American Prestige

Danny and Derek wouldn’t miss a Friday news roundup, folks! This week: the war in Gaza escalates with full U.S. support (0:30); Qatar is pressured by America to re-freeze $6 billion promised to Iran as part of the prisoner swap deal (5:29); the U.S. sends an aircraft carrier battle group to the South China Sea (8:54); Sudan normalizes its ties with Iran and an update on its domestic conflict (10:16); months after the fact, the United States recognizes the coup in Niger (12:36); a Russia/Ukraine update featuring a Russian attack on Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast (15:08), Zelensky’s “surprise” visit to NATO (17:00), and Russia losing an election to the UN Human Rights Council (19:37); the Finnish and Estonian Balticconnector pipeline/telecom cable is severed (21:34); Palestinian solidarity protests being banned in Europe (24:01); the ceasefire in Colombia with the former FARC group EMC begins, but is already under threat (24:55); a sanctions relief deal with Venezuela is reportedly in the works (26:30); pro-Arévalo protests continue in Guatemala (28:35); and Sweet Senator Bob Menendez is being charged with conspiracy to act as a foreign agent of Egypt (30:33).

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

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

Danny and Derek speak with Nour Odeh, political commentator and analyst in Ramallah, about the state of the media coverage of this war. They then give a news update for subscribers.

Check out Al-Jazeera’s article on the issue of disinformation around the conflict.

Recorded midday EST, Wednesday, October 11, 2023

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

Welcome to the first installment of a collaboration we’re trying between AP and Nonzero Newsletter! Basically, we love the work of Bob and the team so much that we are going to periodically put out crossover episodes between the two projects. 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.

(0:05) Nonzero/American Prestige cocktail with a hybrid episode twist (1:55) Was Hamas’s attack a predictable response to conditions in Gaza? (14:15) Did Biden’s foreign policy make the attack more likely? (24:52) America’s unstrategic Middle East strategy (30:07) Can anything good come out of the current crisis? (39:28) The Nonzero/American Prestige crossover arc (42:11) How to stay sane as a critic of US foreign policy (47:55) Biden vs Trump: Who’s the lesser evil on foreign policy? (51:44) Strains within the restrainer coalition (57:09) Is there any hope left for international law? (1:06:51) Bob’s pitch for (sober) AI alarmism (1:11:52) Heading to Overtime—and a special offer for listeners!

Nonzero Newsletter on Substack:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/NonzeroPods

Note: In lieu of a new public episode this week, we’re re-posting this first episode of our History of Modern Palestine series. This episode will always be publicly available, but we also are unlocking the other five for the next week. Please check them out!

Danny and Derek speak with Rashid Khalidi, the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, about his book The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017. This first episode explores Dr. Khalidi’s inspiration and methodology behind the book, discursive shifts surrounding Israel-Palestine, the advent of Zionism, and more.

Grab a copy of Professor Khalidi's book: https://bit.ly/3GLfgct

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

Danny and Derek give a news update with where the conflict stands today. Then, for paid subscribers, they speak with Rashid Khalidi (16:30), the Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies at Columbia University, about the larger implications of the war.

We’ve also unlocked our series with Rashid, A History of Modern Palestine, for the next week.

Special episode recorded midday EST, Monday, October 9, 2023

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

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

This second episode on the current conflict in Gaza and within Israeli territory is in three parts: first, Danny and Derek give us a news update on the situation. They then speak with Haggai Matar, executive director of +972 Magazine, about his piece contextualizing yesterday’s surprise attack from Gaza (23:53). Derek then closes out the episode speakin…

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

Danny and Derek jump on the mic to lay out what we know so far about today’s offensive launched by Hamas from Gaza into Israeli territory (within the 1948 borders).

Recorded midday EST, Saturday, October 7, 2023

Derek is Rocky, while Danny is Mickey, that is to say, there’s news. This week: in a climate update, it was the hottest September on record (0:31); a suicide bombing (claimed by the PKK) rocks Turkey’s capital of Ankara, leading to retaliatory airstrikes (2:00); the U.S. freezes aid to Egypt amid the Bob Menendez indictment (4:05); more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians flee the Nagorno-Karabakh enclave of Azerbaijan (6:11); Pakistan orders over 4 million undocumented persons, particularly Afghans, to leave (9:22); signs point to the DPRK making moves to reclaim weapons-grade plutonium from the reactor at their Yongbyon complex (11:34); Mali’s junta government continues to struggle with the rebel group Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) (13:03); reports emerge that the Niger junta government might be open to talks with ECOWAS and making the transition to civilian rule (15:19); tensions flare up between Kosovo and Serbia (17:02); a Ukraine update featuring questions about the reliability of certain foreign aid while Russia reportedly tests a nuclear-powered cruise missile (19:46); a schism in Bolivia’s Movement for Socialism (MAS) party (24:43); protests in support of Guatemalan president-elect Bernardo Arévalo intensify as the country’s post-election crisis continues (26:00); the U.N. gives the go-ahead for an intervention in Haiti (27:47); and the administration of U.S. president Joe “I’m Just a Humble Servant” Biden waives 26 laws to continue building a border wall in the Rio Grande Valley (29:23).

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

Danny and Derek welcome Joseph MacKay, senior lecturer at the Australian National University, to talk about counterinsurgency— what it is, where it came from, and why it persists. The discussion focuses on several case studies over several centuries, using military manuals and their respective authors as a guide, to give us an idea of how counter-insurrectionary war developed and eventually took on its late twentieth and early twenty-first century forms.

Grab a copy of Joseph’s book The Counterinsurgent Imagination: A New Intellectual History: https://shorturl.at/zBCE5

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

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

Derek and Danny sit down with Rachel Nolan, assistant professor at Boston University, to discuss the 2023 Guatemalan presidential election and its aftermath. They discuss the country’s recent history, the opponents’ respective political movements, the victory of the Semilla party’s Bernardo Arévalo, the contested result, who stands to gain from blocking…