Happy New Year! I went on the American Compass podcast last month to talk to American Compass chief economist Oren Cass about government efficiency, state capacity, and what Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is likely to tackle.

We discuss:

* Why is it so hard to fire federal employees?

* Off-the-wall ways to save government money

* The West Coast meets East Coast dynamic in DOGE

* The secret to a successful blue ribbon commission

Notes: This interview was originally published here. When used the phrase “fired for cause,” when I should have said “fired for performance.” SMEQA stands for Subject Matter Expert Qualification Assessments.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

Today, we talk to Jennifer Pahlka and Andrew Greenway about their new paper on state capacity. It’s called “The How We Need Now: A Capacity Agenda for 2025 and Beyond.”

We discuss:

What is “state capacity?”

Why is there fresh interest in the topic in the UK?

How did the model of a “government digital service” spread to the US?

How do you fix unemployment insurance?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

Today, we’re diving into everyone’s favorite Statecraft topic: administrative law! The two court cases we’re discussing could have huge ramifications for how we build things in America.

We brought three of our favorite administrative law professors together: James Coleman is a professor at the University of Minnesota, Adam White is the Executive Director of the Gray Center for the Study of the Administrative State at George Mason University, and Nicholas Bagley is a professor at the University of Michigan and was Chief General Counsel to Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.

We discussed:

* Why the National Environmental Policy Act is a problem

* How a small White House office grew to wield power Congress never gave it

* Why a seemingly simple environmental case has thrown environmental regulations into doubt

* Why D.C. appellate lawyers don’t challenge laws they believe are wrong

* The potential for reforming environmental review

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

Today's interviewee has been my white whale for a while. Edward Luttwak was born in 1942, and since then he's lived a wilder life than anyone I know. From Chairman Mao's funeral to late nights drinking with Putin, Luttwak's seen it all.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(1:30) How to stage a coup in the 21st century

(8:21) Why Luttwak is responsible for a global decline in coups

(16:57) Iran’s real goals in the Middle East

(27:30) Why the CIA can’t go undercover or recruit talent

(41:11) Staffing Reagan’s presidential transition team

(44:03) Why we need more waste at the Pentagon

(57:31) How the war in Ukraine will end

(1:03:47) China’s great military challenge

(1:07:46) Snorkeling in French Polynesia

(1:09:48) Working for a Kazakh dictator

For the full transcript, visit www.statecraft.pub.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

Brief intros: Nicholas Bagley was General Counsel to Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Kathy Stack served almost three decades at the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). Jenny Mattingley also served at the OMB, focusing on hiring reform and workforce efforts.

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(04:42) “I think all three of you have something to say about the Paperwork Reduction Act.”

(12:38) A one-way ratchet

(22:16) How to get a new form approved

(32:04) Why is there no natural constituency to improve this?

(42:14) Inheriting judicial review from the Civil Rights era

(59:13) What should be on the new administration’s agenda?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

I’ve been trying to get a conversation with today’s interviewee, Eric Van Gieson, PhD, since March. Van Gieson is a remarkable character, with a crazy CV: more than 25 years of experience in developing medical technology, and stints at multiple federal agencies including DARPA.

A lot of people have spilled a lot of ink discussing what went wrong during COVID, but I think what Van Gieson lays out here is close to a comprehensive account of the reasons we blew it, and how not to blow it in the future.

We discuss:

* Why is the federal “pandemic preparedness” apparatus so sprawling?

* Why haven’t we learned from COVID mistakes, or even run reviews on what went wrong?

* How would you revamp the federal apparatus to be ready for the next pandemic?

* We don’t test whether generic drugs can fight pathogens. Why not??

* How did Van Gieson and colleagues ship a flying Ebola hospital in 6 weeks?

* How can we make sure DARPA-developed biotech doesn’t end up in the hands of adversaries?

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

Today’s interviewee is Chris Anderson. Anderson’s a former DoD program manager who served in a unique organization called the US Army Asymmetric Warfare Group (AWG). Anderson is currently the Chief Operating Officer at Troika Solutions, a defense consulting firm based in Virginia.  

We discussed:

The birth of the Asymmetric Warfare Group

Why American troops in Afghanistan couldn’t strike Taliban operatives

Why the military avoids risky technology, even when it would save lives

What we’ve learned about drones from Ukraine

The difference between drone use in Ukraine and in the Indo-Pacific

You can read the full interview transcript and find sources at www.statecraft.pub.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

I had the distinct pleasure of hosting Trae Stephens and Michael Kratsios on a panel in San Francisco in September on the topic of “Rebuilding the arsenal of democracy.” Trae Stephens is a general partner at Founders Fund and a Co-Founder of Anduril, a defense tech company that specializes in advanced autonomous systems.

Michael Kratsios served as Chief Technology Officer of the United States in the Trump White House. He also served as acting undersecretary of defense, where he was responsible for research and engineering efforts at the Defense Department. These days, he’s managing director of Scale AI.

We discussed:

* What’s wrong with the defense industrial base?

* How can we use tools like the Export-Import Bank to beat China?

* Can cutting Chinese tech out of supply chains hurt American companies?

* Will we see more tech talent in the next administration?

You can subscribe to Statecraft at www.statecraft.pub.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

Today’s episode is an interview with a colleague of mine at the Institute for Progress. Ben Jones is an economist who focuses on the sources of economic growth in advanced economies, and he’s a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at IFP.

We recorded this conversation at the second #EconTwitterIRL Conference last month in Lancaster, PA, which IFP hosted alongside the Economic Innovation Group). The other interview at that conference was excellent too: Cardiff Garcia interviewing Paul Krugman.

Jones has served in more than one executive branch role, including as the Senior Economist for Macroeconomics for the White House Council of Economic Advisors (CEA), during the first Obama administration. But what we spent most of our time talking about here was a broader question: What role does federal spending on science play in productivity growth?

Timestamps:

(00:00) Introduction

(2:03) Shadowing Larry Summers at Treasury

(3:46) Do national leaders actually affect economic growth?

(9:22) Whose job is it in the federal government to think about productivity?

(14:12) What market failure is solved by public R&D funding?

(19:45) What does the rise of team science mean for young scientists?

(32:47) Should we be bearish about the entire scientific enterprise?

(51:50) What levers can we pull to increase productivity growth?

(43:53) Audience questions

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub

Today, we spoke to Dr. Jeffrey Freeman, who directs the National Center for Disaster Medicine and Public Health (NCDMPH). Dr. Freeman leads a team that Congress has tasked with studying something called the National Disaster Medical System, which would coordinate how we treat casualties in the event of a hot war with a peer.

Freeman worries that our on-paper system for distributing patients is likely to collapse once the shooting starts, if we don’t make serious reforms.

Timestamps:

* (00:00) Introduction

* (00:18) Working with INDOPACOM

* (3:55) 1,000 casualties, every day, for 100 days

* (11:27) What private sector hospitals can expect

* (23:43) Preparing for situations you can’t predict

* (37:32) What happens when digital systems go down?

* (44:19) What’s the potential scale of a conflict like this?

You can read the full interview transcript at www.statecraft.pub.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub