This week's edition examines the systemic breakdown of the post-Cold War security architecture and the rise of 'hyperpolitics' driven by algorithmic volatility. We analyze how the depletion of strategic buffers in US defense, energy, and biotechnology is facilitating a transition from managed global interdependence to a fragmented era of high-stakes, uncoordinated competition.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:37 - The Post-9/11 Security Legacy and Strategic Failure
7:32 - The Era of Hyperpolitics and Populist Shifts
13:07 - The US-China AI and Biotechnological Arms Race
16:51 - Global Energy Volatility and the New Oil Order
20:08 - Legal Battles and the Erosion of Democratic Norms
22:43 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
GWOT at 25 with Wesley Morgan (ChinaTalk)
Can Taiwan Build Drones (ChinaTalk)
US-China Biorisk Cooperation Yes, It's Possible (ChinaTalk)
Apricity or Bust (Doomberg)
The Industry That Explains the World (Foreign Policy Live)
Week signals The more things change (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Red Sea to a bull market (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Midterm crisis (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Crude awakening (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Can Iran outlast Trump (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Crossroads of the Red Sea (Geopolitical Dispatch)
California's War on Wealth-and America's War on Terror (GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics)
What China Needs from an AI Deal with America Huang Ping (Sinification)
Beach of bones Russia tries to forget the victims of Soviet repression (The Best of BBC News Russian - in English)
Jessica Tarlov POTUS Needs Some Moral Support (The Bulwark Podcast)
25 Years Later (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Trump's War on Mail-In Voting (The Daily)
Did We Win the War on Terror (The Dispatch Podcast)
The Very Bad Midterms to Come for the GOP (The Dispatch Podcast)
Why I Can't Stop Thinking About 'The End of History' (The Ezra Klein Show)
Francis Fukuyama on Trump, China and the Legacy of 911 (The Ezra Klein Show)
What 'Hyperpolitics' Explains About This Era (The Ezra Klein Show)
The Iran Shock Is Not Over A Conversation With Jason Bordoff and Meghan L. O'Sullivan (The Foreign Affairs Interview)
Lawfare Archive David Frum on 'Trumpocalypse' (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily Sept. 11, 2001, 25 Years Later (The Lawfare Podcast)
Rational Security The Fifth Anniversary Hot Take Takedown Edition (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily The National Guard in Washington, D.C. (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily The Trials of the Trump Administration, September 4 (The Lawfare Podcast)
What the U.S. Got Wrong in the War on Terror (The President’s Inbox)
What the U.S. Got Wrong in the War on Terrorism (The President’s Inbox)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the accelerating fragmentation of the global order as nations transition from economic efficiency to strategic redundancy. We analyze the convergence of nuclear proliferation, the weaponization of tech supply chains, and the expansion of executive authority through unilateral energy and security mandates.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:37 - Nuclear Tensions in a Multi-polar World
6:38 - The US-China Tech and Trade Cold War
12:08 - Electoral Volatility and the 2026 Midterms
16:37 - The Rise of the Imperial Presidency
19:58 - The New Energy Order and Venezuela
22:51 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
How Trump and Xi Can Do AI Safety (ChinaTalk)
China on the Hugging Face Incident (ChinaTalk)
China's Rare Earths Duopoly (ChinaTalk)
With American Characteristics (Doomberg)
Imperial Ambitions The Rise of Presidential Power (Fareed Zakaria GPS)
Week signals The third option (Geopolitical Dispatch)
The Miracle Is Over Inside China's Slow-Motion Economic Decay (Geopolitics Decanted with Dmitri Alperovitch)
Kurt Campbell on China Strategy and Diplomacy (Pekingology)
Japan's Nuclear Taboo is Shattering (Shield of the Republic)
China's Mandate to Rule the Waves and Secure the Future Di Dongsheng (Sinification)
Changes Unseen, Strategies Uncharted Digest August 2026 (Sinification)
Asia in the New Nuclear Age (The Asia Chessboard)
David French MAGA Is Making America Less Free (The Bulwark Podcast)
Michael Weiss The Clown Car at the Pentagon (The Bulwark Podcast)
Bill Kristol Keep Up the Pressure, Dems (The Bulwark Podcast)
Midterm Madness (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Moulton Point (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
What's Dana's Deal (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
The Intertwined Legacies of Gloria Steinem and Dolly Parton (The Daily)
Can the GOP Survive Trump's Approval Numbers (The Dispatch Podcast)
The Pentagon's Unprecedented Plan for Venezuelan Oil (The Dispatch Podcast)
What Does China Want A Conversation With Jessica Chen Weiss (The Foreign Affairs Interview)
Inside the U.S. Deal to Get Venezuela's Oil (The Journal.)
