The DSR Network

When Donald Trump was presented with the overwhelming evidence of Russian interference in the US elections (of which he was Exhibit A) he said, "I don't believe it." When presented with proof of the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman's role in ordering the murder of Jamal Khashoggi he said, "I don't believe it." When presented with his own government's assessment of the catastrophic costs of c...

Trump has forged an indelible bond not with our allies nor with the American people (a majority of whom can't stand him) but with a group of really bad men worldwide who are not just evil, they're creeps. Vlad. Bibi. Duterte. And of course, now topping that list Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman. Trump's defense of MBS and his indefensible crimes--from murder to torture--and his and...

It's Thanksgiving weekend in the USA. It's a warm, friendly, family holiday provided that a.) your family does not discuss politics, b.) your unhinged uncle does not drink too much and c.) the indoor deep-fryer does not burn the whole house down. Maybe you'll go to a class reunion. Those are always...terrible. Or, alternatively, maybe you'll do what you did on prom night...stay home alone. Except...

Who needs relatives? Join your Deep State family for a cheerful holiday discussion of the Turkeys of the Year, the losers, jerks, criminals, and large orange embarrassments that made the past year as unappetizing as an under-cooked Butterball. Our own Rosa Brooks, former undercover CIA operative and improv comedian Emily Brandwin and Maggie Feldman-Piltch of NatSecGirlSquad offer their views and.....

Yemen has become a humanitarian catastrophe on a scale of few others in the recent history of the planet. 14 million people live on the verge of famine. Tens of thousands are dead. And despite gestures in the direction of bringing the conflict to a close precious little progress has been made. Who is culpable? What is America's role? Obama's during the early stages of the conflict? Trump's now? Ou...

Trump's Europe trip was a rare multi-tiered fiasco, a kind of mille feuille of fiascos, at which the disasters operated on many levels--his alienation of our allies, his insults to our troops, his vanity, his cozying up to villains, his fear of getting wet, his complete lack of understanding of how the world works. In fact, it may be the worst overseas trip by any president ever...since Trump's He...

There are constitutional reasons why Mathew Whitaker should not succeed Jeff Sessions as even the Acting Attorney General of the US. There are legal reasons. There are ethical reasons. But none of these stopped Donald Trump from beginning the latest chapter in his effort to obstruct justice and contain the threats he feel Robert Mueller's investigation poses for him. On this special episode Florid...

It is one week after the shootings in Pittsburgh and 80 years after Kristallnacht. How deep do the rivers of hate in America today run? How much culpability do our political leaders have for channeling that hate into our daily discourse? Who is put at risk? On this 1-on-1 we have a conversation with one of America's leaders in combatting these forces that are tearing our society apart, Jonathan Gr...

Donald Trump said the mid-terms were a huge success (they weren't), that he did better than other presidents during their first mid-term elections (he didn't), that he had the touch of gold and only those who ran away from him suffered (not true). On the other hand, he still has a job today and Jeff Sessions doesn't. That's right, within hours of the election results coming in, the president flipp...

Americans will finally get to express themselves at the ballot box after two years of division, turmoil, lies and lurid headlines. Election Day is here. Our Rosa Brooks, Kori Schake and Ed Luce get together to help you all prepare for the election. Do you drink before you vote or vote before you drink? How much of each is appropriate? Legal? And what have we learned from the campaign about America...

With the midterm elections days away, our experts discuss just what the past two years have taught us about Trump, about the American electorate, and about the world. We also talk about where we are headed and what we can expect from the next two years of Trump's term...if he makes it all the way through them. Bow your heads and pray to the deity of your choice for the outcome we need. Then tune i...

Brazil elects a hard-right candidate who is a threat to democracy. The BRICs are no longer the harbingers of progress we thought them to be. Angela Merkel, who has stepped up in the Era of Trump to be the Leader of the Free World. And Donald Trump may see some encouraging election victories in next week's elections. Kori Schake of IISS, Rosa Brooks of Georgetown and Evelyn Farkas of the Atlantic C...

