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/

Washington loves the F-35 and hates the A-10. Why? Join us as we dig up a struggle that has roots in the earliest days of air power and turns on fundamental questions: what is an air force for? How should we purchase, assess, and retire aircraft? What are the politics behind these decisions?  Join us as we hear from Dan Grazier, Senior Defense Policy Fellow at the Project on Government Oversight and a veteran of the United States Marine Corps, on these two jets.   

You can read more of Dan's work here: https://www.pogo.org/about/people/dan-grazier 

FM 100-20 (July 1943) is here: https://www.ibiblio.org/hyperwar/USA/ref/FM/FM100-20/index.html  

The Key West Agreement (1948) is here: https://cgsc.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/p4013coll11/id/729/ 

The F-35 economic impact page is here. https://www.f35.com/f35/about/economic-impact.html

Nancy Pelosi's recent visit to Taiwan got a furious reaction from China, which held major military exercises around the island and fired ballistic missiles. These incidents highlighted a broader trend: China's military is growing in power, while the United States has been engaging more and more openly with Taiwan. Is the status quo falling apart? Are Washington and Beijing on the road to war? Can Taiwan defend itself? We spoke to Michael Swaine of the Quincy Institute about these critical questions.  Swaine is among the authors of Active Denial, a recent study of U.S. defense posture in Asia. https://quincyinst.org/report/active-denial-a-roadmap-to-a-more-effective-stabilizing-and-sustainable-u-s-defense-strategy-in-asia/

In the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Finland and Sweden made a dramatic shift in their security policies, seeking membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and turning away from decades of neutrality (indeed, centuries in Sweden's case). Barring further Turkish objections, their membership appears likely to go through. Does this serve U.S. interests? We spoke with Sumantra Maitra of the Center for the National Interest and the Royal Historical Society. Dr. Maitra is author of a forthcoming article on this subject for Law and Liberty and the below report at the Center for Renewing America: https://americarenewing.com/issues/nato-expansion-for-finland-and-sweden-a-dangerous-and-unnecessary-distraction-from-us-interests/

We hear a lot about something called "the liberal international order." The frequent use of the term, however, is relatively recent - and the phrase itself often obscures as much as it reveals. This recording from our 2022 summer conference in Washington captures a conversation with Stephen Wertheim of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and its American Statecraft Program.

The Eurasia Group Foundation (EGF) came out in June with their annual survey of international perceptions of American democracy. As the Biden administration works to restore the credibility of the United States on the world stage, we found favorable views of both the United States and American democracy are at a four-year high. The report also found favorable views of President Biden’s foreign policy decisions, including Ukraine and Afghanistan. At the same time, views of American democracy from respondents in China are at a four-year low. The report is based on nearly 5,000 survey takers in nine politically and geographically diverse countries. Respondents were asked detailed questions about the United States, its democracy, and its global influence. EGF shared its most notable findings with JQAS and discussed possible implications for US foreign policy going forward. EGF researchers Zuri Linetsky, Caroline Gray, and Lucas Robinson spoke with us.

You can find the full poll here. https://egfound.org/2022/06/modeling-democracy-democracys-promise/

You can find more information about our Marcellus Policy Fellowship, mentioned at the end as a great way to develop your foreign policy writing skills, here. Applications are currently open for the fall cohort. https://jqas.org/the-marcellus-policy-fellowship/