Security Dilemma

This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay discuss the conflict in Gaza and American strategy in the Middle East with Michael DiMino of Defense Priorities. Michael is a former career CIA military analyst and counterterrorism officer, serving in operational assignments overseas and authoring key strategic intelligence assessments for the President’s Daily Brief. He has adv...

This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay discuss the politics of Iran and it's influence on the Middle East with Iran expert Negar Mortazavi. Negar is a Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy, an award-winning journalist and host of the Iran podcast. Our conversation was recorded on November 20th, 2023. This conversation covers Iran's relationship...

This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay discuss weapons systems in the air, sea and land with former Marine Dan Grazier. Dan is a Senior Defense Policy Fellow at the Project on Government Oversight where he analyzes defense procurement, and our conversation covers naval shipbuilding, next generation air dominance, Marine Corps combined arms doctrine and more!

This week on Security Dilemma, Patrick Carver Fox and John Allen Gay discuss Taiwanese security and America's role in the Taiwan Strait with Eric Gomez. Eric Gomez is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, with an expertise on a range of defense issues including the U.S. military budget, force posture, arms control, and nuclear stability in East Asia. Eric is joining us today because he has a...

This week on Security Dilemma, we're taking an episode to explore the history of the namesake for The John Quincy Adams Society with a historian who has a new book out on the subject. John Allen Gay has a conversation with Jeffrey A. Denman about his new book - John Quincy Adams, Reluctant Abolitionist . The words of John Quincy Adams have inspired foreign policy thinkers for generations, and...

This week, Patrick C. Fox and John Allen Gay interview Doug Bandow, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute. As a young lawyer, he worked as a Special Assistant to President Ronald Reagan. Doug Bandow began working with the Cato Institute in 1982 and he is a Senior Fellow there today. He is widely published; he’s written at least three books focused on the Korean Peninsula and today he has a weekly...

This week, Patrick C. Fox and guest host Scott McCann interview Dr. Brian Finucane, a Senior Adviser at International Crisis Group and a former Legal Adviser for the State Department. This episode was recorded on October 19th, 2023 and discusses war powers as they affect the Gaza conflict, intervention in Mexico and strategic ambiguity in Taiwan. We also address specifics like the Geneva conventio...

This week, Patrick C. Fox and John Allen Gay interview Elizabeth Beavers, a Vice President at the Quincy Institute, an experienced advocate for progressive foreign policy reform and an expert on national security law. In this conversation, we cover the legacy of Sen. Feinstein, legal justifications for proxy wars, American strategy in North Korea, Congress's role in foreign policy and the thre...

This week, Patrick C. Fox and John Allen Gay interview Daniel DePetris, a fellow at Defense Priorities and a syndicated foreign affairs columnist at the Chicago Tribune. In this conversation, we cover the prospect of intervening in Mexico, tensions between India and Canada, America's role in Somalia and the Abraham Accords.

This week, Patrick C. Fox and John Allen Gay interview Dr. Jordan Cohen, an expert on arms sales policy at the Cato Institute. In this conversation we cover cluster munitions in Ukraine, the policy mechanisms of aid to Taiwan and alliance politics with arms sales in the Middle East. Dr. Cohen's War on the Rocks article Dr. Cohen on aid to Taiwan Dr. Cohen on tracking U.S. weapons

This week, Patrick C. Fox and John Allen Gay interview Matthew Petti, a young independent journalist covering the Middle East. In this conversation we cover the origins of the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan, America's ongoing presence and path out of Syria, the context of the Iranian hostage exchange and the "spaghetti logic" of Henry Kissinger's realism. Matthew Petti&#...

This week, Patrick C. Fox and John Allen Gay interview Dr. Alexander Thurston, an expert on conflicts, jihadism and stability in West Africa. Dr. Alex Thurston is a professor at the University of Cincinnati and a non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute. This conversation covers sources of instability ranging from the French presence to the American intervention in Libya along with a conversati...

