The Burn Bag Podcast

In The Burn Bag's first episode of 2021, A'ndre and Ryan chat with Ambassador Thomas Shannon, the former Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs (the third highest ranking position at the State Department), who held the position of Career Ambassador and was the highest ranking member of the U.S. Foreign Service, and also served briefly as Acting Secretary of State in-between the t...

In the latest installment of  The Burn Bag Podcast , A'ndre and Ryan sit down with former CIA Senior Clandestine Services Officer Daniel Hoffman for a wide-ranging discussion drawing upon his experience and expertise as an operations officer and a CIA Chief of Station. Hoffman digs into what it means to hire spies and covers why human intelligence is still vitally important  and reliable to t...

In this week's episode, A’ndre and Ryan dig into Russia's SolarWinds hacking with Javed Ali. They discuss what happened, the implications, and potential responses by the United States. The conversation concludes with Javed's take on the "dual-hatted" leadership of CYBERCOM and the NSA and why it may be beneficial to split the two. Today's conversation is based on Jave...

In this episode of The Burn Bag Podcast , A'ndre and Ryan interview former Principal Deputy Director of National Intelligence Sue Gordon, about her long and distinguished career in the CIA and as a leader in the Intelligence Community, and her perspectives on a range of issues. As PDDNI, Gordon was essentially the second-highest official leading the Intelligence Community,  and she gives us h...

In this week's episode, A'ndre and Ryan talk about Russia's hacking of the U.S. government and the kidnapping of Nigerian schoolboys by Boko Haram. They also provide an update on the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and discuss U.S. recognition of Morocco's sovereignty over Western Sahara. 

In this episode, we spoke with Professor Allen Hicken, professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan, about the protests in Thailand. Professor Hicken discusses the deep polarization of Thailand due, in part, to the ongoing protests of the past decade, the demands for reform of the Thai monarchy, and the dissolution of the Future Forward Party (FFP). Lastly, we speak about the futur...

In this week's episode, A'ndre and Ryan discuss President-elect Biden's announcement of General (Ret.) Lloyd Austin as SecDef nominee, US arms sales to the UAE, and the mass protests in India. They also talk to Javed Ali about Iran's potential responses to the killing of its lead nuclear scientist and what this may mean for the US and its allies. Our conversation with Javed is...

In this special episode, we spoke with Terrence Lyons, Associate Professor of Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, about the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia. Professor Lyons discusses how the remnants of the Ethiopian Civil War led to political reforms initiated in 2018 by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, creating an opening for peace, but also an opportunity for divisive ethnic politics to re-e...

We talk with Bruce Riedel, Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, about the Israel- Palestine conflict and broader geopolitics within the Middle East. Riedel draws on his experience as part of President Clinton's peace process team, and specifically talks about what he saw at the 2000 Camp David Summit, and why he did not have confidence in the summit's proceedings, which ultimately...

In this week's episode,  A'ndre and Ryan discuss potential Biden Administration nominees, tensions between China and Australia, and the death of Iran's top nuclear scientist. They also cover Israel's political turmoil and provide an update on the situation in Ethiopia. 

In this episode, we talk with Professor Sean Roberts about the Uyghur people and their relations with China. Professor Roberts discusses the history of the Uyghurs, how China came to view them as a threat, and what the international community can do to stop this cultural genocide. Our conversation is based on Professor Roberts' new book, The War on the Uyghurs: China's Internal Campaign...

In this week's episode, A'ndre and Ryan discuss the current nominees for the Biden Cabinet, provide an update on what’s occurring in Ethiopia, and assess the recent developments between Israel and the Gulf States, the recent death of a CIA employee in Somalia, and offer their predictions on the possibility of an Edward Snowden pardon. The episode caps off with a very special interview wi...

In this very special episode of The Burn Bag , hosts A’ndre Gonawela and Ryan Rosenthal talk to former CIA Director GEN (Ret.) David Petraeus about a range of topics. General Petraeus gives us his take on current and future U.S. defense policy in the Middle East, and provides an insight into his own time as CENTCOM Commander in the 2000s dealing with 'nation-building' in Iraq and Afghani...

In this week's episode, A'ndre and Ryan discuss the Pentagon's planned withdrawal from Iraq and Afghanistan, the humanitarian crisis in Ethiopia, and the political upheaval in Peru. We also cover Biden transition updates, the EU Budget veto, and Secretary Pompeo's Israel trip.

In this special episode of The Burn Bag , hosts A’ndre Gonawela and Ryan Rosenthal talk to Robert Cardillo, former Director of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) on a variety of important topics pertaining to the state of the intelligence community. We discuss the relationship between the intelligence community and policymakers, NGA monitoring our adversaries, the future of intellig...

In this special installment of  The Burn Bag , our executive producer Javed Ali (former NSC Senior Director of Counterterrorism) had the opportunity to have a conversation with sitting CENTCOM Commander General Frank McKenzie. GEN McKenzie and Javed talk about the biggest issues and challenges facing the US Central Command in its Area of Responsibility, which stretches from the Middle East to part...

In our inaugural "What in the World?" episode,  A'ndre and Ryan cover the week's top national security and foreign policy stories. They breakdown the shakeup at the Pentagon, the ceasefire between Armenia and Azerbaijan, and President-elect Biden's potential cabinet picks. 

In this episode, A'ndre and Ryan talk to Dan Hubert, former LCDR in the US Navy and the founder of MODUS, about surveillance drones, drones in the private sector, his 'battlefield to the boardroom' story, and the broader defense industry in the private sector. Dan provides us with a keen insight on the history of surveillance drones in the US military, and how they have been employe...

In this latest installment of The Burn Bag , hosts A'ndre Gonawela and Ryan Rosenthal have a lively discussion on US interests in Latin America with Juan Cruz, who served on the National Security Council between 2017 and 2019 as the Senior Director for Western Hemisphere affairs and as a Senior Assistant to the President. Juan has had a deep role in shaping the Trump Administration's app...

In this hard-hitting episode of The Burn Bag Podcast , we talk to Tom Warrick, the former DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Counterterrorism Policy, on a variety of important and controversial topics that have pertained to the Department of Homeland Security since its founding in 2001. We dig deep into how successful DHS has been in the years since 9/11 in thwarting terrorist acts and whether the...

In this special episode, we chatted with Senator Maggie Hassan (D-NH) about the Trump Administration's response to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the Senator's legislative work on cyber-security, and the debate around federal funding for law enforcement. Senator Hassan,  a member of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, also discusses her view on the recent actions...

In this episode, we talk with former Indian Ambassador Arun Singh to dissect the current US-India relationship. We assess the relationship under the Trump Administration and the Modi Government, and what the relationship may look like if a Biden Administration is inaugurated in January. We also cover the deepening rift between India and China in the aftermath of the skirmishes at the border Sino-I...

In this episode, we talked with Frank Rose, Brookings Senior Fellow and co-director of the Security and Strategy team, about US space operations and the establishment of the Space Force. We dove into the thinking of space as a military domain, existing international frameworks regulating (or not regulating) the use of space and space weaponry, and how space will factor into great power competition...

In this episode, we talked with former US Ambassador Ian Kelly about the history and current status of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Ambassador Kelly, who also served as US Co-Chair of the Minsk Group, discusses the significance of the contested region to Armenia and Azerbaijan, how regional players such as Turkey, Russia, and Iran are involved, and what international actors should do to bring ab...

In this episode, we spoke with former NSC Senior Director Javed Ali about the security implications of COVID-19, domestic terror threats, and election security. We also discussed the politicization of intelligence and controversial actions by the Department of Homeland Security.