None Of The Above

The so-called war on terror will soon be twenty years old -- and there is no end in sight. The legal basis for this endless war is grounded in two authorizations for the use of military force (AUMFs), passed in 2001 and 2002. AUMFs are designed to keep presidents accountable to Congress, stopping short of formal declarations of war. However, the 2001 and 2002 AUMFs specify no geographic bounds or...

After the violent riots on Capitol Hill last Wednesday left America's democratic institutions shaken, foreign policy leaders in Washington grappled with America's credibility on the world stage. The next day, the Atlantic Council's Emma Ashford wrote a provocative piece in Foreign Policy arguing, "It's a sign of how broken U.S. foreign-policy debates are that the primary reaction from many comment...

As Washington prepares to transition from a Trump to a Biden presidency, how might we expect America's global role to change in the years ahead? This week, the  Eurasia Group Foundation' s Mark Hannah speaks with Inkstick Media's Laicie Heeley and The Washington Post's Ishaan Tharoor to suss out the possible consequences for U.S. foreign policy. From the Middle East to China, this week's episode e...

Multiple promising vaccines for the coronavirus are nearing FDA approval, and the United States is gearing up for widespread vaccination. While the beginning of the end of the coronavirus crisis is in sight, the effect of the virus on international politics remains less clear.  This week, the Eurasia Group Foundation 's Mark Hannah is joined by defense procurement and national security expert Dr....

President-elect Joe Biden sees the world very differently than President Trump. He's promised to reinvigorate diplomacy, and his approach to a range of pressing national security challenges – from Afghanistan to Iran to China – will likely diverge starkly from that of the current president. Biden has also begun to assemble his foreign policy team. State Department senior staffers and long-time Bid...

In February 2020, the U.S. government and the Taliban signed an agreement with steps to end the war in Afghanistan. With Intra-Afghan talks also underway between the Taliban and the Afghan government, the end to the war is in sight… though it's not without complications. In recognition of Veterans Day and the election of a new president who will now inherit America's longest war, Mark Hannah speak...

The 2016 U.S. presidential election may have been the most divisive election in modern memory. The aftermath has left the United States in a period of "agonizing reappraisal" over America's role in the world. Four years later, the United States appears to still be at a crossroads between Donald Trump's vision of an "America First" foreign policy and Joe Biden's promised restoration of a "liberal i...

Historian Stephen Wertheim traces America's decision for global military dominance back to World War II in a widely anticipated book published this month. Some anticipated Donald Trump would follow through on a campaign promise to end America's endless wars, and finally break the United States from the globe-spanning role in which it cast itself. But Wertheim points out that President Trump is as...

Commentators describe the first presidential debate of the 2020 general election as a "hot mess inside a dumpster fire," "a bad reality TV show," and "a complete disaster." What insights on American foreign policy might we – and the rest of the world – draw in its aftermath? In this episode, host Mark Hannah is joined by Doug Wilson, the national security policy advisor for Mayor Pete Buttigieg's...

The United States has been mired in endless war for more than a generation. This week, journalist Glenn Greenwald of The Intercept sits down with the Eurasia Group Foundation's Mark Hannah to discuss the true costs of America's militarized foreign policy.  Are journalists so used to reporting on the polarization of the American electorate that they miss the close collaboration between Democrats an...

In the wake of protests surrounding the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, America's institutions are reckoning with their roles in legacies of slavery and racism. The U.S. military is no exception. This week, Bishop Garrison, a U.S. Army veteran and former homeland security and defense official, joins None Of The Above to discuss this reckoning. From the renaming of Army bases na...

The U.S. bombed the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago this month. Although nuclear weapons haven't been used in combat since, they continue to proliferate across the globe. This week, two activists from New Mexico explain the lesser known costs of the production of nuclear weapons, from the devastation inflicted on indigenous communities by impact testing and mining around the...