Lawfare Daily Mike Schmidt Talks CHIPS and U.S. Industrial Policy (The Lawfare Podcast)
Rational Security The Whale of a Tale Edition (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily The Trials of the Trump Administration, September 1 (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily The Trials of the Trump Administration, August 28 (The Lawfare Podcast)
567. Who Really Benefits from AI and Will Data Centres Decide the Midterms (The Rest Is Politics)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the global shift toward attrition-based statecraft, where the depletion of U.S. munitions inventories and the rise of 'gamified' information warfare are undermining traditional deterrence. We analyze the cascading risks of this structural erosion, from the escalating trade war between the U.S. and Canada to the growing instability within the American Treasury market.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:36 - Shadow Wars and Strategic Depletion
6:20 - Algorithmic Propaganda and Information Warfare
11:44 - The New Era of Economic Warfare
15:57 - Fiscal Instability and the Debt Trap
19:57 - The AI Infrastructure and Energy Crisis
22:05 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
How the US and China Are Meme-ifying Modern War (ChinaTalk)
How the U.S. and China Are Meme-ifying Modern War (ChinaTalk)
Maîtres Chez Nous (Doomberg)
Trump's Korea Pivot, Chinese AI, Summer of Heat (Fareed Zakaria GPS)
Why America Is Running Out of Munitions (Foreign Policy Live)
Week signals Independence Day II (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Turf war (Geopolitical Dispatch)
What's Up With the U.S. Bond Market (Ones and Tooze)
Why Everything Is Going to Keep Getting More Expensive (Plain English with Derek Thompson)
Shield of the Republic Says Farewell (Shield of the Republic)
Tracy Alloway and Will Sommer A Cabinetful of Clueless Grifters (The Bulwark Podcast)
Bill Kristol The Weak Bully Keeps Flailing (The Bulwark Podcast)
Off A Cliffe (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Data Driven (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
The Stunning Rise of the Democratic Socialists of America (The Daily)
Canada Is Done With Trump (The Daily)
Natalie Harp's Devotion to Trump (The Daily)
The AI Data Center Moral Panic (The Dispatch Podcast)
How The U.S. Racked Up Its $40 Trillion Debt (The Dispatch Podcast)
Trump vs. the Bond Market (The Ezra Klein Show)
The Bond Market Chaos Is Coming for Us All (The Ezra Klein Show)
Afghanistan After America A Conversation With Laurel Miller and Graeme Smith (The Foreign Affairs Interview)
Why Canada Won't Back Down to Trump (The Journal.)
Can an 'Economic D-Day' End the Iran War (The Journal.)
