The DSR Network

In this week’s edition of the SpyTalk podcast, Jeff Stein goes deep on the CIA’s looming eviction from Afghanistan with Lisa Curtis, a longtime former CIA, State Department and White House National Security Council expert on the region. And then co-host Jeanne Meserve conducts a lively interview with a former senior CIA and NSA analyst, Alma Katsu, about her new, post-government-service thriller, ...

Going from Donald Trump to Joe Biden has been as striking a political shift as most Americans have encountered in their lifetimes. But the shift has sent shockwaves around the world. America's allies are cautiously optimistic. Autocrats not so much. We discuss the first 100 days of Biden foreign and national security policy and their implications with Kori Schake of the American Enterprise Institu...

In the wake of the Derek Chauvin verdict, while there was a consensus that a degree of justice was achieved, that a massive job of work remained to end the long history of systemic racism in US law enforcement and throughout society. The question is how do we get there from here? Will government have the courage to stand up to special interests and produce the kind of real structural change that i...

This week, in the debut edition of the SpyTalk podcast, co-host Jeff Stein talks to the Washington Post’s Joby Warrick about an extraordinary CIA operation in Syria, as told in his new book, Red Line. Jeff and co-host Jeanne Meserve also discuss the Biden administration’s recent expulsion of suspected Russian spies, then Jeanne talks with former NSA Director and Cyber Command chief Admiral Mike Ro...

Last week, President Biden announced the US would be pulling our last troops out of Afghanistan by September 11 of this year. At the same time, leaders in the Intelligence Community met with Congress to discuss emerging threats--from China to tech war. Our experts discuss these developments as well as new developments concerning Russia, a bilateral meeting with Japan and an outbreak of diplomacy i...

On the one hand, America's vaccine roll out is making great progress. On the other, in the last week COVID cases are on the rise in 38 states. On the one hand, the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are working remarkably well. On the other hand, Astra Zeneca and perhaps Johnson and Johnson not so much. (Or maybe the government is over-reacting to a very tiny number of problem cases with the J&J vaccine....

Two time Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof has set himself from other columnists by virtue of his deep reporting into the subjects about which he writes. In this exclusive conversation, Deep State listeners and host David Rothkopf pose questions on the subjects that have dominated his work over the years--from China to conflict zones, from social problems in America to protecting t...

Rep. Eric Swalwell of California has emerged as one of the most important voices in the Democratic Party. From his presidential campaign to his work during last year's impeachment hearings, he has stood out for both tough-mindedness and clarity. As the son and brother of police officers, he has strong views on how we need to reform policing in America in the wake of the abuses we have seen, especi...

The ancient Aztecs referred to the headache and misery following drunken debauchery as the "curse of 400 rabbits." Presidents need to try to avoid policies that produce similar reactions. So far the Biden Administration has been deft at doing so. Where might they go wrong? And what domestic policy priorities should they pursue to strengthen the US internationally? We discuss with Ed Luce of the Fi...

By this time during the presidency of the former guy, his national security advisor had been booted, the Muslim ban had been tried and Comey was days from getting fired. We also knew that the GOP was simply not going to do anything about even the worst things Trump was doing. So it's not too early to make some prognostications about about the political weather we can expect in the Biden Era. The b...

The US is making great progress on vaccine distribution and national death tolls are falling. But new variants are spreading and some states are seeing disturbing spikes in infection. The world is itching to re-open post pandemic but the very of "post-pandemic" may be illusory with out of control COVID in many parts of the world and unsatisfactory government responses in many others. What should w...

It is a matter of conventional wisdom nearly everywhere that the Biden Administration is off to a strong start. Which, life on this planet being what it is, leads us to ask, what could go wrong? Will Russia's saber-rattling in Ukraine turn into something worse? What about China's regarding Taiwan? Are there any good options in either case for Biden & Co. What about the pandemic? We're doing better...

