None Of The Above

When TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew testified before Congress, he was grilled on whether the popular short form video hosting app used by an estimated 150 million Americans has links to the Chinese government. The Biden administration and several members of Congress from both parties want to ban TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech firm ByteDance, claiming it threatens US national security. But is TikT...

We recently marked the one-year anniversary of Russia's war in Ukraine. Many are wondering: how does this seemingly intractable conflict end? On Friday, the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Vladimir Putin's arrest. On Monday, Putin and Xi Jinping met to discuss China's peace proposal for Ukraine. The United States and its allies in Europe continue to support Ukraine's defense with...

President Biden traveled to Poland in February after his surprise visit to Kyiv to encourage NATO countries' continued support for Ukraine as the war enters its second year. "Democracies of the world will stand guard over freedom today, tomorrow and forever," Biden said. The United States reiterated its commitment to defend countries throughout Europe by remarking on the NATO charter: "It's absolu...

A year after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the war grinds on. Early Russian advances were successfully rolled back, but intense fighting continues in the east, where a renewed Russian offensive looms . The United States and many of its European allies remain resolute in their support for Ukraine. In a sign of their commitment , the United States and Germany recently overcame their initial reluctan...

After Russia's invasion of Ukraine, observers anxiously watched China's reactions as many feared a similar conflict would break out in the Taiwan Strait. In recent years, it appears China has been increasingly determined to enforce its One-China policy, first against Hong Kong and now against Taiwan. From afar, the United States is caught between deterring China from an all-out military conflict a...

Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to be sworn in as Israel's 15th prime minister in the coming days. Israel's government, which is expected to be the most right-wing in the country's history, has raised questions about the role the United States should play, if any, in what could be a high consequence and volatile year for Israelis and Palestinians. But before we can begin to think about America's cu...

In early December, just weeks after Benjamin Netanyahu and his Likud party won Israel's parliamentary election (again), US Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked that America's commitment to Israel has "never been stronger." The incoming governing coalition that Netenyahu is forming is expected to be the most right-wing in Israeli history. What does this mean for Israel and the Israeli-Palesti...

Last month, President Biden warned of "nuclear Armageddon" as tensions with Russia reached their highest point since the Cuban Missile Crisis. While the Biden administration appears to be working around the clock to prevent this kind of nuclear catastrophe, the American public has been largely kept in the dark about how the United States would respond if Russia used a tactical nuclear weapon again...

It's Election Day in the U.S. Americans across the country head to the polls to cast their vote in this year's midterm elections. Much is at stake for the Biden administration: Republicans are  poised to take control of the House of Representatives, if not both houses of Congress.  What are the issues motivating Americans to vote (or not)? A month after we at the Eurasia Group Foundation released...

Iran is in upheaval. The death of a young woman, Mahsa Amini, in the custody of Iran's "morality police" has sparked an uprising throughout the country. Protesters have turned the current regime's revolutionary iconography against it. Faced with what might be the biggest test to its legitimacy since 1979, the Iranian government has imposed a brutal crackdown on dissent.  Countries and human rights...

Brazilians head to the polls Sunday to elect their next president and other key legislators in Brazil's general election. If neither presidential candidate – Brazil's current right wing president Jair Bolsonaro or Brazil's former left wing president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva – wins a majority of the vote, a runoff election will take place on October 30th. Election watchers worry Bolsonaro will con...

In early August, the FBI seized boxes of classified documents, some suspected to contain nuclear secrets, from former president Donald Trump's residence at Mar-a-Lago. News of the FBI's raid ignited a political firestorm but it also shed light on an obscure aspect of US foreign policymaking — America's " nuclear secrecy regime ."   From its WWII origins in the development of the atomic bomb to the...

Sub-Saharan Africa is one of the fastest growing regions in the world and home to some of the world's most critical developing economies. But historically, US foreign policy has treated the continent as a monolith and a site for great power competition, ignoring the role of African nations in deciding their own future. This week, None of the Above is joined by Horn of Africa expert Michael Woldema...

