History As It Happens

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Maybe U.S. presidents need to read a how-to manual on avoiding quagmires. Or maybe it wouldn't make much difference anyway. To understand why the United States keeps being sucked into protracted conflicts in the Greater Middle East, we must look beyond individual decision-making, says Emma Ashford of the Stimson Center in Washington. Instead, we must weigh the structural causes and incentives that have led one administration after another into battle in the name of protecting U.S. interests.

Emma Ashford is a Senior Fellow in the Grand Strategy Program at the Stimson Center and the author of First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World.

Further reading:

America's Fatal Attraction to War by Emma Ashford in Foreign Affairs

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Since the aftermath of the Second World War and the establishment of an independent Jewish state of Israel in 1948, U.S. foreign policy has been in the "grip of a foreign power," according to the authors of "Israel's Lobby."

Authors Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick contend that the lobby has successfully pressured generations of U.S. leaders to set aside American interests in favor of Israeli interests, even though the two are often not aligned. Today the lobby — which consists of dozens of organizations and wealthy individuals with billions in financial resources — is wielding its influence to silence criticism of Israel as it destroys Palestinian society in Gaza.

How did "the Lobby" become so powerful? And is AIPAC's influence waning as Americans sour on unconditional support for Israel?

Eli Clifton is a cofounder and senior advisor at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. Ian Lustick is a political scientist at the University of Pennsylvania and an expert on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Recommended reading:

Israel's Lobby by Eli Clifton and Ian Lustick

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Since the New York real estate developer-turned-realty TV star Donald Trump entered politics a decade ago, his personality has dominated Americans' lives. Where did Trump's malignant charisma come from? Where did he learn the art of the deal and how to master the media? And what about the ways of the liar, the cheat, and the bully? From his mentor, Roy Cohn.

Our guest is Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and biographer Kai Bird, the author with Susan Goldmark of 'American Scoundrel: Roy Cohn's Dark Journey from Joe McCarthy to Donald Trump.'

Further reading:

The Age of Cohn by Martin Di Caro (book review)

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Sixty years ago, in late August 1966, a remarkable film premiered at the Venice Film Festival. The Italian director Gillo Pontecorvo's 'The Battle of Algiers' portrayed the brutal realities of the Algerian war for independence against colonial France. It has inspired revolutionaries fighting for national liberation ever since. Historian Martin Evans, an expert on empires at the University of Sussex, explores why Pontecorvo's masterpiece has endured and still resonates.

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Some 23 years after the U.S. invaded Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein, the country's stability and sovereignty remain compromised.

Washington continues to demand that Baghdad disarm powerful, Iran-backed Shia militias — a promise the new Iraqi prime minister Ali al-Zaidi made during his July visit to the Oval Office. The war over the Strait of Hormuz is exerting even more pressure on Iraq's delicate balancing act.

Here to explain Iraq's difficult geopolitical position and internal politics is Adam Weinstein, the deputy director of the Middle East program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.

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Myanmar is not a country. It is a place of endless violence and ethnic strife, with its 50 million people trapped in another civil war, now in its fifth year, with no end in sight. Since its independence from Great Britain after the Second World War, Burma (now Myanmar) has been ruled mostly by military juntas. Every generation or so, a better future has seemed possible, but democracy and economic prosperity have never been allowed to blossom.

Our guest is historian Maitrii Aung-Thwin, who teaches Myanmar and Southeast Asian history at the National University of Singapore. He is the co-author of A History of Myanmar Since Ancient Times.

Further reading:

The War Forgotten by the World is an Apocalypse Now (New York Times)

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Since returning to the White House in 2025, President Trump has threatened to annex Greenland by force, mused about making Canada the 51st state, claimed he was ready to retake the Panama Canal, and turned Venezuela into a vassal by kidnapping its leader. Trump is trying to turn the clock back to a time when annexation (or territorial expansionism) was a norm in international relations. Since its birth, the United States has been expansionist, but its conduct has taken on different forms over time.

In this episode, author Mark Kawar traces the historical shift from annexationism to global influence through alliances, trade relations, and military bases. It's what some call hegemony, others imperialism.

Recommended reading:

America, but Bigger: Near Annexations from Greenland to Galapagos by Mark Kawar

Why America Stopped Annexing Territory by Mark Kawar (article in Law & Liberty)

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The Oslo Peace Process seems like ancient history. Today, a truly just and durable peace between Israel and the Palestinians appears impossible, as Gaza has been destroyed and Jewish settler-terrorists rampage through the West Bank with the support of their state. President Trump's vision for Gaza may render any surviving Palestinians as second-class citizens.

A quarter-century ago, in the summer of 2000, President Bill Clinton brought Israeli and Palestinian leaders together at Camp David to try to resolve the most difficult problems standing in the way of peace. To this day, each side blames the other for the summit's collapse. What really happened there? Our guest is historian Mark LeVine at the University of California, Irvine.

Recommended reading:

Impossible Peace: Israel/Palestine Since 1989 by Mark LeVine

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This special episode features an exclusive interview with United States Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and potential 2028 presidential candidate.

Congress' attempts to end the Trump administration's Iran war fiasco have thus far come up short. The same goes for the movement to end U.S. weapons and bulldozer shipments to the Israeli government, which has used American military hardware to destroy Gaza and southern Lebanon, killing tens of thousands of people in the process.

In this conversation with Sen. Van Hollen, we cover the War Powers Act and Iran, unrestrained executive power, the Libya intervention of 2011, Israel and AIPAC, the genocide in Gaza, the future of U.S. hegemony, and more.

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The American way of war is broken. Like many of his White House predecessors, Donald Trump is stuck in a stalemate of his own making. In Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq — to name four major wars — the president who went to war was unable to extricate the U.S. from the morass. It was up to his successor to salvage something from the wreckage of U.S. credibility and prestige.

Our guest is Will Walldorf, who teaches in the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University. He is a Senior Fellow at Defense Priorities, a Washington think tank.

His latest book is To Shape Our World For Good:  Master Narratives and Forceful Regime Change in United States Foreign Policy, 1900-2011.

Recommended reading:

Trump Needs to Defy History to End the Iran War by Will Walldorf (Foreign Policy)

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