Foreign Policy ProvCast

The world looks very different a year after the Iran-orchestrated Hamas massacre of Oct. 7, 2023. With Israeli counterstrikes in Gaza, Yemen, Lebanon, and Iran itself—and with hatred for Israel reaching an all-time high around the world—it’s worth asking what it all means. In this episode, Marc LiVecche talks with Providence’s co-founder and Editor-at-Large Robert Nicholson about the various dynamics shaping the conflict and how people of conscience can reckon with the paradoxes of war. What's this war all about? What is the relationship between power and peace? Why do so many people hate Israel? And what about those Abraham Accords anyway?

In the midst of ongoing debate regarding the military service record of Democratic party vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, Providence's Marc LiVecche spoke with Marine Corps veterans Mac Owens and Keith Pavlischek to clarify the real issues. Focusing on the charge that Walz placed his own interests over his duty to his men by retiring rather than deploying to Iraq, this conversation attempts to avoid partisan bickering in order to discuss the effect of Walz's decision on unit morale, cohesion, mission effectiveness, loyalty, and, ultimately, honor.

Notes: "Tim Walz's Military Service Controversy" Mackubin Ownes, GOLOCALProv.com

Mackubin Owens is a Senior Fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He previously served as editor of Orbis: FPRI’s Journal of World Affairs (2008-2020). From 2015 until March of 2018, he was Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor at the Institute of World Politics in Washington, D.C. From 1987 until 2014, he was Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. He is also a Marine Corps veteran of Vietnam, where as an infantry platoon and company commander in 1968-1969, he was wounded twice and awarded the Silver Star medal. He is also a contributor to Providence Magazine.

Keith Pavlischek, contributing editor, is a military affairs expert with a focus on just war theory and the ethics of war. He retired as a colonel in the U.S. Marine Corps in 2007 after thirty years of active and reserve service having served in Desert Storm, Bosnia, Iraq, with the U.S. Central Command, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. He is the author of John Courtney Murray and the Dilemma of Religious Toleration (1994) and numerous articles, including a chapter on the ethics of asymmetric warfare in the Ashgate Research Companion to Military Ethics (2015). He is also a contributor to Providence Magazine.

Marc LiVecche hosts COL Keith Pavlischek, USMC (RET), long-time Providence contributor for a long-form discussion about the Israel-Hamas War. Points of focus include getting the meaning of proportionality right, the criticality of making basic distinctions between good and evil, right and wrong, causal and moral responsibility, and much else.

Among the highlights is their imagined scenario in which they are talking with an honest college student who wants to know how the goal of eliminating Hamas–and the known if undesired cost in innocent lives that will go along with that–is compatible with Christian moral commitments guiding the moral prosecution of war.

PROGRAM NOTES:

* Photo: LiVecche and Pavlischek at the Israeli Knesset, Jerusalem, in 2017 celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Six Day War. With colleagues from the Philos Project, they had a private audience with Michael Oren, former Israeli ambassador to the United States and then Deputy Minister within the Prime Minister’s office. Check out an LiVecche’s discussion with him on Israeli history, focusing on the 6 Day War: “One-Hundred-Thirty-Two Hours and Fifty Years“

Michael Brendan Dougherty, “On Proportionality in War” National Review, October 10, 2023

Keith Pavlischek, “Proportionality in Warfare,” from The New Atlantis, No. 27 (Spring 2010), pp. 21-34

Marc LiVecche, “Just War 101,” from providencemag.com

Mattias Küntzel, Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism, and the Roots of 9/11

Bob Dylan, “Man of Peace” and “Neighborhood Bully”

Rebecca Munson—department chair for government and public policy at Liberty University’s Helms School of Government—talks with Mark Melton about how the United States has combatted human trafficking globally. She explains how big of a problem human trafficking is and assesses America’s role in combatting this crime while comparing it to the European approach. Munson then compares and contrasts the crisis in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Mexico and discusses how foreign governments often choose to combat human trafficking only after the US threatens sanctions. Traditionally, this issue as received bipartisan support, and Munson looks at how the Trump and Biden administrations have addressed the problem.

For Further Reading:

“The World Confronts Modern Slavery, Offering Hope,” by Rebecca Munson: https://providencemag.com/2021/12/world-confronts-modern-slavery-offering-hope/

“Hope for Human Rights despite China’s Threats,” by Rebecca Munson: https://providencemag.com/2021/12/hope-human-rights-despite-china-threats/

“Biden Should Follow Trump’s Example on Combating Human Trafficking,” by Rebecca Munson: https://providencemag.com/2020/12/joe-biden-donald-trump-combating-human-trafficking/

“Cold War with China Hits Fashion Industry during H&M Boycott,” by Mark Melton: https://providencemag.com/2021/04/geopolitical-conflict-china-hits-fashion-industry-xinjiang-cotton-hm-boycott-uighurs-forced-labor/

