Whoa, Nelly! Starting with the Munich Security Conference this past February, Vice President Vance outlined a bracing critique of the emerging political cultures in America’s European allies. As of this posting, US-Europe relations have been on one crazy rollercoaster, careening from Vance’s speech to a two-week whirlwind of Ukrainian diplomacy that culminated in the now mythical dust up in the Oval Office that had critics of the Trump administration wringing their hands over the future of the transatlantic alliance.

What is this new dispensation of US diplomacy we seem to be living in? Dr. Matt Van Hook returns to the podcast today to unpack the speech that started it all, VP Vance’s broadside at the Munich Security Conference. Matt and I walk through the speech and its main themes, locate it in the broader context of public diplomacy and (Vice) Presidential rhetoric, and consider whether or not the transatlantic alliance really is in as much trouble as many seem to think.

NOTE: This was recorded two days before that Oval Office row, so if you’re wondering why we don’t discuss it, there you go. 

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