None Of The Above, Eurasia Group Foundation senior fellow Mark Hannah is joined by Representative Lee to discuss the legacy of these authorizations. They discuss Lee's 20-year fight, and her transformation from a lone voice of dissent to a leader of what is now a bipartisan movement to restore Congressional war authorities. Will the Biden administration follow through on its promise to respect Congress’s constitutional role? And, might the "forever wars" which have been fought across the globe for nearly two decades finally come to an end?   Congresswoman Barbara Lee has represented California's 13th district in the United State House of Representatives since 1998. In Congress she sits on the Budget and Appropriations Committees, and is the chair of the State and Foreign Operations subcommittee. She also serves as the co-chair of the Policy and Steering Committee in Democratic leadership, and led efforts to place limiting executive authority over military forces in the Democratic Party’s platform last year. 

Episode 2: Proven Right

President Biden came into office vowing to restore America’s longstanding alliances across the Atlantic. However, while Europe’s security relationship with the United States remains relatively strong, Europe’s economic ties to China have surged. Will Europe keep growing closer to America's strategic rival? If so, what are the consequences for American security and prosperity? This week, Ian Bremmer, the political scientist and founder of the Eurasia Group Foundation, joins host Mark Hannah to discuss the battle for influence in Europe. Are America’s current policies curbing  China’s economic and technological influence effectively, or will America’s “new Cold War” approach backfire, strengthening China’s ties to a part of the world in which America has long enjoyed a dominant influence?  Ian Bremmer is a political scientist and is the founder and board president of the Eurasia Group Foundation. You can follow Ian on Twitter @ianbremmer.

Episode 1: Beyond the Pacific

Mexico ought to occupy a prominent place on the list of America’s foreign policy priorities, given its proximity. Yet political leaders in the United States historically devote resources and attention to further reaches of the globe, neglecting their Southern neighbor and downplaying the ways in which the two countries' histories and futures are intertwined. That might be changing with President Biden. This week, Jorge Castañeda, who was Mexico’s foreign minister, joins the Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah to discuss U.S.-Mexico bilateral relations, and Castañeda's new book, America Through Foreign Eyes. Their discussion spans the intensifying migration crisis to the COVID-19 pandemic, and how foreign publics view the US to broader questions about America’s role in the world.    Jorge Castañeda served as Mexico’s minister of foreign affairs under President Vincente Fox from 2000-2003. He has authored fourteen books, the most recent of which is America Through Foreign Eyes. He holds a Ph.D. in Economic History from the University of Paris (Panthéon-La Sorbonne), and is a visiting professor of politics and Latin America studies at New York University. You can follow Jorge on Twitter at @JorgeGCastaneda.

Episode 18: Reflections From Mexico

As the United States confronts an ever-changing set of international challenges, our foreign policy leaders continue to offer the same old answers. But what are the alternatives? In None of the Above, the Eurasia Group Foundation’s Mark Hannah asks leading global thinkers for new answers and new ideas to guide an America increasingly adrift in the world.

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None of the Above

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