In May 2020, the police killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor touched off some of the largest protests in U.S. history and shone a spotlight on police militarization. This week, the ACLU's Hina Shamsi explains the connections between brutal police tactics and the ongoing War on Terror, from the Insurrection Act to drone strikes overseas. More than fifty years after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr...

This episode marks the end of the first season of the Eurasia Group Foundation podcast, None Of The Above. We conclude our season with a topic that gets far too little attention in the mainstream media: the history of the U.S. military's involvement in Somalia, a country deeply mired in terrorism, poverty, and war. Mark sits down with Nairobi-based journalist Amanda Sperber and anthropologist Cath...

In February, the Taliban and U.S. government  signed  a peace deal. The U.S. would draw down its troop presence and persuade the Afghan government to release Taliban prisoners in exchange for a ceasefire. However, since the agreement was signed, the Afghan government's release of prisoners has stalled and Taliban attacks on Afghan forces have  surged . Now, coronavirus spreads from neighboring Ira...

Donald Trump ran his 2016 presidential campaign on ending America's endless wars. But throughout his presidency, he has increased military deployments in the Middle East and threatened conflicts with Iran, Venezuela, China, and North Korea. And now, he has declared war on the coronavirus. Does this make Trump a hawkish commander-in-chief? Or, has he lived up to his promise to wind down wars and no...

Since 1997, Hong Kong has been a special administrative region of the People's Republic of China. The freedoms China promised the people of this semi-autonomous region are slowly eroding. Throughout the year, Hongkongers have taken to the streets to protest mainland China's encroaching influence. The protests persist today, even amid the global COVID-19 pandemic. In January, as the coronavirus beg...

In December 2019, The Washington Post obtained and published internal documents, now known as  The Afghanistan Papers , from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). These documents revealed top political and military leaders systematically lied to the American public about the war in Afghanistan's progress, and continued its mission despite knowing victory was unachie...

Does American expansionism around the globe make the U.S. more powerful and influential? Does the U.S. gain by flexing its military muscle, or would it benefit more from preserving its resources? This week, Mark Hannah sits down with journalist Peter Beinart to discuss the limits of America's global role. From Taiwan to Hong Kong, what price are Americans willing to pay to pursue stability and sec...

On Monday, President Donald Trump and Indian prime minister Narendra Modi inked a new defense deal as violence escalated in response to Modi's controversial Citizen Amendment Act. Over 3 billion dollars' worth of American-made helicopters and military equipment will go to the Indian armed forces. What interests are being served by this defense deal, and how will India use this new weaponry? Mark H...

The conventional wisdom in Washington is that the typical American voter doesn't know or care much about foreign policy. We at the Eurasia Group Foundation questioned this. So we traveled to New Hampshire in advance of last night's Democratic primary to hear for ourselves what voters there have to say about foreign policy. The degree of knowledge and strength of opinions might surprise you, and he...

In an era of intense political polarization, how can we bring people together and effect political change? This week, actor and comedian Kal Penn joins None Of The Above to discuss how he got involved in public service and public engagement. He shares lessons learned from working on comprehensive immigration reform in the Obama White House, reflections on his cultural diplomacy work, and the inspi...

In October, two China experts joined None Of The Above to discuss Washington's response to the rise of China. Today's episode digs deeper and unpacks the very notion of great power competition, and whether America requires this strategic framework to succeed as a global hegemon. Jacob Stokes and Ali Wyne sit down with Mark Hannah to evaluate Washington's obsession with great power competition and...

As the Cold War ended, many in the national security establishment thought history had ended: American-style democracy and capitalism were triumphal and terminal. What implications would this have for U.S. foreign policy? Andrew Bacevich, the president of the newly launched Quincy Institute, observes how America has attempted to make the world in its image through coercion and excessive military p...

What does the end of the "American empire" look like? What are other tools America can invest in? Kate Kizer joins EGF's Mark Hannah to explore the principles which drive progressive U.S. foreign policy. Kate dives into what those principles look like in practice: a human centered economy, ending America's involvement in foreign conflicts humanely, and building policy around transnational, people-...