Rational Security The All Takin' and No Givin' Edition (The Lawfare Podcast)
Scaling Laws Is Meta's Oversight Board a Model for AI Governance (The Lawfare Podcast)
Six Months of War With Iran, With Steven Cook (The President’s Inbox)
566. Carney vs. Trump and Alastair's Advice for Burnham's First PMQs (The Rest Is Politics)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the systemic shift from a rules-based global order toward a landscape of unbuffered volatility and industrial exhaustion. We analyze the erosion of democratic norms within the U.S. administration, the dangerous cost-exchange ratios of modern drone warfare, and the rise of decentralized, transactional alliances in a fragmenting geopolitical landscape.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:34 - The Fragility of Democratic Institutions
7:11 - The New Era of Global Warfare
12:40 - China's Industrial and Technological Surge
17:16 - Shifting Alliances and Middle Power Diplomacy
20:38 - Economic Volatility and Sovereign Debt
23:02 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
Why China's AI Bubble Is Also Industrial Policy (ChinaTalk)
The Rise of China's Electric Vehicle Industry (ChinaTalk)
Over Target (Doomberg)
Trump's Korea Pivot, Chinese AI, Summer of Heat (Fareed Zakaria GPS)
Why Your Political Anger Feels Futile (Foreign Policy Live)
Week signals The Natalies land at D-Day (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Adding and subtracting (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Inappropriate and hostile (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Endless Summer Iran, Woke Two, and the George Costanza Theory of War (GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics)
China's Struggle for Influence in Central Asia (Pekingology)
Higher Education's Age of 'Insufferable Hypocrisy' (Plain English with Derek Thompson)
Sue Gray Why working under Keir Starmer became 'unbearable' (Political Currency)
Frank Kendall and the Weapons of Tomorrow (Shield of the Republic)
Sun Liping and Li Daokui Debate China's Disconnected Growth (Sinification)
Understanding Europe's China Shock Anxiety Huang Yiping (Sinification)
Why Europe Still Matters to Asia's Security (The Asia Chessboard)
George Conway For Trump, Harp Strikes a Chord (The Bulwark Podcast)
David Wallace-Wells  The Politics of AI Are Shifting in Real Time (The Bulwark Podcast)
Julia Curlee and Errin Haines Cowards Are Running This Country (The Bulwark Podcast)
Tom Nichols Impotence at the White House (The Bulwark Podcast)
Andrew Egger Trump's Travels with Natalie (The Bulwark Podcast)
On His Own Terms (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Riyadh Politik (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Mission Accomplished (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Who Moves Up, and Who's Pushed Out, in Pete Hegseth's Military (The Daily)
Why Trump Is Snubbing South Korea (The Dispatch Podcast)
The China Shock 2.0 (The Ezra Klein Show)
Is a Post-American World Inevitable A Conversation With Kurt Campbell, Rush Doshi, and Mark Leonard (The Foreign Affairs Interview)
Let's Talk Bonds. Treasury Bonds. (The Journal.)
Lawfare Archive The Golden Dome Missile Defense Program (The Lawfare Podcast)
Scaling Laws Matt Abrams on Trust and the Migration to the Digital Age (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily Trans and Indispensable in the Trump White House (The Lawfare Podcast)
Washington's Missile Shortage, With Michael Horowitz (The President’s Inbox)
The making of the modern Middle East (The Rachman Review)
563. Britain's Afghanistan Shame and the Jason Arday Tragedy (The Rest Is Politics)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the dissolution of centralized global stability as regional powers in the Middle East and Europe move toward localized security architectures. We analyze how the intersection of depleted military stockpiles, the race for quantum supremacy, and the weaponization of domestic law is fundamentally redefining the boundaries of state power.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:37 - The Brink of Escalation: Iran and the Middle East
6:20 - The Tech Arms Race: AI and Quantum Sovereignty
11:43 - Domestic Fractures: The Battle for the American Electorate
17:45 - Lawfare and the State: Testing the Limits of Power
21:38 - The Fragile Frontlines: Ukraine and European Security
23:40 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
The DeepSeek Thesis (ChinaTalk)
China's Quantum Flywheel (ChinaTalk)
AI Evals for the Situation Room, Explained (ChinaTalk)
$25k Contest Evals for the Situation Room (ChinaTalk)
A Minor Detail (Doomberg)
Middle East Shakeup; Ukraine's Air War; Behind the Ceuta Migrant Rush (Fareed Zakaria GPS)
The Gulf's Postwar Playbook (Foreign Policy Live)
Week signals Return of the middlemen (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Black Sea, blue ocean, grey zone (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Rhymes with lame duck (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Bop till you drop (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Threading camels in haystacks (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Iran, the Red Sea, Europe and the UK (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Low-keying, high-tailing (Geopolitical Dispatch)
America's Critical Infrastructure is Under Attack (Shield of the Republic)
Strong Supply, Weak Demand, Little Urgency Economic Digest July 2026 (Sinification)
'People don't just vanish' Two years after Ukraine's Kursk incursion, hundreds of civilians are still missing (The Best of BBC News Russian - in English)
Dave Weigel Polls Wrong, Hong Gone (The Bulwark Podcast)
Backdoor Socialism (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Poll Vaulting (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Hong Out to Dry (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
No Way Out (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Are The Democratic Socialists Winning or Losing (The Daily)
The U.S. Missile Stockpile Is Dangerously Low (The Daily)
Are Democratic Socialists Reaching Their Limits (The Dispatch Podcast)
What Abdul El-Sayed's Win Means for Democrats (The Dispatch Podcast)
Ross Douthat The Exit Interview (The Ezra Klein Show)
Y Combinator CEO on How AI is Changing What Startups Build (The Journal.)
