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Benjamin Studebaker joins me on 1Dime Radio for another episode in our regular series of wide-ranging conversations. This time we get into the geopolitical situations in Iran, Ukraine, and Cuba, asking whether the U.S. and Russia are both stuck in wars they cannot neatly win. We analyze how Iran’s power structure has changed, what Ukraine’s drone strategy signals about the war with Russia, and how North American energy business interests fit into the picture. We also touch on Cuba’s demographic pressures, the influence of the “success” of the Venezuela action, and the limits of the U.S. legislative system.

In The Backroom on Patreon, Studebaker and I dig into a simple, yet highly nuanced question: what is politics, actually? What does it mean to DO politics? What makes something, or someone, political? When is something politics, and when is it not? What is the difference between Politics as usual, administration, and real politics? What differentiates Politics from social justice activism?

Timestamps:

00:00:00 The Backroom Preview: A Better Future

00:03:48 Intro

00:06:07 Has Regime Change Already Occurred In Iran?

00:15:00 Will Iran Spike Oil Prices?

00:17:48 Israel vs America’s Interests

00:24:12 Trump’s Gas Price Problem

00:37:00 Iran’s Legitimacy Crisis

00:50:11 Can Cuba Survive?

01:05:42 Ukraine’s Drone War

01:11:37 The Energy Politics Behind Ukraine

01:20:00 Is America Politically Paralyzed?

01:28:37 Can Ukraine Still Negotiate?

01:35:00 Was Mearsheimer Right About NATO?

01:40:00 China, Trade, and Global Power

01:54:23 Backroom Preview: What Is Politics?

GUEST:

Benjamin Studebaker

• Website: https://benjaminstudebaker.com/

• Substack: https://substack.com/@bmstudebaker

• Legitimacy in Liberal Democracies: https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-legitimacy-in-liberal-democracies.html

• Political Theory 101: https://open.spotify.com/show/3JwcqFCSwC9gwR6rUXwFFQ

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