Neutrality Studies

Former CIA analyst, Larry Johnson is quite sure; there is no "grand strategy" or "4D Chess" going on. The US/Israeli coalition war against Iran is just a rolling disaster (academics would call it "path dependent) in which one bad decision leads to the next and by now a ground invasion with US boots on the ground is basically inevitable because they already went through the built up of the forces—so you gotta use'm. But what can they do? And what will happen once Iran then obliterates them? Well, buckle up because this is ain't gonna be pretty. However, the noble men and women in Washington still manage to game the markets and make a lot of money while we are waiting for the troop build up to be completed. What a horror show.

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This conversation is a direct challenge to the moral claims of Western philosophy in the face of Gaza. I speak with Professor Dr. Irfan Ahmad, professor of anthropology and sociology at Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul. The discussion looks at Habermas as a major German public intellectual, then moves into Western Marxism, colonial blind spots, and the way Palestine is pushed out of the moral frame. I also press the question of universalism, and the exchange shows how claims of reason, consensus, and humanism can turn into cover for power, war, and selective silence. In the end, the episode is both a critique of Habermas and a wider critique of the West’s refusal to face colonialism as a living structure.Links:DOI of Irfan's article on Habermas: https://doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2025.2466001Website: https://www.irfanahmad.org/Academia page: https://ibnhaldun.academia.edu/ProfIrfanAhmadResearchGate profile: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Irfan-Ahmad-24Neutrality Studies substack: https://pascallottaz.substack.comOpt in for Academic Section from your profile settings: https://pascallottaz.substack.com/s/academicMerch & Donations: https://neutralitystudies-shop.fourthwall.comTimestamps:00:00:00 Introduction00:01:22 Habermas and German public life00:06:22 Western Marxism and imperial blind spots00:11:14 Gaza and the erasure of history00:18:54 Colonialism missing from Western thought00:32:06 Habermas as an ethnic thinker00:42:06 Consensus talk and support for war00:58:35 Final reflections and guest links

The old Western order looks more brittle, more violent, and more desperate than at any point in recent memory. In this conversation, I speak with German author and playwright Fabian Scheidler about his book "The End of the Megamachine" and the deeper system of militarism, capital, media power, and linear force that he argues is driving ecological collapse, war, and political decay. Fabian lays out his view of a declining American empire, Europe’s turn toward militarization, and the way welfare, rights, and diplomacy are being pushed aside in favor of permanent conflict. The discussion also moves through Gaza, Iran, Ukraine, China, and the Gulf states, with a strong focus on the risks that come with a fading hegemon that still has huge power to destroy. In the end, the key point is stark: a failing system can become far more dangerous as it loses control.

Links:

Fabian Scheidler website: https://fabianscheidler.com

The End of the Megamachine: https://www.megamachine.org

Fabian Scheidler on Substack: https://fabianscheidler.substack.com

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction and book thesis

00:05:07 The mega machine framework

00:08:06 End of Western hegemony

00:10:49 China and the global shift

00:15:14 Europe Iran and double standards

00:25:53 Colonial extraction and backlash

00:37:46 Nuclear danger and Gulf realignment

00:44:23 Limits of the US war machine

00:48:23 Europe on the warfare path

So long and thanks for nothing. Despite the fanfare around a ground invasion of Iran, the troop withdrawals from the region speak a different langauge. Iran is on the verge of driving the americans out of the entire Gulf region, proofing that the US/Israeli War of Aggression against Iran is built on bad judgment and false confidence. I speak again with Rainer Rupp, a former German intelligence officer and spy for East Germany inside NATO. We discuss the military, political, and energy fallout now unfolding across the Gulf region. We also cover earlier US stand-down moments,, the strike and counterstrike logic around gas infrastructure, and the way Gulf bases can turn from shields into targets. We also look at Iraq, the limits of American power on the ground, and the claim that real intelligence often gets bent or blocked before it reaches top decision makers. The final part focuses on surveillance, analysis, and the deeper problem of policy being driven by goals first and facts second.

Links:

Rainer Rupp: https://reinerupp.de

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction and Iran resilience

00:05:25 Earlier US stand downs on Iran

00:07:29 Carrier damage and US unreadiness

00:11:47 Gas strikes and LNG power shift

00:20:09 Folly or cold strategy in Washington

00:29:50 Iraq fallout and regional backlash

00:38:39 Special forces and pressure at home

00:44:35 Intelligence gaps and policy distortion

What if the world at the moment seems insane because the people running its conflicts are in fact clinically psychotic? This is what I discuss today with the retired psychiatrist Dr. Niall MacLaren. We talk about his biocognitive model and how a craving for dominance dictates the actions of modern empires. His book, Narcisso-Fascism, explains why nations act like playground bullies and why we keep electing narcissists who love the rush of power. It is a deep dive into the testosterone economy and the biological reasons why peace is so hard to find in a world obsessed with being number one.