Lawfare Archive The Return of the Syrian Civil War (The Lawfare Podcast)
Scaling Laws AI Consciousness with Anil Seth (The Lawfare Podcast)
Rational Security The Sloop John Stamos Edition (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily Grokipedia's Deafening Silence with Renée DiResta (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily The Trials of the Trump Administration, August 7 (The Lawfare Podcast)
Iran's growing strategic ambitions (The Rachman Review)
Will Climate Action Go Backwards Under Burnham (The Rest Is Politics)
562. The Right's War With Itself and Burnham's Prisons Challenge (The Rest Is Politics)
561. How Trump's Chaos Keeps Splintering the World Order (The Rest Is Politics)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the global transition from a rules-based order to a landscape of uncoordinated, unilateral maneuvers. We analyze the strategic implications of American political fragmentation, the weaponization of maritime choke points in the Middle East, and the emerging economic warfare defined by AI's digital divide and aggressive new tariff structures.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:39 - The Fragmentation of American Politics
6:41 - The Middle East Powder Keg
12:35 - Silicon Valley’s AI Arms Race
17:10 - The New Era of Economic Warfare
20:46 - The Ukraine and Europe Security Shift
22:54 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
Cold War Lessons for a Constrained America (ChinaTalk)
China's Other Minerals Monopoly (ChinaTalk)
Geopolitical Checkers (Doomberg)
Exclusive Interview with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella; Prospects for Democracy in Venezuela (Fareed Zakaria GPS)
Why the Energy Crisis Isn't Worse-Yet (Foreign Policy Live)
Camp David and Goliath (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Strait, cross, hook, uppercut (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Muwaffaq Salti in the wound (Geopolitical Dispatch)
The futures that didn't jump in the night (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Sitting on a bayonet (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Ukraine's Defense Shake Up (Shield of the Republic)
Jonathan V. Last and Robert Kagan Marco and Miller Go Full Fascist (The Bulwark Podcast)
Will Sommer and Asawin Suebsaeng The Groypers Have Taken over Trumpland (The Bulwark Podcast)
Pardon My Silence (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Cherry-Pickaxe (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
The Fight Tearing Apart Silicon Valley (The Daily)
Europe Is Burning (The Daily)
The Iranians Who Want More War (The Daily)
Why Trump Is Obsessed with Passing the SAVE America Act (The Dispatch Podcast)
How Trump Has Changed, With Maggie Haberman (The Ezra Klein Show)
What is the Democratic Party What Could It Be (The Ezra Klein Show)
Chinese AI Is Spooking Silicon Valley (The Journal.)
Tariffs Are Back. What's Changed (The Journal.)
