American Prestige

Abby Mullen, assistant professor at the US Naval Academy, joins the program to talk about her book To Fix a National Character: The United States in the First Barbary War, 1800–1805. The group explores the conflict, American geopolitics in its infancy, the Barbary States and piracy committed on their behalf at the time, how US naval expeditions in an era without a global network of bases functioned, the myth of the war in "The Marines' Hymn", and more.

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, this time to talk about foreign policy and the election. They discuss the professionalization of the Democrats, the Harris campaign's decision to ally themselves with the likes of the Cheney family, national security FP, Trump as the "peace candidate", how defense spending might exceed $1 trillion going forward, the fate of Ukraine, Israel/Palestine/Lebanon, and more.

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Grab a copy of Stephen's book Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy.

It's another edition of the bi-monthly collaboration between AP and Nonzero Newsletter continues! For the full version of this episode, subscribe now at Supporting Cast, where you'll also get a discounted subscription for Nonzero Newsletter!

Part one video

0:00 Another high-synergy, brilliant collaboration

1:15 Is Elon our first true oligarch? 

9:57 Trump assembles his Justice League of hawks

16:29 Biden’s awful foreign policy team

21:25 Trump’s plan to purge the military 

33:06 Will Trump go full-on authoritarian?

40:21 Left-wing capitalists—and a discount offer

Your weekly news roundup from two happy warriors. This week: struggles at the UN COP29 climate change conference (1:48), not the least of which is the incoming climate denier president of the US (5:45); in Israel-Palestine, the US shockingly doesn't follow through on its 30-day humanitarian aid deadline (7:57), Trump appointments signal imminent formal annexation of Palestinian territories (12:24), and Qatar withdraws from ceasefire talks (16:48); in Lebanon, Israel is working on a ceasefire as a "gift" for Trump (18:33); Xi and Biden to meet in China (21:35); the Japanese government survives a confirmation vote (23: 45); a new report on horrifying death toll figures in the Sudan war (25:48); in Russia-Ukraine, Russia pushers to retake Kursk (28:01) while Europe and Ukraine show new flexibility to exchange land for a peace deal (30:25); Germany prepares for a snap election in February in the wake of the government coalition collapsing (32:38); in Haiti, the transitional council fires the PM (34:44) while the US bans flights there (36:15); and Trump announces a number of new appointments for his second term (37:35).

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Danny and Derek speak with Steven Cohen, PhD candidate in history, working on drug war political economy in the Americas, about what we might see if, as expected, Marco Rubio is named as secretary of state in the new Trump administration.

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Historian Benji Rolsky speaks with Danny about how others in their profession have thought about the far right, a subset of history which has expanded greatly in the last decade or so. They explore how the study of the far right might be "broken", anti-fundamentalism, Christian nationalism, the episodic nature of this field, and how Trump might have changed the historiography.

Read Benji's piece "Why the Study of the Right is Broken": Part 1 and Part 2.

Also check out his book The Rise and Fall of the Religious Left: Politics, Television, and Popular Culture in the 1970s and Beyond.

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This is a re-post of an special episode we did for subscribers on Wednesday, November 6. Subscribe now for immediate access to breaking news specials and much more content.

Danny and Derek jump on the mic to break down Donald Trump's decisive election victory. Topics include the crisis of liberalism, the end of the road for the Democrats' status quo, what Trump and Vance mean for American foreign policy, the Boomers and members of the Silent Generation holding onto power, and the profound alienation of our time.

Danny and Derek chat with Simon Willmetts, associate professor of intelligence studies at Leiden University, about his recent piece for Diplomatic History, "The CIA and Time Magazine: Journalistic Ethics and Newsroom Dissent". The group discusses the subfield of intelligence history, public awareness of intelligence organizations, why the scope Time and Life magazines in the mid-20th century and why the CIA would want to collude with such publications, the development of journalistic ethics in light of journalistic connections with the national security state, and more.

Further reading:

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Heads of state come and go, but not all of them make the news roundup with Danny and Derek. This week: in Palestine-Israel, Netanyahu fires defense minister Gallant (0:57), a leak scandal involving Netanyahu's office (6:36), an update on the humanitarian situation in northern Gaza (8:52), and the IDF appears to admit to committing ethnic cleansing (13:05); in Lebanon, the ceasefire push collapses (15:39), the IDF looks to create a "buffer zone" (17:46), and the Washington Post reports that Israeli evacuation warnings are misleading civilians (19:31); in Iran, Supreme Leader Khamenei threatens an attack on Israel (27:19); a new report details the mistreatment of migrant workers in Arabian Gulf states (30:35); the DPRK/North Korea conducts a new ICBM test (33:09); new RSF massacres in Sudan (36:41); in Russia-Ukraine, North Korean soldiers join combat operations (38:35), future concerns in the US about how the war will be conducted under Trump (41:38), and Russia floats the possibility of ending the war (44:36); the German government collapses (46:59); and in Bolivia, protesters supporting former president Evo Morales pause roadblocks amid clashes with the police (49:54).

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Alexander Aviña, associate professor of history at Arizona State University, joins Danny and Derek to talk about narratives forming around the election regarding a Latino shift to the right, Biden and Trump's respective records on the border, whether Trump will be able to carry out his threats of mass deportation, right-wing anti-migrant rhetoric vs. businesses that depend on that labor force, and more.

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