Links:

Niall MacLaren Substack: https://niallmclaren.substack.com

Niall MacLaren Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/author/B001JOY002

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 The biocognitive model of politics

00:03:14 The testosterone economy and dominance

00:07:22 Psychology versus offensive realism

00:14:10 American psyche and the colonial mindset

00:21:30 How hierarchies attract the wrong people

00:28:00 Treating the narcissism of a nation

00:36:50 The fatal flaw of human competition

00:51:30 Replacing elections with random lotteries

00:54:30 Setting limits on global power struggles

Crime in the united states is not a bug, it’s a feature. That explains actually a lot also about its illegal foreign policies. The US as a political entity is deeply intertwined with crime syndicates and explicitly illegal acts under international and local law. Epstein was not at all an exception. These shady dealers are part and parcel of how US politics works. Luckily, there are great academics who work on the hidden power structures. One of them is with me today. Dr. Aaron Good, author of American Exception: Empire and the Deep State.

Links:

[Book] American Exception: https://www.amazon.com/American-Exception-Empire-Deep-State/dp/1510769137

Aaron Good on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/americanexception

Aaron Good on Substack: https://americanexception.substack.com

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 Tripartite state and deep state

00:11:14 Drugs crime and state power

00:19:00 Capitalism empire and early roots

00:31:22 Israel networks and US power

00:38:13 Indonesia coups and resource grabs

00:43:00 Elite rule and criminalized empire

00:46:34 Blackmail lobbies and covert control

01:08:20 Closing and where to follow Aaron

The Iran War is going horribly. If Donald Trump knows this or not and which type of information he is being fed we don't know. But the idea of sending ground troops to occupy islands in front of Iran is either utter disregard for reality or a desperate move to somehow turn the tide of the war around. Here to discuss this is Prof. Steven Starr, an Emeritus Professor of the University of Missouri and Associate of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation.

Prof. Starr's Homepage: https://nuclearfamine.org/about-steven-starr/

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Donald Trump seems to think that "signalling deescalation" by announcing that hits on Iranian gas facilities have been further suspended until April 6 would lull Iran into believing they are safe for now. But we know that the US is finishing its troop amassment in the region. The logical conclusion: the US is planning another sneak attack over a weekend with the hope that once markets are closed the troops would have two days to capture either some important economic infrastructure that will calm the oil traders or even create the fundament for gaining control over the Strait of Hormuz. What a folly!

I'm discussing today with Ambassador Chas Freeman, a former top official in the Department of Defence and Ambassador to Saudi Arabia.

Ambassador Freeman's many valuable essays: https://chasfreeman.net

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The scale of the strategic mistake the US made in attacking Iran is slowly becoming apparent, and it is leading to ever more desperate moves by the US-Israeli axis. Dr. Arta Moeini, who is intimately familiar with both the Iranian and US political systems, explains the extent of these miscalculations and their impact on the regional balance of power, while Lasha Kasradze examines the facts on the ground as they relate to the South Caucasus.

Links:

Institute for Peace and Diplomacy: https://peacediplomacy.org

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction

00:00:33 Khamenei killing and war outlook

00:06:19 Peace chatter and US setbacks

00:16:24 Iranian state and social resilience

00:24:19 Symmetrical war and strategic strain

00:30:03 End of unipolar order

00:40:00 Lessons for allies and Georgia

00:52:08 Final forecasts and Trump options

Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi of Tehran University, updates us on the war from Teheran: He predicts that the Americans are actually going to do boots on the ground since they are that desperate and it will lead to mass-slaughter of the troops trying. The resolve of Iran seems unbroken and the capability to strike invading troops not just from the shore lines but from any place in Iran is a threat that only an enemy in panic would take. But it seems that's where we are in the war.

Links:

Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi on X: https://x.com/s_m_marandi

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 Introduction and Tehran update

00:02:28 Bombing toll and public morale

00:05:26 Ground invasion and Hormuz

00:14:14 Fake talks and strike threats

00:20:26 Red lines and Gulf retaliation

00:30:00 Oil shock and global fallout

00:35:30 Gulf states and US control

00:44:43 Bounty scandal and media silence