Olivia Enos of the Heritage Foundation speaks with Mark Melton about how the Chinese government has been snuffing out liberty in Hong Kong. She discusses the recent arrests of Cardinal Zen and pro-democracy advocates and explains what they mean for religious liberty in the city-state. She also analyzes the Vatican’s deal with the Chinese Communist Party and warns the Catholic Church against improving relations with the Beijing regime. Enos wrote an article for Providence making the case that the United States government should give Hong Kong refugees “Priority-2 Status,” so she explains what this means, why it is necessary, and how the Biden administration could make this change immediately. After traveling to Europe, Enos noticed how European governments were not taking the China threat seriously as both Republicans and Democrats in America do. So she discussed the dangers of Europe being too lax on the CCP and does not take the US warnings seriously. Even though there is bipartisan consensus that China is a threat to US foreign policy interests, she explains how the Biden administration's approach to Beijing has been mixed. Uighurs still face unprecedented persecution in China, and last fall Congress passed the Uighur Forced Labor Prevention Act—which Christine McDaniel and Weifeng Zhong discussed on the Foreign Policy ProvCast in February. As part of the process to implement that Act, Congress has been listening to public comments, including from Enos. She explains where this Act stands today and other developments with the Uighur genocide.

Here are some of the mentioned articles, reports, and podcasts:

“The Latest Arrests of Pro-Democracy Leaders in Hong Kong Lend Urgency to Extending Refugee Status to Persecuted Hong Kongers,” by Olivia Enos in Providence: https://providencemag.com/2022/05/latest-arrests-pro-democracy-leaders-hong-kong-lend-urgency-extending-refugee-status-to-persecuted-hong-kongers-cardinal-joseph-zen/

“Will Europe Ignore U.S. Warnings About China Like They Ignored Warnings of the Russian Invasion of Ukraine?” by Olivia Enos in Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/windriver/2022/05/06/the-art-of-defense-mitigating-cyber-exposure-with-threat-modeling/?sh=48be56cc4b15

Foreign Policy ProvCast, Ep. 74 | America’s New Law on Forced Labor in Xinjiang, featuring Christine McDaniel and Weifeng Zhong in Providence: https://providencemag.com/podcast/foreign-policy-provcast-ep-74-americas-new-law-on-forced-labor-in-xinjiang/

“The Battle for China’s Spirit,” by Sarah Cook in FreedomHouse: https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/FH_ChinasSprit2016_FULL_FINAL_140pages.pdf

“Uyghur County in China Has Highest Prison Rate in World,” by Huizhong Wu and Dake Kang in Associated Press: https://apnews.com/article/china-prisons-uyghurs-religion-0dd1a31f9be29d32c584543af4698955

In this extended version of our regular, public Foreign Policy ProvCast, Ted Moorman speaks in more detail about kleptocracy and America's role in perpetuating foreign corruption

Marc LiVecche speaks with Bing West about the Vietnam War, civil-military relations, and much else in this extended version of the public podcast that is available only to Providence subscribers.

Welcome to our very first subscriber-only podcast from Providence! I am Mark Melton, the journal’s deputy editor. These podcasts are part of our new, exclusive online content that subscribers can receive along with subscriber-only videos, complete PDF copies of current and past print edition issues, a discussion forum, and more.

This first episode is an extended conversation with Matt Gobush, who spoke with us last year about his trip to and research on Latvia, and specifically Russian speakers there. In our normal podcast, the Foreign Policy ProvCast, we released part of this conversation, but in this version we’re giving you a deeper dive.

I hope you enjoy our new subscriber-only content, and be sure to come back to the website often to find more.

In this episode, Mark Melton speaks with Paul Miller about what may happen in Ukraine now that the Battle of Kyiv appears to be over and the war is moving into a new, probably longer phase. In addition to discussing the current situation in the country, Miller covers what Russia’s relations with the United States may look like in the medium to long term, what the war should teach us about US-China relations, the possibility that Russia may recover and rearm from this war, how a new cold war is forming, and lessons from the old Cold War for today.

In this episode, Mark Melton speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Tyson K. Wetzel (US Air Force) about how the United States can help Ukraine fight Russia effectively without NATO and Russia getting into a war. Wetzel helped conduct a survey and write a report for the Atlantic Council that created a “strategic risk calculator.” The survey asked foreign policy experts to consider various ways NATO allies could help Ukraine and ranked both how effective that assistance would be and how much it risked escalation. Wetzel covers the findings of that survey and lists some of the different weapons the US could still give. He also talks about how previous US aid helped Ukraine fight the war to its current stalemate, why Russia used a hypersonic missile in the war, how China could help keep Russia in the fight, and the probability of a wider war.

This podcast was recorded on March 21, 2022.

Lieutenant Colonel Tyson K. Wetzel is the 2021-22 senior US Air Force fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. His comments are his own views and do not reflect the official position of the US Air Force or the Department of Defense.

To read the Atlantic Council survey and report, click here: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/content-series/the-big-story/what-are-the-risks-and-benefits-of-us-nato-military-options-in-ukraine-our-strategic-risk-calculator-has-answers/