The Kashoggi murder has rocked the Middle East. The underlying crime was so horrific, its cover-up has been so pathetic and unpersuasive, and the position of the US administration has only compounded the outrage. The question is: Will this change anything? Our guests Stephen Walt, Rosa Brooks, Kori Schake and Ed Luce discuss and then move on to considering what the deeper significance of the Trump...

Harvard's Stephen Walt has written a timely book called "The Hell of Good Intentions: America's Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy"...which is just exactly the kind of subject you would expect Rosa Brooks, Kori Schake, and Ed Luce to want to discuss with Steve Walt given the hell of current events and the number of members of the U.S. foreign policy elite they know who are also d...

Ivo Daalder and James Lindsay, two of America's leading foreign policy experts have written an in-depth analysis of Donald Trump's tenure to date as president. It is a withering critique, but more importantly it assesses not just how Trump's policy are a departure from three-quarters of a century of U.S. foreign policy ideas and ideals but what the consequences of the Trump presidency may be. Join...

While the Trump Administration may get much Trumpier with the personnel changes expected after Election Day, a Democratic victory on November 6th that brought them control of the House of Representatives is likely to create a check on Trump's impulses of a sort he has never had to deal with. From Russia to the Middle East, the Democrats will be pushing for very different policies and countries tha...

In the Financial Times our own Ed Luce discusses how Trump's attacks on the truth and his enemies have moved us toward fascism and where he has fallen short of achieving key steps on the road toward that brand of authoritarianism. Our panel including Ed, Rosa Brooks of Georgetown, Kori Schake of IISS and Joe Cirincione of the Plowshares fund discuss whether we may go next and what recent developme...

Values matter. Well, at least the appearance of having values matter. Well, at least they always did until Donald Trump came along. Now, around the world foreign leaders know that the US is in it for whatever Donald Trump thinks is best for Donald Trump. Our panel of Kori Schake, Kelly Magsamen and Max Boot discuss what that means from North Korea to China, from attacks on members of the press to...

How much are foreign policy elites responsible for the rise of nationalist, anti-globalist views worldwide? How much is the retreat of American leadership responsible for the willingness of dictators and authoritarians worldwide to be their worst selves? How much has the rise of Donald Trump contributed to both problems and an identity crisis within the American right? Our panel, including Max Boo...

Most of Deep State Radio’s cutting edge, youthful listeners are probably too young to remember the song the title references (“Mrs. Brown You Had a Lovely Daughter” by Herman’s Hermits). But so were all of us at Deep State Radio. We’re just very well educated. No, seriously. Except David. Who actually remembers it. Poor old guy. Anyway…the title refers to Donald Trump’s New-Improved-Yuge-Better-Th...

The political furor around the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court may seem like pure domestic US politics, but the implications for America’s role in the world are serious. Not only does the chaos in the US symptom send a disconcerting message to those who once emulated us and an inviting one to our enemies, but the politics behind the nomination hint at bigger issues to come. Amer...

Spent your day listening to the Kavanaugh hearings? We did too. And we wanted to offer up some real time insights and perspectives on what was a dramatic and historic day. We do this in the form of one of our new series of "Briefs and Debriefs", this one with one of our legal experts, Katie Phang, an experienced lawyer and former prosecutor. She frames the discussion and pulls no punches. And she...

There are assholes everywhere you look these days, especially in positions of power. The result is high assholery in our policies and our political debates which, frankly, is not only not good for us but it’s kind of hard to take. When do we finally call an asshole an asshole and make sure the arc of history bends away from them. Far away. On this episode of Deep State Radio Ed Luce of the Financi...

We have the most solipsistic president in American history offering up the most solipsistic foreign policy ever at a time when the me-me-me generation are busy taking selfies and other pols the planet over are trying to play that self-centeredness to their advantage. Have we reached Peak Solipsism? And what does that mean for the international system. We discuss in honor of and in the context of t...

With a couple of recent good articles in The Atlantic, leading thinkers like Peter Beinart and Thomas Wright have begun to ask the critical question: "What's next for US foreign policy?" Our experts Ed Luce of the Financial Times, David Sanger of the New York Times and Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University go a step further and start with why we haven't really be able to zero in on a consensus on s...