The fallout from Russia's war in Ukraine has disrupted the global energy market and hiked the price of fuel nearly everywhere around the world. In Europe, which finds itself caught between efforts to cut itself off from Russian oil and Moscow's firm grip on energy exports, the repercussions of today's energy crisis are acute. While in the United States, which experienced high prices at the pump, e...

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization was created at the dawn of the Cold War to stop the expansion of the Soviet Union. But in the 1990s, when NATO intervened in the Balkan wars, it assumed a new role for itself. Our guest this week was responsible, more than two decades ago, for explaining the NATO campaign in Kosovo to the international press. Now as NATO member countries assist Ukraine in its...

The United Nations estimates around half of Afghanistan's population – nearly 20 million people – faces acute hunger. The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan follows the end of America's twenty-year war and the withdrawal of all US troops in August 2021. In February, the Biden administration decided to freeze nearly $10 billion in assets belonging to the Afghan central bank in order to prev...

General George Marshall occupies a central place in the pantheon of American heroes. He helped lead the Allies to victory in World War II, and as the secretary of state, he championed the plan to rebuild Europe which would be named for him: The Marshall Plan. But Marshall's record as a statesman wasn't perfect. Tapped by President Truman to negotiate an end to China's civil war, he proved unable t...

From the Crimean War of 1853 to Russia's invasion of Ukraine this year, journalists, reporters, and the media have shaped the public's understanding of war. But do the stories we read and the photos we see provide an impartial picture of the wars they document? As the Eurasia Group Foundation 's Mark Hannah recently explained in Foreign Policy , certain aspects of American war coverage—reliance on...

The Russian military withdrew from Bucha at the end of March, a suburb of Ukraine's capital, Kyiv. Soon after, photos and stories revealed Russian atrocities, including the apparent intentional killing of civilians. This is sadly characteristic of the Russian way of war in other conflicts beyond Ukraine. Some, including President Biden, have accused Russia of committing genocide in Ukraine. But ev...

In October 2021, the United States and Mexico put an end to the Mérida Initiative—a thirteen-year, $3 billion security assistance package central to a new "war on drugs." Despite years of weapons sales, military training, and intelligence sharing, the initiative failed to reduce crime and drug trafficking. Instead, violence and homicides increased throughout Mexico. Why? Our guests this week, Mexi...

Saturday marked the nineteenth anniversary of the beginning of the second Iraq War—a war Congress never formally declared. Instead, just like with America's invasion of Afghanistan, Congress passed an Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF). Together, these AUMFs provide the legal basis for the ongoing war on terror and have been loosely interpreted by every president since 2001 to authoriz...

It is day fourteen of Russia's war on Ukraine. Ukrainian resistance and Russian logistical issues have together denied Moscow a quick victory, but the fighting continues—and intensifies. Meanwhile, despite several rounds of diplomatic talks, a peaceful settlement does not seem to be in sight. However, our guest this week, Russia expert Anatol Lieven, offers proposals that he thinks could end the w...

This episode contains explicit language. On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into eastern Ukraine. This follows months of tensions precipitated by Russia's mobilization of its military on the Ukrainian border. Putin's order came shortly after a gruff speech in which he accused Ukraine of rejecting its historical links to Russia and asserted the independence of two breakaway...

The 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics are underway and more than just athletic competition has drawn international attention. Amid calls for a complete boycott due to China's crackdown on Hong Kong and its persecution of the Uyghurs and other vulnerable populations, the United States has issued a diplomatic boycott of the games.    On this episode of None of The Above , we revisit an important conversa...

Eight years after it annexed Crimea and instigated a civil war in Eastern Ukraine, Russia has mobilized 100,000 troops near the Ukrainian border. With the threat of a Russian invasion looming, negotiations between Washington and Moscow are at an impasse. Moscow's demands, which call for a transformation of the US-backed security order in Europe, were summarily dismissed by Washington. But accordin...