FDD's Foreign Podicy

Walter Russell Mead is the Global View Columnist at the Wall Street Journal, the James Clarke Chace Professor of Foreign Affairs and Humanities at Bard College in New York, the Ravenel B. Curry III Distinguished Fellow in Strategy and Statesmanship at the Hudson Institute, and he’s a member of Aspen Institute Italy.

He’s the author of five books. His latest:The Arc of A Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Future of the Jewish People.

He has recently returned from Kyiv, capital of a nation that’s fighting for its life.

He joins Cliff to discuss his visit, his book, and more.

LTG (Ret.) H.R. McMaster wears many hats. Most important for us at FDD: He’s Chairman of the Board of Advisors for our Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP).

He served as a commissioned officer in the U.S. Army for 34 years, he holds a doctorate in military history, and he was the 26th assistant to the president of the United States for National Security Affairs.

Ways to keep up with him: Reading what he writes as well as listening to both his Battlegrounds podcast and the Good Fellows podcast he does along with historian Niall Ferguson and economist John Cochran from their base at the Hoover Institution.

But when he’s in Washington — or as Cliff calls it: "Baghdad on the Potomac" — we like to sit him down at FDD and pummel him with questions. Bradley Bowman, senior director of FDD’s CMPP, joins the episode to help do just that. 

One of the most important missions of the United States military is defending our homeland against a range of threats. But that mission is only becoming more difficult as China, Russia, and North Korea strengthen their means to threaten Americans here at home.

What is the current military threat to the American homeland? How is that threat evolving?

What does the Department of Defense need now and in the future to defend our homeland more effectively?

Bradley Bowman — senior director of FDD's Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP), filling in for host Cliff May — asks these and other questions to two U.S. Air Force officers who have served our country in uniform for decades and accumulated thousands of flight hours.

Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom is the Commander of Alaskan Command within United States Northern Command. He’s also Commander of the Eleventh Air Force within Pacific Air Forces and Commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command Region. In other words, he’s focused on the current threat.

Brig. Gen. Joseph D. Kunkel is the Director of Plans, Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Programs in the U.S. Air Force headquarters. That means he focuses on the future threat and what we need to be doing now to prepare.

American political scientist Joseph Nye popularized the concept of soft power decades ago. As he wrote in his 2004 book by that name, “soft power – getting others to want the outcomes that you want – co-opts people rather than coerces them.” Such soft power cooption can be less costly than hard power coercion.

But we see daily reminders that soft power is insufficient and hard power often remains decisive, at least initially.

Consider:
Putin’s unprovoked large-scale invasion of Ukraine;
Beijing’s saber rattling in the Taiwan Strait; and
Tehran’s continued employment of terrorist proxies and steps toward a nuclear weapon capability.

...These remind us that soft power has its limits.

But it would be a mistake to dismiss the role of soft power. It’s a necessary but not sufficient complement to hard power that can help the U.S. secure its interests.

America needs both hard and softer power tools and needs to employ and integrate them more effectively. That’s one of the big ideas animating FDD’s Center on Military and Political Power (CMPP).

What are the tools of soft power? How do they relate to hard power?
How is China using soft power tools against the United States and its allies?
How can we wield our soft power tools such as international development more effectively?

To discuss these topics and more, Bradley Bowman — senior director of FDD’s CMPP, filling in for Cliff May as host — is joined by Daniel Runde and Elaine Dezenski.

Daniel Runde
Dan is a senior vice president and director of the Project on Prosperity and Development (PPD) at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, where he holds the William A. Schreyer Chair in Global Analysis. Dan has held leadership roles at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the World Bank Group and has significant experience in the private sector.He has written a new book: The American Imperative, Reclaiming Global Leadership Through Soft Power.

Elaine Dezenski
Elaine is senior director of FDD’s Center on Economic and Financial Power. Elaine has more than two decades of leadership in public, private, and international organizations and is a recognized expert on geopolitical risk, supply chain security, anti-corruption, and national security.

Africa is the second largest continent in the world, both in land area and population. It has more than 1.2 billion people — most of them young and poor — living in 54 countries. If current demographic trends continue, Africa will account for a quarter of humanity by the middle of this century.

In Africa, conflicts are more often within countries rather than between them. Sudan and Ethiopia are current examples.

Today, al Qaeda and the Islamic State are active across Africa. So is the Wagner Group, a lawless private army loyal to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

And China’s ruling Communist Party has become a neo-imperialist power on the continent, exploiting African peoples and resources.

Joining host Cliff May to talk about Africa is Joshua Meservey.

He’s currently a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, where he focuses on African geopolitics, counterterrorism, and great power competition in Africa.

He was previously a research fellow for Africa at the Heritage Foundation. He’s also worked at the US Army Special Operations Command, for Church World Service based out of Nairobi, Kenya, and he was a Peace Corps volunteer in Zambia. And he’s a member of FDD’s National Security Network.

Ukrainians are defending their homeland from the unprovoked, blatantly illegal, and imperialist war being waged by invading Russian troops under Vladimir Putin’s command.

They are also on the front line of a global struggle, fighting in defense of the free world.

To discuss, host Cliff May is joined by Ambassador Oksana Markarova, who has served as Ukraine’s envoy to the United States since April 2021.

They talk about war and peace, nationhood, independence, freedom, democracy, Ukraine’s enemies, and allies.

This special edition episode was recorded in front of a live a studio audience at FDD.

For decades, American policymakers have come to view the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan as an indispensable ally in the Middle East, committing billions of taxpayer dollars to support Jordan's budget, economy, and military. Indeed, Jordan's Peace Treaty with Israel; its strategic position between Israel, Iraq, Syria, and Saudi Arabia; and its pro-American military and intelligence services remain critical to U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

And yet, challenges inside this relationship are reaching alarming levels. From harboring one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists and inciting violence against Israel, to a member of its parliament facing charges for trafficking guns and gold into Israel, Jordan's recent behavior has U.S. policymakers considering their options.

Filling in for host Cliff May is Rich Goldberg, senior advisor at FDD. To discuss U.S.-Jordan relations, he's joined by FDD Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer and Joe Truzman, research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal.