After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

In part II of our discussion on Perry Anderson's American Foreign Policy and Its Thinkers, we take a deeper look at the first three chapters of "Imperium," reading the dynamics between exceptionalism (isolation from the "fallen world") and universalism (making the world in America's image) that can be found in the period from America's founding to the Second World War. We also tackle the emergence of National Security in the foreign policy establishment vis a vis Truman, Kennan and the 'containment' of the Soviet Union.

Chapter discussion markers:

I. "Prodromes": 00:00:45
II "Crystallization": 00:21:33
III. "Security": 00:46:08

Jason King kindly provides the music that you hear in After the 'End of History.' You can find more of his work on Soundcloud. 

Support the show

After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

In our eighth episode, we introduce the work and thought of Perry Anderson, the leading intellectual figure behind the New Left Review and author of several modern classics of Marxist political thought. We've chosen to dedicate the next few episodes of the podcast to American Foreign Policy and Its Thinkers to discuss how his historical materialist understanding of the long-term trajectory of capitalism and the interstate system frames his perspective on America's rise to global hegemony. We’re joined by our friend Gopal to help draw out the nuances and broader theoretical context of this challenging but rewarding text.

Part I includes a brief introduction to Anderson's work, contextualizing American Foreign Policy within his better known works, such as Lineages of the Absolute State and Passages from Antiquity to Feudalism. We also share some thoughts on how his work has impacted our own critical attitudes toward American foreign policy, particularly the "regnant liberalism" that has repeatedly justified imperialist interventions abroad. (See "Arms and Rights" in NLR 31.)

Finally, we begin our reconstruction of the book's main topics with a focus on the Preface and Introduction to Imperium, the work's first of two parts (the second being Consilium). Here Anderson lays out what distinguishes his work from other historical scholarship, particularly in its chronological sweep and the interrelation between ("First World") capitalist states both before and after the establishment of American supremacy within the capitalist system.

Jason King kindly provides the music that you hear in After the 'End of History.' You can find more of his work on Soundcloud. 

Support the show

After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

The long reach of the CIA from Latin America to Southeast Asia is discussed here in our last conversation on Vincent Bevins's The Jakarta Method as a product of its early successes in using the imperial toolkit to squash social democratic projects in Latin America, particularly Guatemala and Brazil.

We also trace the patterns of anti-communist tactics through the CIA's PSYOPs and repression of leftwing parties in Southeast Asia, focusing, of course, on Indonesia from the tragic period following the September 30th Movement. We also take a critical look at Stalinist Popular Frontism and its disarming of radical parties' ability to adequately defend themselves, politically and militarily, against the coming wave of imperial brutalization.

Our discussion concludes with an assessment of the balance sheet in Second and Third World countries following these historic defeats for social democratic and communist organizations in the developing and Communist world.

As with other discussions in this series, our source material drew from Odd Arne Westad's The Global Cold War. We also read Eric Hobsbawm's The Age of Extremes for its detail on land reform movements in the Third World, as well as Lucien Rey's "Dossier of the Indonesian Drama," which first appeared in The New Left Review, Number 36 (March/April 1966).

Jason King kindly provides the music that you hear in After the 'End of History.' You can find more of his work on Soundcloud. 

Support the show

After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

Our third discussion on The Jakarta Method details the methodological differences between the two wings of the CIA: the measured, "conciliatory" cosmopolitanism of Howard "Smiling" Jones vs. the loose cannon interventionism of Frank Wisner ("The Wiz"). However tactically distinct in their approaches to regime change in Indonesia during the rise of Sukarno and the Communist Party of Indonesia (PKI), both proved to have similar aims, leading ultimately to the extermination of the PKI preceding the coup d'etat of General Suharto.

The music on After the ‘End of History’ appears courtesy of Jason King, whose work you can find on SoundCloud. 

Support the show

After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

In Part II of our episode on The Jakarta Method, we discuss the roots of the CIA-directed anticommunist massacre in Indonesia. We also trace the origins of America's anticommunist crusade during the Cold War to its very foundations as a nation, emphasizing the various cultural responses and military interventions the US pursued in the name of safeguarding liberal capitalist democracy.

Topics include the development of Communist parties around the world subsequent to the Bolshevik Revolution, including the Indonesian Communist Party; the political betrayals of Stalin's "Socialism in One Country"; and how the CIA exploited divisions within the anti-colonial movement to pursue America's imperial interests in the Third World.

The music on After the ‘End of History’ appears courtesy of Jason King, whose work you can find on SoundCloud. 

The episode also features a sample of music from Maurice Jarre's soundtrack for the film "The Year of Living Dangerously" (1982). 

Support the show

After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

The first part in our discussion on The Jakarta Method by Vincent Bevins. Mario and Tom cover the key concepts in Bevins's description of America's bloody interventions around the Third World, including "Modernization Theory." The episode also introduces a book that proves central to The Jakarta Method's research and storytelling, Odd Arne Westad's The Global Cold War.

The music on After the ‘End of History’ appears courtesy of Jason King, whose work you can find on SoundCloud. 

Support the show

After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

In the final discussion of our three-part series on Christopher Layne's The Peace of Illusions, we provide some concluding thoughts on how this work of radical realism should be used by the Left to critique US hegemony. Stay through the end to find out what book we'll be tackling next.

The music on After the ‘End of History’ appears courtesy of Jason King, whose work you can find on SoundCloud. 

Support the show

After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

This is the second episode of our three part discussion of Christopher Layne's The Peace of Illusions. Topics include America's Grand Strategy with respect to the Soviet Union, the origins and evolution of the Open Door ideology and how America's unipolar era will end.

The music on After the ‘End of History’ appears courtesy of Jason King, whose work you can find on SoundCloud. 

Support the show

After the ‘End of History’ is a podcast about International Relations and History. It is part of the Hawks & Sparrows project. 

Want more? Please consider supporting the podcast on Patreon to receive bonus episodes, as well as early releases of the monthly Hawks & Sparrows newsletter. 

You can also follow us on Twitter @after_history. 

Thanks for listening,
Mario and Tom 

*

Mario and Tom introduce After the 'End of History' with a discussion on Christopher Layne's The Peace of Illusions: American Grand Strategy from 1940 to the Present.

The music on After the ‘End of History’ appears courtesy of Jason King, whose work you can find on SoundCloud. 

Support the show