American Prestige

On the eve of the XXXIII Olympiad, the world remains complicated. This week: Joe Biden suspends his 2024 presidential campaign (0:32); in Palestine/Israel news, Benjamin Netanyahu speaks to a fawning US Congress (2:26), the ICJ rules on the legality of Israel’s occupation (6:13), the IDF shrinks the “protected zone” around Khan Younis in Gaza (9:13), China brokers a Palestinian “national unity” agreement (11:19); Houthi/Ansar Allah carry out a drone strike on Tel Aviv (13:48); in Bangladesh, a pause for the protests primarily aimed against a government job quota system (17:21); the US opens an embassy in the South Pacific nation of Vanuatu (20:01); a new round of ceasefire talks are scheduled for Sudan (21:18); in Russia, the Gershkovich and Kurmasheva trials are wrapped up quickly (23:09); in another diplomatic move, China hosts Ukrainian Foreign Minister Kuleba in a prelude to potential peace talks (25:03); a preview of Sunday’s presidential election in Venezuela (26:54); and the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service reports that Sunday was the hottest recorded day ever, a record only to be broken on Monday (28:48).

In case you missed it, check out our (publicly available!) special with Laila Al-Arian, executive producer of Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English, about the program’s recent documentary "The Night Won't End: Biden’s War on Gaza."

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

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The bi-monthly collaboration between AP and Nonzero Newsletter continues! Paid subscribers get a discounted membership to Nonzero— just scroll below the paywall near the bottom of the description, where you’ll also find the video for the Overtime segment.

0:00 The Nonzero-American Prestige all-star team1:49 Why didn’t the Trump shooting matter more?6:52 What anti-Trump historians get wrong17:41 Why Kamala shouldn't demonize Trump29:35 Heading to Overtime—and a discount deal

Danny and Derek welcome back to the podcast Laila Al-Arian, executive producer of Fault Lines on Al Jazeera English, to talk about the program’s recent documentary "The Night Won't End: Biden’s War on Gaza," which she also co-wrote. They discuss how the film’s crew was able to make the film despite the immense logistical challenges, the choice to focus on three particular families in Gaza, the content of the film itself, and more.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

Natasha Wheatley, assistant professor of history at Princeton, sits down with Danny and Derek to talk about the transformation of the Habsburg Empire from a multinational collection of polities to discrete nation-states and how this century of radical change informs our ideas of sovereignty and the subsequent international order. The discussion explores the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867, how the Empire navigated emerging nationalisms in the late 19th century compared with the Ottoman Empire, problems of post-Habsburg states after WWI and how they helped engender WWII, and more.

Grab a copy of Natasha’s book The Life and Death of States: Central Europe and the Transformation of Modern Sovereignty.

Further Reading:

Georg Jellinek

Pieter Judson

Hans Kelsen

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, once again joins Danny and Derek to continue the discussion about Americans’ relationship with the Constitution. The conversation picks up in the postwar period, exploring how the document became an economic document as well as a political one, the rise of …

Danny and Derek are back with a news update after two weeks, and it appears that events continued to transpire despite their absence. This week: in Gaza, another round of fledgling ceasefire talks (0:35), the Knesset officially rejects Palestinian statehood (6:05), The Lancet journal publishes a study on the likely number of Palestinian casualties thus far (10:30), Haaretz publishes a piece about the Hannibal Doctrine’s use on 10/7 (14:07), and Biden’s “aid pier” is officially kaput (17:27); the results of Iran’s presidential election (20:49); violence in Bangladesh over government job quotas (24:06); a new UN report on civilian displacement within Sudan (26:37); the respective junta governments of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso form a “confederation” (28:29); the Ukrainian military is losing its foothold on the eastern side of the Dnipro River (30:46); the results of the French election (34:37); the results of the UK election (38:32); Kenyan police begin arriving in Haiti as an intervention force (40:35); a New Cold War update featuring China suspending nuclear talks with the US (42:34), Russia and the US starting up a new arms race in Europe (44:21), and accused spy Evan Gershkovich’s trial moved up in Russia amid negotiations with the US (46:23).

Enjoy the full rendition of the New Cold War theme song.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

Danny and Derek sit down with Emily Conroy-Krutz, historian of nineteenth-century America specializing in the global history of the early American republic, to talk about the volume she co-edited with Michael Blaakman and Noelani Arista, The Early Imperial Republic: From the American Revolution to the U.S.–Mexican War. They explore the delineation of empire vs. republic vs. nation-state, challenging the narrative of 1898 being America’s imperial turn, settler colonialism and the dispossession of Indigenous Americans, shifting notions of imperialism over time, and how the framing of America as an imperial project from the beginning can better help us understand its history.

Be sure to also grab a copy of Emily's book Missionary Diplomacy: Religion and Nineteenth-Century American Foreign Relations.

Further Reading:

* Michael Blaakman - Speculation Nation: Land Mania in the Revolutionary American Republic

* Daniel Immerwahr - How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States

* Paul Kramer

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

It’s the second and final news-less week for AP as the team is on its annual podcast whitewater rafting retreat. In the meantime, please enjoy this unlocked episode covering Biden’s policy on Palestine/Israel.

Danny and Derek speak with Jonathan Guyer, contributing editor at The American Prospect, about the piece he recently wrote for the magazine on Biden’s ideological commitment to Israel and his administration’s handling of the current crisis. The group discusses his obstinacy in changing his approach Israel/Palestine, the domestic and global political implications of America’s conduct, the enabling figures with whom he’s surrounded himself, the U.S.’s long-term goal for the region, how Trump might handle things differently, and more.

Check out Jonathan’s recent work in The Guardian, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, and follow him on Twitter @mideastXmidwest

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

Danny and Derek welcome back to the program Aziz Rana, the incoming J. Donald Monan, S.J., professor of law and government at Boston College, for a multi-part discussion about how Americans came to revere the Constitution and the worldwide implications. In this episode, the group discusses the latest Supreme Court ruling as of the recording date (Trump v. Anderson), how America’s treatment of its constitution compares with those of other nations, the Constitution’s development in the country’s first century, debates around the document in the Civil War and Reconstruction, and more through WWI.

The conversation continues on this Sunday’s bonus episode!

Be sure to grab a copy of the book inspiring this series, The Constitutional Bind: How Americans Came to Idolize a Document That Fails Them.

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek once again welcome to the program Michael Brenes, co-director of the Brady-Johnson program in grand strategy at Yale University and publisher of Warfare and Welfare, this time to talk about his article with William D. Hartung in The New Republic, “A.I. Won’t Transform War. It’ll Only Make Venture Capitalists Richer.” The group discusses …