Immigration is often framed as a domestic political fight — about borders, jobs, identity, and security. But America’s immigration choices also shape how the world understands U.S. power, credibility, and values.

In this episode of The Burn Bag, A’ndre Gonawela sits down with Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, President and CEO of Global Refuge, to examine immigration as a foreign-policy and national-security issue. Drawing on her own family’s journey from Sri Lanka, her service at the State Department and Obama White House, and her work leading one of the country’s major refugee-serving organizations, Krish explains how U.S. policy toward refugees, asylum seekers, and immigrants reverberates far beyond America’s borders.

Krish discusses what gets lost when immigration is treated only as a domestic-policy debate, how restrictive policies can affect U.S. soft power and alliances, and why people fleeing conflict or persecution often see America’s immigration system as a test of its global leadership. Krish also discusses the strategic consequences of framing immigrants as threats, climate migration as a growing security challenge, and the role faith communities and civil society play in welcoming newcomers.

In this episode of The Burn Bag, Gal Beckerman joins us to explore what it means to be a dissident in an age of conformity, fear, and authoritarian drift. Drawing on themes from his new book, How to Be a Dissident, Beckerman reflects on the people who refuse to betray their conscience — from historic rebels and moral witnesses to ordinary individuals forced to decide whether silence is still an option.

This conversation goes beyond the book to ask bigger questions about dissent itself: What separates genuine dissidence from performative rebellion? When does courage become recklessness? Why do authoritarian systems fear humor, memory, and witness? And how can acts of conscience become movements capable of changing history?

In this episode, The Burn Bag speaks with Dr. Gary Slutkin, a physician, epidemiologist, former World Health Organization official, and founder of Cure Violence Global, about a provocative idea: what if violence is not simply a problem of crime, morality, or politics, but a contagious epidemic?

Drawing on his decades of work fighting tuberculosis, cholera, AIDS, and community violence, Dr. Slutkin explains how violence spreads through exposure, trauma, social networks, and norms — and how it can be interrupted using tools adapted from public health. We discuss why punishment-first approaches often fall short, how violence interrupters work on the ground, and what this model can teach us about community violence, political extremism, authoritarianism, and war.

At a time when violence is shaping communities, politics, and conflicts around the world, Dr. Slutkin offers a different diagnosis — and a more hopeful path toward prevention.

You can find Dr. Slutkin's book, The End of Violence, here.

In this episode of The Burn Bag Podcast, A’ndre Gonawela sits down with Zhengyu Huang — former President of the Committee of 100 and author of Rethinking China — to examine the assumptions driving U.S. policy toward China.

The conversation covers U.S.-China competition across trade, technology, national security, and Taiwan, while examining where current policy debates may benefit from what Zhengyu believes are more evidence-based assumptions. Zhengyu also discusses economic decoupling, deterrence, the China Initiative, and the role of Chinese Americans in U.S. national security debates.

Together, A’ndre and Zhengyu discuss how Washington can think more clearly about competition with China while avoiding overreach, miscalculation, and unnecessary escalation.

For decades, wars targeted oil fields, pipelines, ports, and power grids. But in March 2026, that logic appeared to change when Iranian strikes reportedly targeted commercial cloud infrastructure in the Persian Gulf, damaging data center facilities in the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain and disrupting digital services used by millions.

What happens when data centers become wartime targets? How vulnerable is the infrastructure powering artificial intelligence, cloud computing, and the global economy? And what could attacks on commercial compute hubs mean for markets, businesses, and ordinary Americans?

On this episode of The Burn Bag, A’ndre Gonawela speaks with Morgan C. Plummer about the growing strategic importance of AI infrastructure in an era of geopolitical conflict. They discuss why commercial cloud infrastructure is increasingly viewed as a high-value target, how disruptions to data centers could ripple through the global economy, and what governments can do to protect the digital backbone of modern life.

As geopolitical tensions spill into the Indian Ocean, smaller states in South Asia are finding themselves on the frontlines of crises they did not choose. From the sinking of an Iranian vessel off Sri Lanka’s coast to mounting pressure from major powers and a region-wide scramble for energy, countries like Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Bangladesh, and Nepal are navigating an increasingly complex strategic environment.

