FPRI Radio

This week FPRI's Director of Research Aaron Stein and Senior Fellow Paul Bracken discuss Bracken's new report: The Hunt for Mobile Missiles: Nuclear Weapons, AI, and the New Arms Race.

This past week, Secretary of Defense Mark Esper announced that the United States would withdraw 11,800 troops from Germany, with 5.600 of those being repositioned at other locations in Europe, and the remainder being redeployed to the continental United States, but could be called to deploy to Europe on a rotational basis. To discuss these proposed changes, FPRI Research Director Dr. Aaron Stein spoke with Major Tim Ball, a FPRI National Security Fellow, and a U.S. Army Special Forces officer.

In this edition of FPRI Radio Michael Noonan, the director of FPRI's Program on National Security, sits down and speaks with Harvard University's Vera Mironova on her new book From Freedom Fighters to Jihadists. This book, based upon Mironova's extensive field research, deals with how armed groups manage their human resources. They discussed the role of different indigenous groups and foreign fighters in Syria and also discussed how Dr. Mironova conducts field research.

In this episode of FPRI Radio Michael Noonan, director of FPRI’s Program on National Security, sits down with retired British Army Lt. General Jonathon Riley to discuss the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, the military cultures of the United States and the UK, the state of the Special Relationship, and Brexit and the UK’s defense policy. Lt. Gen. Riley is a former deputy commander of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan and served as the commander of Multi-National Division-Southeast in Iraq among other assignments. He holds a PhD in modern history from Cranfield University and has authored or edited twenty-five books.

Israelis head to the polls on April 9th. To get a sense of the state of the race, the political maneuvering by elements of the Israeli center, the viability of Prime Minister Netanyahu's coalition, and what this may mean for the United States, FPRI Middle East Director Aaron Stein speaks with Robert A. Fox Fellow Ronen Hoffman, a former member of the Israeli Knesset.

In this episode of FPRI Radio Michael Noonan sits down with Sarah Kreps from Cornell University to discuss her Pennsylvania roots and her latest book Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy.

(Editor's note: This interview was conducted prior to Veterans Day.)

While the conflict in Syria shows no sign of abating, scholars and policymakers alike are trying to make projections for the “day after,” when the fighting stops and reconstruction begins. In this podcast, Dr. Benedetta Berti tackles this thorny issue as well as the necessity of disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration (DDR) of former combatants, and the modus operandi of the current range of actors operating in the Syrian theater.

In the latest episode of FPRI’s Back Channel, Host Ron Granieri welcomes Templeton Fellows Dominic Tierney and Nada Bakos along with special guests Trudy Rubin of the Philadelphia Inquirer and Chris Miller, Professor of Tufts University and the Director of FPRI’s Eurasia Program, to discuss the Helsinki summit and its impact on contemporary geopolitics. Continuing in the FPRI tradition of analyzing developments through the lens of history, geography, and culture, Granieri guides a conversation that views the Trump-Putin meeting within the context of President Trump’s loudly proclaimed if vaguely defined effort to reshape American relations with Russia and Europe. The meeting itself, which included a long tête-à-tête between the Presidents with no other officials present, courted controversy; the post-meeting press conference, where President Trump appeared to side with Putin against his own intelligence agencies, stoked the fires of controversy even further. How do we make sense of the meeting? What led to it? What did the principals accomplish? What comes next?

In the latest episode of FPRI’s new podcast, The BackChannel, host Ron Granieri welcomes Templeton Fellows Dominic Tierney and Nada Bakos along with special guest, Professor Michael Horowitz of the University of Pennsylvania to discuss the latest developments in artificial intelligence and their impact on contemporary geopolitics. The global technological environment is changing rapidly, but perennial questions remain.  What do we want our machines to do for us?  How will those new machines change the way we interact with them or with each other? Continuing in the FPRI tradition of analyzing developments through the lens of history, geography, and culture, Granieri guides a conversation that contextualizes the current state of technology, the role that this “fourth industrial revolution” is playing in both American policymaking and the broader international system, and the challenges that lie ahead.

In the latest episode of FPRI’s new podcast series, The BackChannel, host Ron Granieri welcomes Templeton Fellow Dominic Tierney, Director of FPRI’s Program on the Middle East Tally Helfont, and special guest FPRI Fox Fellow Joshua Krasna to discuss the complex relationship between the United States, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority. Continuing in the FPRI tradition of analyzing contemporary geopolitics through the lens of history, geography, and culture, Granieri guides a conversation that contextualizes current debates over Israel’s borders, the placement of the American Embassy, and especially the origins, crisis, and ultimate fate of the two-state solution. Throughout the discussion, the participants consider not only American, Israeli, and Palestinian perspectives, but also the roles of other regional powers from Iran to Saudi Arabia, emphasizing how that wider view both deepens our understanding of the current situation and helps us to understand the possibilities for the future.

This episode was recorded on June 12, 2018.