Lawfare Archive The Fate of Ukraine (The Lawfare Podcast)
Rational Security The Hugging Ukraine Edition (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily Dispatches from the 2026 Aspen Security Forum (The Lawfare Podcast)
The weaponisation of trade (The Rachman Review)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the accelerating collapse of global predictability as the US and China pivot toward competing technological and maritime orders. We analyze the convergence of the global AI arms race, the strategic escalation in the Middle East, and the rise of 'whirlwind governance' within the Trump administration's executive surge.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:38 - The New Era of Tech Supremacy
6:22 - The Escalating Middle East Powder Keg
11:25 - The Trump Administration’s Executive Surge
15:46 - The Battle for Economic Resilience
20:11 - Shifting Alliances and Sovereign Risks
22:29 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
WarTalk Groundhog Day in Iran, Rogue AI, Ukraine (ChinaTalk)
AI Roleplay A Deep Dive (ChinaTalk)
Chinese Labs' Latest Product Roleplay (ChinaTalk)
Kimi K3 and Xi's AI Speech (ChinaTalk)
Kimi and Xi (ChinaTalk)
Demand Push (Doomberg)
Old Tapes (Doomberg)
The Iran Expert Trump Fired (Foreign Policy Live)
For whom Iran tolls (Geopolitical Dispatch)
An eye for a power plant (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Tough axe to follow (Geopolitical Dispatch)
New front, Houthis (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Tipping the scales (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Embodied AI and the Transformation of China's Robotics Industry (Pekingology)
Burnham week one Will it be a circuit breaker (Political Currency)
Will Burnham's radical reshuffle work (Political Currency)
The Anti-Strategic President (Shield of the Republic)
How Prepared is the United States for War in the Indo-Pacific (The Asia Chessboard)
Russia's businesses under strain from Ukraine's attacks on Wildberries (The Best of BBC News Russian - in English)
David Frum and JVL Iran Is Going to Make Trump Eat It (The Bulwark Podcast)
Joe Scarborough MAGA Doesn't Get America (The Bulwark Podcast)
Dire Straits (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Why Is the U.S. Building the Saudi Nuclear Program While Destroying Iran's (The Daily)
Trump's Clashing Goals More Housing, Fewer Immigrants (The Daily)
As the Iran War Escalates, Is the U.S. Hiding Its Toll (The Daily)
More Trump Tariffs Are Coming (The Daily)
Why the U.S.-Iran MOU Fell Apart (The Dispatch Podcast)
The Future of Palestine A Conversation With Salam Fayyad (The Foreign Affairs Interview)
Lawfare Archive The U.S. Bombing of Yemen and the Houthi Response (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan Discuss Their Bestseller, 'Regime Change' (The Lawfare Podcast)
Rational Security The (Deep State) Friends We Make Along the Way Edition (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily Can State Laws Protect Against Misuse of the National Guard (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily How To Make a Patriot, with Fabian Hoffman (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily The Trials of the Trump Administration, June 17 (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily The Trials of the Trump Administration, July 17 (The Lawfare Podcast)
Maximum Pressure on Cuba, With Will Freeman (The President’s Inbox)
Does Nato have a future without US leadership (The Rachman Review)
Britain's Ticking Time Bomb The Food Security Crisis (The Rest Is Politics)
556. The US-China AI Arms Race and Badenoch vs. Rory's Centrism (The Rest Is Politics)
555. Burnham's Cabinet Purge and the Rough Sleeping Pledge (The Rest Is Politics)
555. Burnham's Cabinet Purge and Rough Sleeping Pledge Will He Succeed (The Rest Is Politics)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the global shift from institutional guardrails toward a landscape of raw, unmediated power. We analyze the hollowed-out foundations of democratic governance in the US, the escalating maritime 'doom loop' in the Persian Gulf, and the emergence of middle powers as strategic swing states in an era of algorithmic warfare.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:36 - Cracks in the Democratic Foundation
7:26 - The Escalating Middle East Powder Keg
13:37 - The Great Power Economic Realignments
17:52 - Geopolitical Shifts in the Global South
21:06 - The New Era of Algorithmic Warfare
23:13 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
China's Mythos Moment (ChinaTalk)
The Monkey Supply Chain (ChinaTalk)
Artificial Bloom (Doomberg)
New Phase in Russia's War on Ukraine, Israel's Attempt to Recruit Former Iranian President, The End of Reading (Fareed Zakaria GPS)
Is the Trans-Atlantic Relationship Over A Debate. (Foreign Policy Live)
Week signals The lessons of '73 (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Race to the riggings (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Stocks, not strikes (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Chip off the old blockade (Geopolitical Dispatch)