This week, Patrick C. Fox and co-host John Allen Gay interview Dr. Stephen Wertheim, a diplomatic historian and Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Dr. Wertheim is a leading voice on foreign policy for the left, with essays in the New York Times and Foreign Affairs and appearances on programs including CNN and NPR. Our conversation covers the left's relationship wi...

This week, Patrick C. Fox and guest co-host A.J. Manuzzi interview Dr. Paul Heer, a decorated former intelligence official and National Intelligence Officer for East Asia from 2007 to 2015. Now a Non-Resident Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, Dr. Heer's book Mr. X and the Pacific was just released in paperback. Our conversation covers how China and Xi Jinping think, the f...

This week, Patrick C. Fox and guest co-host A.J. Manuzzi interview Elizabeth Shackelford, a Senior Fellow at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs. Our conversation covers the practice of diplomacy in U.S. foreign policy, conflict in Somalia, the coup in Niger and tensions in Southern Africa.

For a bonus episode, Security Dilemma interviewed Dan Caldwell, a VP at the Center for Renewing America and a conservative veteran foreign policy advocate. We recorded this episode on August 24th, the morning after the first GOP primary debate. Our conversation covers the foreign policy of a second Trump administration, conservative rhetoric about Europe and the southern border, the foreign policy...

This week, Security Dilemma interviewed Dr. David Kang, a professor at the University of Southern California. Our conversation covers the application of realism to the Asian peace, China's current and future role in the world, tensions on the Korean Peninsula, what the Philippines teaches us about alliances, India's position in Asia and soccer diplomacy.

This week, Security Dilemma interviewed Dr. Sumantra Maitra of The American Conservative and the Center for Renewing America. Our conversation covers the European tradition of realism, a conservative realist approach to competition with China and a critical perspective on India. Dr. Maitra on pivoting from Europe - https://americarenewing.com/issues/policy-brief-pivoting-the-us-away-from-europe-to...

This week, Security Dilemma interviewed the Stimson Center's Dr. Emma Ashford, a key advocate for realism and restraint in U.S. foreign policy. Emma spoke about energy politics, grand strategy and advice for future foreign policy practitioners.

This week, Security Dilemma interviewed the the Cato Institute's director of defense and foreign policy studies - Justin Logan. Justin is a highly regarded voice in the foreign policy thinktank space, and he offered his analysis on China policy, NATO expansion and fentanyl.

Join dissident foreign policy academic Dr. Van Jackson for a conversation about the Indo-Pacific, nuclear policy and progressive foreign policy. Dr. Jackson is a Senior Lecturer at Victoria University of Wellington, the host of the Un-Diplomatic Podcast and the author of Pacific Power Paradox.

Jason Beardsley, a former U.S. military veteran and Director of Veterans Affairs at Stand Together, shares his insights on a range of national security issues. Beardsley's diverse background and experiences in the military provide a unique perspective on the challenges and complexities facing the United States in the realm of national security. The non-conventional footprint of SOF provides ad...

Join legendary foreign policy academic Dr. Stephen Walt in a tour of modern national security issues. Dr. Walt is a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School, a columnist at Foreign Policy, and the author of The Origin of Alliances , The Hell of Good Intentions , and many more books.

Lyle Jeremy Rubin deployed to Afghanistan in 2010 as a committed neoconservative. His experience serving there brought him face to face with the realities of war and empire. His book Pain is Weakness Leaving the Body: A Marine's Unbecoming tells the story of how he changed and came to support restraint in U.S. foreign policy. The Society's Patrick C. Fox interviews Rubin.

The Russian assault on Ukraine has created a surge of support for liberal interventionism in the West, prompting one of that current's most prominent exponents to suggest that a brief moment of foreign policy restraint was at an end . Not so, countered Yale historian Michael Brenes: "Restrainers are a more visible, organized bloc that at any time in recent memory." In fact, he argued, the war show...