In this episode, Andre sits down with Nilanthi Samaranayake to unpack how these states are balancing great-power competition, maritime security challenges, and economic vulnerability. They explore how energy shocks spawned by the U.S.-Iran War are reshaping foreign policy decisions, the growing strategic importance of ports and sea lanes, and how smaller states are hedging to preserve autonomy amid intensifying rivalry between India, China, and the United States.

The conversation also examines India’s evolving role as a regional crisis manager and what the future holds for smaller states navigating an Indian Ocean that is becoming more contested, more strategic — and more consequential than ever.

In this episode of the Burn Bag Podcast, A'ndre Gonawela is joined by Mira Rapp-Hooper, a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution and former Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director at National Security Council, to break down the structural forces reshaping the global order.

Rapp-Hooper explains how the international system is undergoing a fundamental transition driven not just by political leaders like Donald Trump, but by deeper shifts in global power, technology, and economics. These changes are unfolding as the United States and China compete for influence, while allies and emerging powers chart more independent paths.

In this conversation, Rapp-Hooper explains:

• What the “international order” actually is—and why it’s so hard to define
• Why 2025 may mark the end of the post–Cold War global system
• How China’s rise and the diffusion of power are reshaping geopolitics
• Why U.S.–China competition is structural, but not a new Cold War
• Why there’s no going back to the pre-2016 or pre-2024 foreign policy status quo
• How alliances are evolving beyond military cooperation into tech and supply chains
• What burden sharing actually means—and why it’s often misunderstood

As global tensions rise and the rules of the international system are rewritten in real time, this episode provides a clear framework for understanding where the world is headed—and how the United States fits into it.

Who is Mojtaba Khamenei — Iran's new Supreme Leader? Who was the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei?

In this episode of the Burn Bag Podcast, A’ndre Gonawela is joined by Vali Nasr, the Majid Khadduri Professor of Middle East Studies and International Affairs at Johns Hopkins SAIS and one of the leading scholars of Iranian politics and Shia leadership structures.

Nasr breaks down the power structure of the Islamic Republic following the assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the rise of his son Mojtaba Khamenei as Iran’s new Supreme Leader. The leadership transition comes as the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran continues to escalate, with Tehran threatening to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed and expand attacks across the region.

In this conversation, Nasr explains:

• Who Ayatollah Ali Khamenei was and how he shaped modern Iran
• How the Supreme Leader actually governs inside the Islamic Republic
• The role of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Iran’s power structure
• What Mojtaba Khamenei’s leadership means for the regime and the war
• Who is making wartime decisions inside Iran right now
• Whether the conflict represents an existential fight for the Islamic Republic

As the war intensifies and global energy markets react to tensions in the Strait of Hormuz, this episode provides a clear guide to how Iran’s leadership thinks — and what it means for the future of the conflict.

As the war between the United States, Israel, and Iran escalates following the February 28 strikes, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Mark Esper joined A'ndre for a quick chat to assess how the conflict is unfolding and what may come next. Esper discusses how President Donald Trump and his national security team may be evaluating the campaign, the strategic objectives behind the strikes on Iran’s leadership and military infrastructure, and what success might realistically look like for Washington and its partners.

The conversation also examines the sustainability of the U.S.–Israeli air campaign, the role of munitions production and drone warfare, and how the United States can manage escalation as Iran retaliates across the region. Esper weighs in on the strategic implications of leadership decapitation following the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and the widening geographic scope of the conflict, including the U.S. strike on an Iranian vessel near Sri Lanka. He concludes with his assessment of how the conflict could end — and what advice he would give the president at this critical moment.

In this episode of The Burn Bag, A’ndre Gonawela sits down with former NSC Senior Director Javed Ali to unpack the rapidly escalating crisis between the United States, Israel, and Iran following the February 28 strikes that reportedly killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and the ongoing exchanges of fire.

They examine how Tehran is likely interpreting the strikes, why this moment differs from past U.S.–Iran flare-ups, and what Iran’s retaliation ladder could look like across missiles, proxies, maritime disruption, and asymmetric tools. The conversation also explores the risks of regional spillover, why Iran is hitting the Gulf states, the leadership shock inside Iran, and whether any credible off-ramp still exists.

With tensions rising across the Gulf and no clear endgame in sight, this episode breaks down what policymakers, businesses, and observers should be watching next.

Read Javed's piece in the conversation here.