The DSR Network

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...

Deep State Radio listeners know Rosa Brooks as one of our founding regulars, a scholar on constitutional and international law and a national security expert. But for the past few years she has served as a police officer in Washington, DC and has written about her experiences and the lessons we can all draw from them in a new book, "Tangled Up in Blue: Policing the American City." It is an extraor...

ISIS was as unstoppable as their beliefs and actions were unconscionable when they arrived in Kobani. But there they were defeated by a force that not only outfought them on the battlefield but simultaneously obliterated their eleventh century ideology of the suppression and abuse of women. It was an army led in part by women, featuring fierce, capable women fighters many of whom just months earli...

Last week, the Biden Administration released the official conclusion that Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman was behind the brutal murder of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi. It also detailed a host of measures to penalize the Saudis. Critics were unhappy there were no direct penalties for MBS. But the administration made it clear to the Saudis that the free ride they were getting wit...

When the 9/11 Commission was formed in the wake of the Al Qaeda attacks on the US, the current was united in grief and anger but politically polarized and it was very difficult to find a path forward that would be credible and an effective driver of reform. But the divisions of the early 2000s were nothing compared to what we have today and the problem is compounded by the active culpability one p...

The US has seen its influence plummet during the past four years as our president made everything including foreign policy about himself. That changed in an instant when Joe Biden was elected president, but now we must come to grips with the fact that in many areas our international and national security policies are woefully out of step with the times. Where should we go next on cyber policy, on...

Donald Trump introduced the truth-optional, bring your own dysfunction era to American politics and it made for good ratings. Now, he has been replaced by a president who rejects Trump's approaches, his use of social media, his melodrama, his lies and his criming. So, is that a good thing or will it afford Trump to outshine the bully pulpit of the presidency by continuing to often the media the ca...

Craig Unger's new book American Kompromat details the KGB recruitment of Donald Trump and how a man like Trump can become a valued Russian asset. It can all be legal. It can all be more or less out in the open. And in the end, it can compromise US national interests in profound ways...as it did. It's a fascinating look at the back story of the greatest traitor in American history. Don't miss it. S...

The Biden foreign policy and national security teams arrived to choruses of praise for the experience of the members and their general positions. That said a van full of orangutans would have been greeted as an improvement to Trump & his motley crew. But what are the potential areas in which they will face challenges? And what does the world have in store for them that may change the calculus whet...

This is our first episode of Deep Thoughts with David Rothkopf, our new weekly feature available exclusively to our members. This week, David discusses the grim milestone of 500K deaths from Covid. Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While Trumpists may have celebrated that the disgraced former president was not convicted by the Senate and the Senators who voted to convict have been attacked for their show of conscience, the reality is that Trump's legal prospects are not good. Mitch McConnell, his one time ally, called for his prosecution. Multiple cases in which he is a target are under way--in NY, Atlanta, and Washington DC...

In the latest in our "Ask the Blob" series (see links below for more about the name), host David Rothkopf is joined by Juliette Kayyem and Clint Watts (Bios Below). They discuss the rise of domestic terrorism and what can be done to combat it. They also answer the audience's questions on the subject. A very informative discussion not to be missed. Note: This podcast is available in its entirety ex...