The DSR Network

Every few weeks Trump does something that leads everyone to exclaim, "Now he really has done it! This will be the end of him." And every few weeks after people can hardly remember what the last surefire last straw was. Will the Ukraine whistleblower story be an exception or just further proof that our system is broken and Trump has carte blanche to do whatever he feels like doing? We discuss with...

Our political system has built into it a kind of immune system to protect it from abuse and abusers. But just as how in life, bacteria develop that are resistant to drugs, so too in our system we have seen the emergence of a kind of threat that resists oversight, checks and balances and processes designed to keep us safe from corruption and tyranny. Donald Trump is just such a threat and recent re...

We're getting into the serious campaigning for president and so far it's fair to say foreign policy hasn't really been front and center. Or anywhere to speak of. Should it be? Does it matter? Would say, a war in the Middle East matter? Like if it started...real soon? Or what about future Russian interference in the election? Anything? We discuss with Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law School, Kori Scha...

John Bolton may not be National Security Advisor any more but it hardly matters because he wasn't actually ever really National Security Advisor to begin with. Trump never empowered him. Trump doesn't want advice. And that's why the NSC has withered and died. And that's why in the next year you can expect Trump to push for a bunch of very bad deals worldwide because he thinks it will help his elec...

Today the House Judiciary Committee announced the new guidelines for its impeachment investigation. We are joined on this special edition of National Security Magazine by Representative Ted Lieu of California, a member of both the Judiciary and the Foreign Affairs Committees, who discusses where the investigation will go from here and shares his own view on the "mountains of evidence" pointing to...

We bet you think that there was plenty of crazy to go around this summer and that you were as unsettled by each day's news as you could be. Nonsense. We live in Trump times where yesterday's inconceivable outrage is wrapping today's fish and we're on to something we didn't even have a word for yesterday. That's not just true in the US either. Britain is reeling from its worst democratic crisis in...

In the second of two episodes following up on the G7 meeting in Biarritz, Joe Cirincione of the Ploughshares Fund, Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law and Evelyn Farkas of the German Marshall Fund discuss why the president of the US continues to play the role of emissary for the Kremlin. They also discuss the state of the campaign to replace to Trump and who might succeed him. Hint: There are only four...

If the president of the United States decides to launch a nuclear attack, our system is designed for him to be able to do so quickly and for virtually no one to be able to stop him. It takes four minutes from the moment he determines to do it until launch. This week, the president was revealed to have thought about using nuclear weapons against hurricanes and that wasn't the craziest thing he said...

In a far reaching and incisive conversation with Michael Morell, host of CBS News "Intelligence Matters" podcast and former Acting Director of Central Intelligence and Deputy Director of the CIA from 2010-2013, we discuss a world situation that in his view presents more challenges than any we have faced since World War II. However great the threats confronting us may be, they are however, compound...

The collusion hits just keep on coming on Deep State Radio. We don't just have the 2016 oldies that made the Mueller Report so great (or so long, anyway), we've got the on-going collusion between the Trump Administration and Russian disinformation warriors (special shout out here to Attorney General Bill Barr) and that between Mitch McConnell and The Obstructors and their pals back in the land of...

David Sanger of the New York Times brings us up to date on the latest from the Russian nuclear program--which means catastrophes near the arctic circle with ramifications that extend around the globe. Kori Schake of IISS and Evelyn Farkas of the German Marshall Fund join to discuss what all this means for US strategic policy, nuclear strategy and...well, yes, here we go again, Greenland. It always...

In an obvious attempt to infuriate Puerto Rican statehood advocates, Donald Trump wants to buy Greenland. And if a few thousand Republicans would move up there (as they no doubt would to mine and drill the hell out of its every beautiful nook and cranny) then he would no doubt welcome it as a state. Come to think of it, if we can designate which Republicans move there, maybe everyone can get behi...

