The Burn Bag Podcast

The Burn Bag will be covering the Israel-Gaza War over the course of several episodes, sourcing multiple perspectives on the conflict. The Burn Bag does not officially endorse any views expressed by our guests, but rather bring those perspectives to you, the audience.  Former Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Fahmy returns to  The Burn Bag  to discuss his views and reactions to the ongoing War in Ga...

NOTE: Shebhaz Sharif, brother of Nawaz Sharif, was sworn in as Prime Minister on 3/4. This episode was recorded several days before, on 2/29. This week, A'ndre chatted with Uzair Younus, Principal at The Asia Group and host of Pakistonomy , about Pakistan's recent elections involving jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, recently-unexiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and the mi...

This week, Andrew is joined by Dave Sterling, CEO of Royce Geo. Royce Geo, based in Arlington, Virginia, supports mission partners in the Department of Defense and Intelligence Community with geospatial analytics and training platforms. Andrew and Dave discuss the usefulness of geospatial information in decision-making, the growth of the commercial industry supporting GEOINT capabilities, and what...

This week, A'ndre chatted with Bonnie Glaser, one of the country's premier Taiwan experts and the Managing Director of the German Marshall Fund's Indo-Pacific program, on all things related to Taiwan. Bonnie provides a quick overview of Taiwan's contemporary history, outlining how the U.S. and China have engaged with Taiwan's Government, the U.S. policy of strategic ambigu...

This week, Andrea and Andrew sit down with Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware to discuss their new book God, Guns, and Sedition . Hoffman and Ware are both fellows at the Council on Foreign Relations specializing in counterterrorism and share their insights regarding the evolution of domestic terrorism in the United States, motivations behind acts of terrorism, organizational tactics, and how to combat...

This week, Andrea speaks with Matthew McKnight, General Biosecurity Manager at Ginkgo Bioworks. Matthew and Andrea discuss the multitude of opportunities available for developments in biotechnology and mitigating national security threats through biological innovation. A new form of intelligence collection, BIOINT, is threaded into the conversation and posits a new way of identifying biological th...

Ian Bremmer, President of the Eurasia Group, returns to The Burn Bag for a chat with A'ndre on his Top Risks 2024 report -- Eurasia Group's annual forecast of the top geopolitical risks most likely to play out over the coming year. A'ndre and Ian started the conversation with the #1 Risk, the "United States vs. Itself," as Ian outlines why the 2024 U.S. Presidential Electi...

Over the holidays, A'ndre chatted with AUKUS Defense Investor Network Co-Chairs Heather Richman (U.S.), Adrian Jones (U.K.), and Jamie Watson (Australia) about how AUKUS, the trilateral security partnership between the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia, aims to fill key gaps in critical technologies. We talk about what AUKUS is, how it works, and why it is unique as a defense t...

In light of the recent U.S./U.K. air strikes on the Houthis in Yemen, A'ndre chatted with Dr. Michael Knights (The Washington Institute) about the Yemeni militant group that has been launching attacks at ships in the Red Sea since the advent of the Israel-Gaza War. Dr. Knights, a long-time expert on Middle East militia groups, breaks down who the Houthis are, discusses their supremacist ideol...

This week, Curtis Fox speaks to Christina about his new book, Hybrid Warfare: The Russian Approach to Strategic Competition and Conventional Military Conflict . As an expert on Russia and military strategy, Curtis is able to give us insight into the workings of the Russian military, how its longstanding corruption helps Putin maintain power, and the successes of the Kremlin's propaganda campa...

This week, A'ndre chatted with Peter Singer , Senior Fellow at New America and Founder of Useful Fiction , about the social media coverage and the 'digital battlefield' that has surrounded the Israel-Gaza War and Ukraine, and what it means for future conflict. Peter provides his take on why the Israel-Gaza War has captured the attention of so many on social media, in addition to out...

Over the holiday season, A'ndre caught up with his old friend John Schmidt to discuss John's work on governance issues around the Great Lakes, some of the largest bodies of freshwater in the world shared between the United States and Canada. John, who's a Program Manager with Great Lakes St. Lawrence Governors & Premiers, provides his take on the national security implications t...

