David's Politics Show

Israel is on the verge of celebrating 75 years of independence, yet finds itself in a state of unprecedented domestic discombobulation. How did it come to this, what is at stake, and to what extent is the internal upheaval beginning to impinge on Israel’s national security? I’m delighted to have Professor Chuck Freilich back on the podcast to discuss all this and more.

Almost exactly a year has passed since the start of Russia’s second invasion of Ukraine in less than a decade – and what a year it’s been, marked first by jubilation at the unexpected success of the Ukrainian armed forces, then by consternation at the realization that this was going to turn into a long, grinding, attritional war.

To take stock of the current military and political situation at the one-year mark I’m delighted to be joined again by the noted Russia and Ukraine expert Dr. Andreas Umland from the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs.

The scale of Chinese naval modernization in the past three decades has been staggering. Whereas in the 20th century the Chinese navy played second fiddle to the army, in the 21st they have become a force to be reckoned with in their own right.

My guest today has spent decades closely watching the PLAN’s development. Captain James Fanell is a retired naval intelligence officer whose most recent assignment was as the Director of Intelligence and Information Operations for the U.S. Pacific Fleet. He previously also served as the Senior Intelligence Officer for China in the Office of Naval Intelligence.

We talk about Chinese progress in ballistic- and cruise-missile technology, their plans for a maritime information architecture, undersea warfare, and what all this means for Taiwan and for the ability of the U.S. Navy to maintain deterrence in the western Pacific.

Do we need to privilege or at least revalorize the methods of the historian, as opposed to those of the political scientist or theorist of international relations, when thinking about and studying American foreign policy, especially American nuclear statecraft? Was the history of the Cold War, for example, really coterminous with the history of the nuclear revolution? And what might an interdisciplinary approach, blending the historian’s craft with the theoretical ambitions of security-studies scholars, look like? I’m delighted to have had Professor Francis Gavin on the podcast for the first time to discuss his book, “Nuclear Statecraft: History and Strategy in America’s Atomic Age”.

Has India struck the right political and diplomatic balance since Russia’s full-blown invasion of Ukraine began, almost eight months ago? How are Russia’s blunders and difficulties on the battlefield likely to affect India’s geopolitical room for maneuver? With me to discuss all this and more is noted Indian foreign-policy expert and returning guest on this podcast, Professor Rajesh Rajagopalan.

Can the humble homing pigeon teach us something about what it means to return home, to be at home? Do the stories we tell and read about home influence our understanding of homes, homecomings, homelands? Do our experience and memory of homelessness, exile, and return have something to do with how we relate to the animal world as such? And could dwelling perhaps be the preferable alternative to thinking about and longing for home? I discuss all this and more with the author of a remarkable and charming book on pigeons, what home means to them, what home means to us.

“Pan-Asian Zionism” – to our twenty-first century ears the phrase sounds odd, even absurd. And yet the ideological position it represented in the early twentieth century was vigorously championed by a German-speaking Habsburg Jew, Eugen Hoeflich. Why did he think Zionism should take on a pan-Asian orientation? What became of his ideas? And what did he make of “official” Zionism? With me to discuss this fascinating if forgotten figure is the historian and noted specialist of Jewish intellectual history, Dr. Hanan Harif.

More than half a century has passed since Israel’s dramatic victory in the Six Day War, yet its after-effects are still with us. What were some of its long-run implications? Former Israeli deputy national-security adviser Chuck Freilich joins me to talk about the war and the latest developments in Israeli politics.

The Modi government’s “Agnipath” reform of the Indian military, if fully implemented, will determine a dramatic change in the way in which the Indian armed forces have been recruited and thus have related to wider Indian society. What was the genesis of this reform? Why has it been introduced? And what are its pros and cons? I discuss all this with former Indian Army Brigadier Rahul Bhonsle.

Ben Gurion and Nehru – two of the most important statesmen of the twentieth century. What can we learn about their respective countries from a detailed comparison of these two leaders’ lives and political careers? What were the ideological and historical factors underlying the complicated diplomatic dance between India and Israel in the first decades after independence? And what is the nature of the relationship now? Dr. Khinvraj Jangid, one of India’s foremost researchers on Israel and the history of Zionism, joins me to discuss all this and more.