The day after Donald Trump leaves office in January 2021 (as we'll assume for the sake of argument and/or sanity that he does), what happens to America's relations with the world? What snaps back to the way it was in the past? What does not? Where has irreparable damage been done? Where are quick fixes possible? And where might there be meaningful differences between different potential candidates...

General James Clapper was both the Director of National Intelligence and the Director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, one of the most distinguished intelligence leaders of the past several decades. We discuss with him where the Russia investigation is post-Mueller, the challenges for the intelligence community in the face of leadership upheaval and the risks associated with the upcoming electi...

On this episode of Deep State Radio Kori Schake of IISS and Ed Luce of the Financial Times join host David Rothkopf to discuss the state of global crises from North Korea to Hong Kong, Kashmir to the Persian Gulf, global warming to Brexit and well, it's a good thing it's summer and sunny outside or things could have gotten pretty depressing. Still, they focus on solutions and what an engaged U.S....

On this special edition of Deep State Radio live, we have an in-depth one-on-one conversation with Barbara McQuade, former U.S. Attorney and  frequent commentator on legal developments on MSNBC. As one of America's foremost legal experts on matters pertaining to combating violent extremism, Barbara offers vital insights into where our system comes up short in giving law enforcement the tools it ne...

America is reeling from two more mass shootings. White nationalism and our gun pathology have combined with the encouragement of the White House to create tragedy upon tragedy and deeper divisions within our society. But the cost of the White House's combination of malevolence and ignorance is every bit as great overseas and even as America was mourning the shootings the world grew materially more...

Now that a majority of Democrats in the House of Representatives support an impeachment inquiry and the House has argued in court that such an inquiry is already under way, the question becomes where does it lead? How do you frame impeachment articles that best hold the president accountable for his crimes and how do you ensure that with or without a vote on impeachment, the inquiry does the most...

On this edition of National Security Magazine we have an in-depth discussion with former Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin about the president's proposed leadership change at the top of the US intelligence community and the risks that may be associated with it. McLaughlin, one of the most respected career intelligence officers of the past several decades, discusses his concerns and also his grea...

Dan Coats was not a perfect Director of National Intelligence, but he was a good one, a truth-teller in an administration of slavering sycophants. He will be missed, especially since his replacement is another sycophant of the mouth-frothing variety and someone who will become a key part of a new Praetorian Guard surrounding Trump. Like Barr and McConnell he will place Trump and the GOP above nati...

Ambassador Bill Burns is one of the most distinguished US diplomats of the past 50 years. In a wide ranging conversation based upon his great memoir "The Back Channel" he discusses the evolution (or devolution) of US foreign policy from Reagan to Trump and some of the biggest issues we face today. It is essential listening for anyone interested in global affairs. Support this show http://supporter...

In this special discussion in the wake of Robert Mueller's testimony on Capitol Hill, Greg Sargent of the Washington Post, Ryan Goodman of Just Security and Rosa Brooks of NYU Law School discuss just where we are in terms of the national security threat underlying the Trump-Russia investigation. They discuss whether the momentum for impeachment has disappeared and what options may still exist to h...

According to Jonathan Greenblatt, National Director and CEO of the Anti-Defamation League, this is a particular fraught moment in the long history of the politics of race and history in America and around the world. We talk to Greenblatt in a special, thought-provoking, wide-ranging interview that touches upon the President's attacks on the members of "The Squad," the perversity of turning accusat...

As the great foreign policy scholar Dean Wormer of Faber College once said, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son." It's also no way to run a foreign policy. In fact, you don't even have to be fat or drunk for stupid to screw up a policy. This week has seen some really extraordinary cluelessness from the man who says his gut can steer US international affairs. And we discuss whe...

Remember the scene in "Mean Girls" where Cady breaks the prom queen tiara into piece for everyone? Well, that's what we do here as we celebrate 200 podcasts with a look at the world during the two year's since the launch of Deep State Radio and then consider where we might go over the next 200 episodes. It's an episode you should not miss (but bring your own box wine, you'll need it.). With Rosa B...