Too much of world history is written by men about men for men. The result is that cultural biases of a male-centric world are reinforced. But another consequence is that the vitally important stories about heroic women who are shaping our communities an our futures go unnoticed. Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of the Daughters of Kobani, is addressing this shortcoming with powerful books telling the...

As anti-Asian hate crimes continue across America, California Congressman Ted Lieu has become one of the foremost voices demanding action to stop the violence. He also has not been shy about calling to account the former president and his administration for fueling the violence with their hateful references to the spread of the COVID pandemic. We speak to Rep. Lieu about the crisis and the steps t...

Introducing a new show from the DSR Network called “Spy Talk.” SpyTalk lives at the intersection of intelligence operations, foreign policy, homeland security and military strategy. Co-hosted by veteran national security journalist Jeff Stein and former star CNN homeland security correspondent Jeanne Meserve, the podcast will feature exclusives by SpyTalk’s roster of longtime reporters, news and p...

While we are only two months into the new administration (and it is getting good marks for those two months) it is never too early to start kibbitzing about how to do better. Can we go too far in direct our economic attention inward? What old policy positions can we let go of? How do we fix our defense planning and spending? Is there anything we can teach Europe to help them with their troubled va...

Few decisions a government can make are more consequential than deciding when the use of force is warranted. In the US a debate has raged for decades about how much latitude a president should have in making such decisions and what role Congress should play. Legal contortionism has turned congressional authorizations for the use of force in one circumstance into blank permissions slips still cited...

After four years of policy by Tweet that sometimes felt as if it were driven more by the indigestion of the Tweeter than by any connection to US interests, the Biden Administration has ushered in a striking change. Last week's US-China meetings in Anchorage, were acrimonious at times but appropriately so for a complex relationship and there seemed to be a clear method to the US approach. That was...

Never in the history of shocking revelations about US government lies and scandal has there been such a protracted period of shocking revelations nor one with so few consequences for those in power at the center of the scandals. Now, as the Biden Administration, reveals more truth about Trumpist lies there is again shock...and precious little action or accountability? What next? What does it say a...

Mitch McConnell has become so effective as an obstructionist force and the GOP has been so disciplined in their support of him, that he has left the Democrats with no alternative but to consider some form of filibuster reform. Even those who have opposed such steps in the past are now showing some signs of warming to some form of the idea. We discuss in a Q&A with American Enterprise Institute eme...

There are encouraging signs that the US will slowly begin to return to post-COVID normalcy by this summer or fall. Wall Street predictions for the economy for the third and fourth quarters of 2021 are rosy. What if that actually happens? What priorities will be next for the Biden Administration? What challenges may emerge worldwide that may draw its attention? We discuss with David Sanger of the N...

Yes, you heard that right. We've come to 50 days into the Biden presidency and things are actually working, getting better, Spring is in the air, there's a light at the end of the tunnel. Admittedly, there's plenty of ways that despite the best efforts of the president and despite passage of the massive American Rescue Plan that we can screw this up. But who knows, we might not. Right? We discuss...

There is good news in America--from progress in getting relief to Americans wracked by COVID and its economic aftershocks to slowly getting a new government in place including, finally, the confirmation of Attorney General Merrick Garland. Where do we go from here though in securing the country and fixing our broken politics. We speak with two veterans of the Trump Administration who broke away to...

Last week Secretary of State Antony Blinken delivered a speech outlining the priorities of Biden-Harris Administration foreign policy. It differed from past such speeches in focus, tone and objectives. It described an approach in which, in the words of Blinken, the distinctions between foreign and domestic policy have "fallen away." It was also showed more humility and awareness that America had m...

Weren't we supposed to get a break from being angry at DC? At the political inanity? The recklessness? The law breaking with impunity? Sure its the same old people being inane and reckless and breaking the law but even with Democrats in charge in the White House and in both houses of Congress, progress is painfully hard to come by, setbacks are frequent, Republicans seem disciplined and Democrats...