In the latest episode of Always at War, Courtney and Alex sit down with Almut Rochowanski, a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute and longtime grassroots activist who spent nearly two decades working with civil society organizers across Russia, Ukraine, and the former Soviet Union.

Almut walks Courtney and Alex through the "NGO-industrial complex": how grant cycles, donor priorities, and Western funding structures can hollow out genuine grassroots organizing and replace it with a top-down relationship between funders and "beneficiaries." She traces this history back to the suffragists and anti-militarist reformers of the nineteenth century, whose organic, mass-membership movements look almost nothing like some of the professionalized, donor-dependent NGO sector of today. Along the way, the conversation covers both the real possibilities and promises of foreign aid and why some funding is well-intentioned but structurally corrosive. The episode closes with an excellent look at why, in her view, no country has a monopoly on militarism — it's a story that's played out across empires throughout history, and right now America is the one with its hand on the rudder. 

CHECK OUT ALMUT'S SUBSTACK, DISCOMFORT ZONE: https://discomfortzone.substack.com/

SUPPORT QI'S FIRST AMENDMENT FUND: https://givingtools.com/give/939

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Why is America seemingly always at war? Join the Quincy Institute’s Courtney Rawlings and Alex Jordan as they expose the monied interests, outdated ideologies, and entrenched powers that have driven the U.S. to wage nearly 400 wars and interventions. 

They’ll be joined by journalists, advocates, and experts to uncover who profits from America’s endless conflicts, and to imagine how we can build a better, more peaceful U.S. foreign policy.

Learn more about the Quincy Institute: quincyinst.org
Contact the show: [email protected]

Show art by Justin Hantz

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