Security Dilemma

Lyle Jeremy Rubin deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 as a committed neoconservative. His experience serving there brought him face to face with the realities of war and empire. His book Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine's Unbecoming tells the story of how he changed and came to support restraint in U.S. foreign policy. The Society's Patrick C. Fox interviews Rubin.

The Russian assault on Ukraine has created a surge of support for liberal interventionism in the West, prompting one of that current's most prominent exponents to suggest that a brief moment of foreign policy restraint was at an end. Not so, countered Yale historian Michael Brenes: "Restrainers are a more visible, organized bloc that at any time in recent memory." In fact, he argued, the war showed the urgency of developing a positive vision for U.S. strategic restraint - not merely opposing the errors of the hawks, but advancing alternative visions of global order.

What does 2023 hold for the war in Ukraine? Does Russia have the will and ability to slog on another year? Can Ukraine regain its lost territory? Will Western states remain relatively unified on providing aid? Is peace possible?  We spoke with Christopher Chivvis, director of the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former National Intelligence Officer for Europe.

While all eyes are on Iran's protests, the country has advanced closer than ever to a nuclear weapon. Safeguards on the program are weak in the aftermath of the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal. Where do things stand, and where are they going? We hear from Kelsey Davenport, Director for Nonproliferation Policy at the Arms Control Association, where she focuses on the nuclear and missile programs in Iran, North Korea, India, and Pakistan and on international efforts to prevent proliferation and nuclear terrorism.

How does the government get advice on policy in the Middle East? It's changed over time. America took a much larger role in the region after World War II, and needed more regional experts than it had. The government began funding area studies programs in academia. Yet it didn't like the advice it was getting from universities - and after the campus chaos of the 1960s, the academy wasn't so excited either. Thus, think tanks, often closely tied to the government, stepped in, providing analysis that closely aligned with U.S. goals and priorities and ultimately reifying a Middle East in need of U.S. leadership. 

We spoke with Osamah Khalil, a professor at Syracuse and author of America's Dream Palace: Middle East Expertise and the Rise of the National Security State. You can find the book here and an article by Dr. Khalil on the origins of the idea of a "Middle East" region here. 

What ideas animated the early United States' most important diplomat? David Hendrickson, president of the John Quincy Adams Society, discusses major themes in Adams' life, thought, and character and how these informed his approach to international affairs. 

Hendrickson is the author of the new book Freedom, Independence, Peace: John Quincy Adams and American Foreign Policy. It is available as a digital edition at no cost or in print from Barnes and Noble for $9.99. Find it here: https://jqas.org/freedom-independence-peace/

Washington has been a quiet battleground between Moscow and Kyiv. 2021 saw some of K Street's top lobbying firms duking it out over issues like the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, sanctions, and Ukrainian NATO membership. Think tanks got in on the fight too. The Russian invasion of Ukraine then shifted the terrain, with new sanctions blocking Russian lobbying and new lobbyists entering the fray for Ukraine.  

Ben Freeman, an expert on foreign influence at the Quincy Institute and author of The Foreign Policy Auction, dug into the lucrative business of foreign influence in the United States, the transparency laws that govern it, and the high-stakes struggle between two enemies to shape U.S. policy. 

Freeman's report is here: https://quincyinst.org/report/the-lobbying-battle-before-the-war-russian-and-ukrainian-influence-in-the-u-s/ 

The internship opening on Freeman's team is here: https://jobs.lever.co/quincyinst/45691bb5-3ff0-412a-8083-57826f528ae1

Resumes, cover letters, and job interviews are the tools you use to get hired in the world of international affairs. But how do you use those tools well? Learn key principles, themes, and techniques that can make you stand out from other job applicants and land an exciting job in foreign policy.

For federal resume tips, check out this previous episode of the podcast: https://spotifyanchor-web.app.link/e/iAR9qvjS2tb 

Many people have an instinctive sense that American foreign policy has come to rely too much on military action. Now, there's data. Professors Sidita Kushi and Monica Toft of the Military Intervention Project have produced a massive new dataset of nearly 400 cases of the threat, display, or use of force by the United States abroad. We talk about the patterns of intervention, including an acceleration with the end of the Cold War and the emergence of unipolarity. We also dig into the challenges of measuring intervention. 

You can read their article launching the dataset and presenting initial findings here: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00220027221117546

You can see the supplemental data here: https://figshare.com/articles/journal_contribution/Supplemental_Material_-_Introducing_the_Military_Intervention_Project_A_New_Dataset_on_US_Military_Interventions_1776_2019/20464279?backTo=/collections/Introducing_the_Military_Intervention_Project_A_New_Dataset_on_US_Military_Interventions_1776_2019/6140734

You can learn more about the Military Intervention Project here: https://sites.tufts.edu/css/

How can aspiring progressive foreign policy professionals start their careers? How can they break into roles working for Congress on Capitol Hill? Join us as we hear from Becca Watts, whose work on the Progressive Talent Pipeline helps shepherd young progressives, especially those from underrepresented backgrounds, into opportunities that let them make an impact. The Progressive Talent Pipeline, which selects, trains, and endorses candidates for roles with members of Congress, is accepting applications until Sept. 11, 2022. Learn more and apply here: https://progressivetalentpipeline.org/