We're releasing this episode a few days early, given the fast moving nature  of the dispute between Venezuela and Guyana. This week, A'ndre chatted with The Crisis Group's Mariano de Alba on the recent tensions between Venezuela and Guyana over the resource-rich Essequibo region. Mariano, a Venezuela expert, discusses whether the concerns over a potential Venezuelan invasion of Guya...

In this episode, Andrew is joined by Rebecca Linder Blachly, director of the Office of Government Relations for the Episcopal Church, to talk about the role of faith advocacy in shaping American foreign policy decisions. An anonymous colleague of Kissinger remarked in late November that instead of dehumanization, " Imagine a chessboard in which each piece was actually a king or queen, or the...

The Burn Bag will be covering the Israel-Gaza War over the course of several episodes, sourcing multiple perspectives on the conflict. The Burn Bag does not officially endorse any views expressed by our guests, but rather bring those perspectives to you, the audience. This week, A'ndre chatted with Carmiel Arbit, a nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, on a range of topics relati...

The Burn Bag will be covering the Israel-Gaza War over the course of several episodes, sourcing multiple perspectives on the conflict. The Burn Bag does not officially endorse any views expressed by our guests, but rather bring those perspectives to you, the audience. This week, A'ndre spoke with Zaha Hassan, a Fellow with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, on Palestinian politic...

[ORIGINALLY RECORDED ON 10/5] This week, Christina interviews Dr. Elisa von Joeden-Forgey, a leading expert on Gender and Genocidal Violence, on the renewed violence in the Nagorno-Karabakh region and what looks like an end to the decades-long struggle. Christina and Dr. von Joeden-Forgey discuss the language of genocide, the media's role in the conflict, and what the political landscape of t...

This week, A'ndre and Andrea spoke with Stuart Reid, Executive Editor of Foreign Affairs , on his new book The Lumumba Plot , which investigates the CIA's role in the assassination of Patrice Lumumba, the first democratically-elected leader of the DRC in 1961. We profile Lumumba with Stuart, and describe the then-Republic of Congo's colonial history, discussing what the process of d...

This week, Burn Bag co-host Andrea Ochoa sits down with Roderick Jones and Vice Admiral (Ret.) Michael LeFever from Concentric Advisors, a risk management firm providing security services and intelligence solutions to clients worldwide. For Cybersecurity Awareness Month, Roderick and Vice Admiral LeFever bring years of experience to the table and discuss cyber across all fronts -- from its usage a...

On this week's episode, Andrew sits down with Profs. Erik Gartzke and Jon Lindsay about the complexity, importance, and limitations of cybersecurity and cross-domain deterrence at the Great Power level. Profs. Gartzke and Lindsay are leaders in the academic The two trade stories about their experience making sense of the phenomena and their applicability in European deterrence, counterterrori...

In light of the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, The Burn Bag is re-releasing several episodes A'ndre and Ryan recorded during the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian crisis, aiming to assess the history of the broader Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts, highlighting a multitude of perspectives. We hope that you listen to all of these r...

In light of the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, The Burn Bag is re-releasing several episodes A'ndre and Ryan recorded during the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian crisis, aiming to assess the history of the broader Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts, highlighting a multitude of perspectives. We hope that you listen to all of these r...

In light of the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, The Burn Bag is re-releasing several episodes A'ndre and Ryan recorded during the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian crisis, aiming to assess the history of the broader Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts, highlighting a multitude of perspectives. We hope that you listen to all of these r...

In light of the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, The Burn Bag is re-releasing several episodes A'ndre and Ryan recorded during the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian crisis, aiming to assess the history of the broader Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts, highlighting a multitude of perspectives. We hope that you listen to all of these r...

In light of the recent Hamas terrorist attacks in Israel and subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, The Burn Bag is re-releasing several episodes A'ndre and Ryan recorded during the 2021 Israeli-Palestinian crisis, aiming to assess the history of the broader Israeli-Palestinian and Arab-Israeli conflicts, highlighting a multitude of perspectives. We hope that you listen to all of these r...