As certain as death and TACOs (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Iran Briefing (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Fourth time unlucky (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Trump Slump, Capitalism vs. Communism, and Old Man Yells at Claude (GoodFellows: Conversations on Economics, History & Geopolitics)
Investing in People-or Just More Things Economic Digest June 2026 (Sinification)
Nicolle Wallace The Sore Loser Is Trying to Ruin Our Elections (The Bulwark Podcast)
Michael Steele Tripped up by Their Own Lies (The Bulwark Podcast)
Jonathan Blitzer Our New Internment Camps (The Bulwark Podcast)
Bill Kristol and Ro Khanna The Governments Acting with Impunity (The Bulwark Podcast)
Bill Kristol and Ro Khanna Two Governments Acting with Impunity (The Bulwark Podcast)
War of Fog (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Iran Heats Up (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
The President, His Plane and the Press (The Daily)
From Trump's Attorney to Attorney General The Rise of Todd Blanche (The Daily)
Why the Cease-Fire With Iran Keeps Crumbling (The Daily)
Why Are Grocery Store Prices So High (The Daily)
Dispatch Live Assessing President Trump's Election Integrity Address (The Dispatch Podcast)
War With Iran Kicks Off ... Again (The Dispatch Podcast)
What Xi Jinping Wants (The Ezra Klein Show)
Lawfare Live Breaking Down President Trump's Primetime Address on Elections (The Lawfare Podcast)
Rational Security The Hip to Be a Square State Edition (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily AI Targeting Systems Are Coming-But Not as Fast as You Think (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily The Trials of the Trump Administration, Jul 10 (The Lawfare Podcast)
U.S.-India Relations Under Stress, With Sadanand Dhume (The President’s Inbox)
554. Burnham's Worldview, Trump's Ceasefire Collapse, and Advising Count Binface (The Rest Is Politics)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the global transition from institutional stability to a period of populist-driven volatility and 'anti-politics.' We analyze how the fusion of private profit with federal policy, the weaponization of energy supply chains, and the rise of algorithmic warfare are systematically eroding the established rules of global governance.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:38 - The Populist Surge: Reshaping European and American Democracy
6:42 - The Great Decoupling: AI and the Tech Arms Race
12:05 - Proxy Wars and Energy Volatility in the Middle East
17:40 - The New Imperialism: Personal Profits and Political Power
20:34 - The Ukraine Front: Drone Warfare and NATO's Fracture
23:06 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
Eastern Data, Western Compute is Fake (ChinaTalk)
Does Mythos change cyber risk on Chinese hardware (ChinaTalk)
The Chemistry of Chips (ChinaTalk)
The 20 Most Interesting Ideas We've Found in 2026 (ChinaTalk)
Ken Burns on 250 years since the Declaration of Independence; The economics of the AI revolution; How the war with Iran fundamentally reshaped the Middle East (Fareed Zakaria GPS)
Can Ukraine Win in Russia (Foreign Policy Live)
Week signals Populism ad absurdum (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Invites Live briefings on Iran, AI & Geopolitics (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Making a killing (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Temptation island (Geopolitical Dispatch)
85 strikes and a funeral (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Burning time (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Istanbul, not Kostiantynivka (Geopolitical Dispatch)
The AI Arms Race (Ones and Tooze)
Is Reform unravelling (Political Currency)
Introducing First America Merciless Indian Savages (Slow Burn)
Ukraine strikes Russian ships near Crimea, escalating attacks on fuel supplies (The Best of BBC News Russian - in English)
Stuart Stevens We've Got Death Squads on Our Streets (The Bulwark Podcast)
Ben Wittes Talk About America in Decline (The Bulwark Podcast)
Alex Wagner ICE Is Still Killing People (The Bulwark Podcast)
Piers Morgan Polishing Trump's Turds (The Bulwark Podcast)
Bill Kristol Trump Wants All-out Kleptocracy (The Bulwark Podcast)
Memorandum Mori (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Platline (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
The Unprecedented Personal Profits of Trump's Presidency (The Daily)
The Implosion of Graham Platner (The Daily)
Why Our European Allies Can't Count On Us (The Dispatch Podcast)
The Very Good and Very Bad News on Climate (The Ezra Klein Show)
What China Thinks It Can Gain From a Disordered World A Conversation With Oriana Skylar Mastro (The Foreign Affairs Interview)
The Inside Story of Europe's Breakup With the U.S. (The Journal.)
