Security Dilemma

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma, co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi are joined by George Beebe to discuss the conflict in Ukraine, Russian security policy, and the future of European security. Mr. Beebe is Director of Grand Strategy at the Quincy Institute. He spent more than two decades in government as an intelligence analyst, diplomat, and policy advisor, including as director of...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi are joined by Dr. Nikolas Gvosdev , a professor of national security affairs at the U.S. Naval War College. Dr. Gvosdev is a scholar of U.S. defense strategy and Russian foreign policy, and our conversation focused on Russian strategy and escalation pathways in the Ukraine War.

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi are joined by conservative political commentator Jack Hunter . Hunter is the former political editor of  Rare.us . Jack has written regularly for the Washington Examiner , The Daily Caller , Spectator USA , Responsible Statecraft and has appeared in Politico Magazine and The Daily Beast . Hunter is the co-author of...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi spoke with Sarang Shidore , the Director of the Global South Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, about the BRICS Summit and his new brief , "Crying Wolf? The United States and BRICS in the Global Order."

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , JQA's John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi are joined by Dr. Daniel Zoughbie to discuss U.S. Middle East policy and his book Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump . Dr. Zoughbie is a complex-systems scientist, a historian, and an expert on presidential decision-making. He is associate project scientist a...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , Dr. Emma Ashford of the Stimson Center joined the show to discuss how the 9/11 terror attacks turbocharged the worst impulses of U.S. foreign policy, but that the shift towards interventionism was already well underway in the 1990s. Dr. Ashford is a Senior Fellow with the Reimagining US Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center, where her work fo...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi spoke with Dr. Abigail Hall . Dr. Hall is a Professor of Economics at the University of Tampa and a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute . She has co-authored several books including Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism , Manufacturing Militarism: US Government Propaganda in the War on Ter...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi sat down with Dr. Miranda Priebe to discuss her new article in Orbis (https://orbisjournal.org/commentary/how-to-deliver-on-nato-3-0/) about the changes the Trump Administration needs to make if its NATO 3.0 burden-shifting initiative is to bear fruit. Dr. Priebe is the Director of the Center for Analysis of U.S. G...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi speak with Luke Nicastro of The American Conservative about foreign policy on the Hill, European security, the defense industrial base, and ending America's misadventures in Iran and Venezuela. Luke is a Senior Editor at TAC , but before joining the magazine, he spent nearly a decade working on defense and fore...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi spoke with the Cato Institute's Jon Hoffman about his article (https://foreignpolicy.com/2026/06/24/washington-iran-hormuz-oil-bases-middle-east-restraint-war/) in Foreign Policy and why America's military presence in the Middle East does more harm than good for U.S. security. Jon is a research fellow in de...

In this special episode of Security Dilemma , we discussed the Marcellus essays penned by a young John Quincy Adams, in which he argued the fledgling United States should maintain neutrality in the war between France and Great Britain. President George Washington sought to uncover the identity of “Marcellus.” A year later, Washington appointed Adams U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands. Adams’ thoug...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi spoke with Danny Bessner about his new article in The Ideas Letter (https://www.theideasletter.org/essay/power-without-ideology/?) about why the emerging multipolar world order will be less characterized by ideological contestation than by spheres of influence. Danny is the is the Anne H.H. and Kenneth B. Pyle Asso...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi have a conversation with the Quincy Institute's Nick Cleveland-Stout about his research on the foreign influence lobby in Washington and how foreign and corporate influence distort American foreign policy. Nick is a research associate in the Democratizing Foreign Policy program at QI . He investigates foreign influence,...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , Dr. Lyle Goldstein returns to the show to discuss the Trump-Xi summit, Washington's China policy, and his new co-authored book on Russia-China maritime cooperation and its implications for U.S. grand strategy ( The New Cold War at Sea: Maritime Implications of the China-Russia Quasi-Alliance - available now at https://www.amazon.com/New-Cold-War...

This week on Security Dilemma, John Gay and guest co-host Adam Abdel-Qader spoke with Dr. Jon Lindsay about his new book, Age of Deception: Cybersecurity as Secret Statecraft (https://www.jstor.org/content/oa_book_monograph/10.7591/jj.24033720). Dr. Lindsay is an Associate Professor at the Georgia Institute of Technology’s School of Cybersecurity and Privacy and the Sam Nunn School of Internationa...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi interviewed Dr. Jasen Castillo and Dr. John Schuessler , both Associate Professors and Co-Directors of the Albritton Center for Grand Strategy at Texas A&M University , about U.S. grand strategy and their current projects on extended deterrence and whether the United States can learn to live with rival regional...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi spoke with Fulton Armstrong , a longtime analyst of Latin American affairs in government and academia. Fulton is a writer, analyst and adjunct professor at Syracuse University's Maxwell School Program in Washington, D.C. and a Fellow at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University . P...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts A.J. Manuzzi and John Gay spoke with Dr. Michael Neagle about his book Chasing Bandits: America's Long War on Terror (https://uncpress.org/9781469691046/chasing-bandits/) and why America's 21st century "bandit wars" resemble previous bouts of American war and expansionism. Dr. Neagle is a Professor of History at Nichols Co...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts A.J. Manuzzi and John Gay spoke with Dr. Albert Wolf . Dr. Wolf is Research Fellow at Habib University in Karachi. His research focuses on security studies, with particular attention to the Middle East, the relationship between domestic political survival and international relations, as well as nuclear proliferation.  He has served as a foreign...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts A.J. Manuzzi and John Gay invited Curt Mills , Executive Director of  The American Conservative , back on the show to discuss the Iran War's reception in Trumpworld and on the Hill. Listener Questions: We are opening up SD to listener-submitted questions! Submit questions you'd like to ask future guests ⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠ . Please specify...

On this episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts A.J. Manuzzi and John Gay are joined again by Jennifer Kavanagh. Jennifer is a Senior Fellow & Director of Military Analysis at Defense Priorities . Her research focuses on U.S. military strategy, force structure and defense budgeting, the defense industrial base, and military interventions and alliances in Asia and the Middle East. She is also th...

On this week's special, quick-hit edition of Security Dilemma , co-hosts A.J. Manuzzi and John Gay spoke with John Byrnes , Strategic Director of Concerned Veterans for America about the risk of American ground forces entering the war in Iran. Mr. Byrnes joined the Marine Corps in 1991 out of high school and served four years, deployed to Somalia in 1993. He joined the New York National Guard,...

On this episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts A.J. Manuzzi and John Gay are joined by Sina Toossi , a senior non-resident fellow at the Center for International Policy , as they have a conversation about the ongoing U.S.-Iran war and the new Supreme Leader of Iran, Mojtaba Khamenei. Sina has a professional background in producing research and analysis on U.S.-Iran relations, U.S. foreign policy t...

On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts A.J. Manuzzi and John Gay were joined by Dr. Michael Desch , the Packey J. Dee Professor of International Relations at the University of Notre Dame and founding Brian and Jeannelle Brady Family Director of the O'Brien Notre Dame International Security Center to discuss Dr. Desch's new Foreign Affairs article "Ukraine is Losing...

In a special, quick hit edition of Security Dilemma , John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi spoke with Dr. Michael Desch , Professor of International Relations at the University of Notre Dame and the Director of the O'Brien Notre Dame International Security Center, about the early course of the American war with Iran. Listeners also won't want to miss our regularly scheduled episode coming out on Tues...