Mike talks with Hudson Institute’s Rob Greenway to provide a regional diagnosis of the Middle East. Greenway demonstrates how important American leadership in the region is to building partnerships & managing a mixed bag of local interests. The pair show why the embattled region will remain a centerpiece of American interests & resources whether we like it or not. Even in the midst of a global shift of focus to East Asia, emboldened malign actors can (and will) continue to disrupt the Middle East, a region still very much at the center of the global energy & communication markets. Finally, they address how the U.S. can and should influence the region in a global context.

Jonathan Schanzer, the Senior Vice President for Research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies has written the first book-length assessment of the latest round of fighting in Gaza. He joins Mike and Marshall to discuss, who won, who lost, and what is to come in the long running conflict between Israel and Hamas. v v

Professor Brenda Shaffer, Research Faculty Member at the U.S. Naval Postgraduate School, Senior Advisor for Energy at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, joins Mike and Marshall to discuss the state of global energy markets, energy policy’s impact on geopolitics, and how global production impacts American domestic consumption and prices.

Elbridge Colby, author of The Strategy of Denial: American Defense in an Age of Great Power Conflict, joins Marshall to discuss how great power competition in the Asia-Pacific will reconfigure the American approach to China, Taiwan, defense spending, and economic policy.

Mike & Marshall return from their fall break to reflect on how group-think within academia today has created a dangerous culture of consensus of analysis on American foreign policy. Additionally, they debate the pros & cons of isolationism versus a forward-leaning military presence around the globe.

Senior Fellow Husain Haqqani joins Mike & Marshall to reflect on how and why we misunderstood the Afghanistan project. Ambassador Haqqani details how ethnic, tribal and historical divides required greater emphasis in supporting the development of a national government in Kabul. Additionally, he forecasts the regional troubles on the horizon as an axis forms between the Taliban, Pakistan and China.

Ezra Cohen has served, among other roles, in senior intelligence and policy positions in both the White House and the Defense Department. He joins Mike and Marshall to discuss the role of intelligence in the miscalculations that marred the Afghanistan withdrawal, as well as the impact of the withdrawal on America’s intelligence capabilities.

Rich Outzen, career military officer and senior State Department advisor on the Middle East, rejoins the podcast to diagnose the politics, strategy and military realities that led to the current collapse of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. Is the foreign policy establishment to blame? Does this blunder really compare to Saigon? Will the Taliban use the "Hezbollah-model" too find international sympathy in its governance of a fractured state?

Dr. Thomas Lynch, a Distinguished Research Fellow at the National Defense University and a retired army officer with extensive experience in Afghanistan, joined Mike and Marshall to discuss the chaotic American withdrawal from that country and the swift return of the Taliban. What went wrong in American thinking? Dr. Lynch sees a set of multilayered mistakes made over the course of many years.

Mike and Marshall are joined by Ahmad Obali, founder of GunazTV, which broadcasts via satellite into Iran and primarily services the Azerbaijani ethnic community. Obali discusses how the Iranian regime’s hardline leaders rule a culturally and ethnically diverse population, and what the rise of the newly-installed President Raisi means for Iran and the world.