Lawfare Archive What French Politics Means for Europe and the United States (The Lawfare Podcast)
The Myth of the AI Race, With Alvin Wang Graylin (The President’s Inbox)
What would a far-right government in France look like (The Rachman Review)
552. Trump's Red Card Saga and Germany's Far-Right Machine (The Rest Is Politics)
551. Will Farage's Trumpian Resignation Stunt Backfire (The Rest Is Politics)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.

This week's edition examines the systemic erosion of institutional guardrails as the US presidency shifts toward a model of centralized, transactional authority. We analyze how this transition from a rules-based order to a landscape of unmediated impact is reshaping global security, from the expansion of executive power in Washington to the intensifying energy and technological competitions in the Pacific and Middle East.

Read this edition in full at pers-int.com

0:00 - Introduction
0:35 - Shifting Frontiers: Populism and Political Realignment
7:32 - Executive Power and the Judicial Pendulum
12:21 - The New Great Game: Pacific and Middle East Tensions
17:32 - Technological Supremacy and the AI Arms Race
21:09 - Energy Security and Global Resource Competition
23:13 - Conclusion

Referenced sources:
Taiwan's War on Renewables (ChinaTalk)
Treatment Resistant (Doomberg)
Peak Not Oil (Doomberg)
Week signals The Tocqueville Test (Geopolitical Dispatch)
The tortoise and the harebrained (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Oman's toll is another man's transit fee (Geopolitical Dispatch)
Over a barrel (Geopolitical Dispatch)
How Russia Could Beat NATO, War of Attrition over Taiwan, and How Ukraine Turned the Tide (Geopolitics Decanted with Dmitri Alperovitch)
The Forgotten Origins of Indian Liberalism (Grand Tamasha)
The New Great Game in the Pacific Islands (The Asia Chessboard)
Susan Glasser Our Money-Grubbing President (The Bulwark Podcast)
Maggie Haberman A Gross and Messy White House (The Bulwark Podcast)
David French The Birthright Citizenship Ruling Should've Been 9-0 (The Bulwark Podcast)
John Dickerson When the Media Helps Rewrite Reality (The Bulwark Podcast)
The Blues Go Red (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
SCOTUS Bog (The Commentary Magazine Podcast)
Why Americans Will Get Less Help Paying for College (The Daily)
The Supreme Court Expands Presidential Power. Again. (The Daily)
Why Everyone Cares About This World Cup (The Daily)
What the Birthright Citizenship Decisions Mean for Conservatism (The Dispatch Podcast)
Chris Rufo Thinks the Right Can Control This. I Don't. (The Ezra Klein Show)
The AI Race Nobody Can Win A Conversation With Sebastian Mallaby (The Foreign Affairs Interview)
The Supreme Court and Trump From Birthright to Presidential Power (The Journal.)
Lawfare Daily What the Supreme Court Said About the President's Power Over Independent Agencies (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lawfare Daily 'The Reverse Centaur's Guide to Life After AI'-A Conversation with Cory Doctorow (The Lawfare Podcast)
Lessons From 250 Years of U.S. Foreign Policy, With Robert Kagan (The President’s Inbox)
548. Burnham vs. Westminster and Trump's Next Target (The Rest Is Politics)

This episode is independent commentary and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by the sources listed above.