This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Derek speaks with Akbar Shahid Ahmed, senior foreign affairs reporter at HuffPost, about what is going on within the Biden administration around the Gaza War. Topics include sidelining the State Department, stifling voices therein, figures influencing Biden’s Middle East policy like Brett McGurk, and more. Then, for subscribers, Danny and Derek welcome b…

Special - The 2023 Gaza War, Ep. 16 w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed and Michael Brenes

A podcast from Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison that provides listeners with everything they need to know about what’s going on in the world. 

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Danny and Derek are pleased to welcome back to the podcast Luca Trenta, associate professor in International Relations at Swansea University and author of The President’s Kill List. The group discusses assassinations and international law, when and how assassination became a tool for US foreign policy, the difficulties in accessing declassified documents about this topic, unsuccessful attempts on the life of Fidel Castro and successful operations against the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Patrice Lumumba, the intelligence community using assassination as a “low level” (i.e. not nuclear) form of retaliation in the Cold War, contemporary justifications for assassinations as “self defense” and the notion of “imminence”, and more.  Check out Luca’s podcast on intelligence and covert action, Out of the Shadows. 

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

E153 - Assassination and US Foreign Policy Since 1945 w/ Luca Trenta

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Happy Father’s Day! Patrick Wyman, host of the Tides of History podcast and author of The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World, returns to the program to talk about the all-important topic of fathers. Since it’s American Prestige, though, the group decided to focus on one of the great dads of history: Philip II of Macedo…

Bonus - Philip II of Macedon, Father w/ Patrick Wyman

Another Friday, another roundup courtesy of Danny and Derek. This week: in Gaza, Israel carries out a hostage rescue operation, massacring more Palestinian civilians in the process (0:30), while ceasefire talks amble along (10:54); Israel also kills a Hezbollah commander in Lebanon prompting an armed response (14:32); the field is finalized for Iran’s upcoming presidential election (17:41); in Myanmar, rebels advance in Rakhine State (21:21); tensions rise between the DPRK/North Korea and South Korea (24:20); an update on Sudan and the situation in El Fasher (28:44); coalition talks begin in South Africa in the wake of the recent election (30:31); the Right sees wins in European Parliament elections, plus Macron tries a gambit amidst the fallout in France (35:20); the G7 meets and pledges further support for Ukraine (41:26); the US considers expanding its nuclear arsenal (44:14); and a new Pew poll finds that global support for America/Biden is declining (46:03).    

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

News - Israeli Hostage Operation, The Right Wins in EU Elections, Tensions Rise in Korea

Danny and Derek welcome to the podcast Maria Repnikova, associate professor in global communication at Georgia State University, to talk about China’s use of so-called “soft power”. They explore the origin of the phrase and what Maria means by it, Confucius Institutes, public diplomacy, Chinese efforts to build a global media network, how the US frames these initiatives, and what kind of image China might be trying to project.  Be sure to pick up a copy of Maria’s book of the same name.        

This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.americanprestigepod.com/subscribe

E152 - Chinese Soft Power w/ Maria Repnikova

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit www.americanprestigepod.com

Danny and Derek welcome back to the podcast Benjamin Fogel, head of publishing at the Alameda Institute and contributing editor to Jacobin, to talk about the May 29 general election in South Africa wherein the African National Congress (ANC) lost its 30-year majority.   Alameda is a research institute that connects with social movements to understand how…

Special - The 2023 Gaza War, Ep. 16 w/ Akbar Shahid Ahmed and Michael Brenes

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