Thinking about...

Dear readers: Hope you have a cup of coffee in hand for this one. Tim joined Joyce Vance, former U.S. Attorney during the Obama Administration and host of Civil Discourse with Joyce Vance on Substack, to talk about what language to describe our moment, democracy, and civic participation look like today. Tim and Joyce started off by talking about how “sugarcoating” political realities can become a...

Dear thinkers: Earlier today, Tim talked with Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer , two former senior national security aides to President Biden on their new show, “The Long Game.: They began with Iran — and, specifically, the power the United States has effectively surrendered through this war. As Tim put it during the conversation: “We’ve lost this war, and we lost it a long time ago.” The deeper questi...

Dear Thinkers, This afternoon, Tim sat down with Ruth Ben-Ghiat for a conversation I think many of you will want to watch with a notebook in hand. Ruth is one of the foremost scholars of strongmen and authoritarianism — she teaches at NYU and has spent her career studying exactly the kind of moment we find ourselves in now. Together, she and Tim covered a lot of ground, from strongmen to oligarchs...

In this video, I say the obvious about Trump’s proposal to increase the military budget by nearly 50%: it’s a bribe to officers and soldiers so that they will side with him when he tries to overthrow the Constitution and stay in power indefinitely. This is where all the evidence points. If there is any consensus about Trump, it is that he is “transactional.” There is zero evidence that he has a no...

The United States and Russia are both losing wars. And they are losing wars that make no sense, in an uncanny folie à deux, to the benefit of China. This video, which I filmed after dozens of meetings and public discussions in Europe this month, supplies an explanatory concept: the superloser . A superloser is a leader of a great power, or (onetime) superpower, whose disastrous choices lead to a c...

If you are American, there is no particular reason you would have heard of Zbigniew Ziobro. He was one of the authors of the attempt to transform Poland into an authoritarian regime. When this was halted by the Polish elections of 2023, he fled to Hungary. At that time Hungary was ruled by Viktor Orbán, who was building what seemed like an unstoppable authoritarian order. Ziobro, wanted in Poland...

I talked with Professor Lawrence Lessig about his case that would effectively end Super PACs and dark money in politics. I think you’ll learn a lot from our conversation and hope you’ll check out EqualCitizens. US to learn more about their case and why it matters. Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscri...

“Superpower Suicide” is a concept to help understand the approach of the Trump regime to the rest of the world. We are fighting a war for no reason we can name, losing it, and covering our defeat with genocidal and apocalyptic propaganda. This is bad enough on its own; but I think this performance is symptomatic of something deeper — a systematic undoing of American power by Americans. In this vid...

I talked with journalist Terry Moran, who most recently was a reporter at ABC News and many other newsrooms. Our conversation spanned current events, from how we got here to what we all have to do on the other side of all of this. Watch our full conversation here. Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscri...

I talked with Phillips O’Brien today about the Iran War, the Ukraine War, and other foreign affairs news. This is the second conversation Phillips and I have had recently, and I know you’ll learn as much from him as I do. Here is the link to donate to Come Back Alive: https://savelife.in.ua/en/ Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider...

A quick video to remind you why we protest! I’ll be in Cincinnati tomorrow; there are thousands of protests to join across the country. Click here to see all of the locations and make your plans ! Please share this post. My books that might be helpful. Thinking about... is a reader-supported publication. Please subscribe. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribe...

Here is a recording of my conversation with historian Heather Cox Richardson from yesterday. As two historians, we discussed the importance of history to make sense of our current moment, understanding freedom to build a better future, how people can meaningfully respond and resist, and more. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss th...

Joe Kent never should have been director of the National Counterterrorism Center. Given his complete lack of qualifications and his sympathies for those who wish harm to Americans, the scandal is his appointment, not his resignation. His resignation reveals a fault line in the Trump elite, but not one that does credit to anyone. In basic political terms, it might be suggestive that fighting a doom...

We have an unusually interesting Democratic ticket in Ohio in he gubernatorial elections — and they could very well win. I spoke back in November to the amazing Dr. Amy Acton , who is running for governor. Joining her on the ticket is David Pepper, whom I know mainly as the author of fine books of political analysis and strategy. If you want a break from war news, and want to consider something ve...

Professor Janice Stein is a leading authority on negotiation and war as well as a regional specialist on the Middle East. Our conversation covers the origins of the Iran war, its meaning for the region and the world, and its possible trajectories. Throughout Professor Stein offers her characteristic wit and sharpness. I recommend that you have a listen. Thank you Michael Barclay , Mona Mona , Anot...

Earlier this week, I sat down with historian and author of “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present” Ruth Ben-Ghiat for a conversation about the war in Iran, how history can inform us about our moment, and what we can all do. We also discussed how ritual humiliation functions as a political tool, why this war is unlikely to produce the rally-around-the-flag effect Trump may have hoped for, and what it...

This post contains my conversation with military historian Phillips O’Brien about the U.S. strikes on Iran. Phillips walked us through what air power can and can’t do — it can devastate a regime, but it can’t replace one, and what we’ve likely unleashed is a chaotic internal struggle with no clear plan for what comes next. The deeper question is why this is really happening. The answer, we agreed,...

I spoke with Paul Krugman about Ukraine, economics, and the political moment we are living through in the United States. We discussed the dangers to democracy that come from within, especially in an age of oligarchy and extreme inequality, and we talked about what the war in Ukraine reveals about civil society and reconstruction. We ended with a simple point: democracy depends on citizens who part...

This afternoon, I had the pleasure of a long and wide-ranging conversation with Ava DuVernay—a producer and director whose work has consistently helped Americans see themselves and their history more clearly. We spoke about many things: where we are as a country, what history can still teach us, and what democratic coalitions have looked like when they have succeeded—and when they have failed. But...

We talked about a wide range of topics today — from the happenings in Minnesota to what people can do to push back to Ukraine. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe

Watch my conversation with Stacey Abrams . This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit snyder.substack.com/subscribe

In this second part of the conversation, we turn to the current state of the Russo-Ukrainian war, and discuss American diplomatic antics as well as European shortcomings. We also juxtapose the current narratives around diplomacy, which are often very misleading, with the state of the battlefield. Please watch and share! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers...

I had a wide-ranging conversation with the distinguished historian of war Philipps O’Brien, who has been an important voice on the Russo-Ukrainian war. In part one, we discuss the structural reasons for victory and defeat in war, and assess the first critical year (2022) of Russia’s current full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Please watch and share! Part two coming tomorrow. This is a public episode....

Greetings all! These past few days were some of the weirdest in American diplomatic history, and I was lucky to have a special guest to help explain what happened and why it matters. This was a wonderful and timely conversation with the reporter Michael Weiss on the diplomatic imbroglio that followed when the United States allowed its position on Ukrainian to be dictated by a Russian leaker who ha...

Among all the other things that are happening, we have a US administration trying to bully Ukrainians into accepting Russia’s proposal that their sovereignty be undone . Aside from the naked injustice of this, there are five basic practical reasons why it would make the world far more dangerous. I summarize them here; you will find more writing on this subject elsewhere on my Substack, “Thinking a...