The DSR Network

Max Boot's great new book "The Road Not Taken" about American intelligence officer Edward Lansdale not only offers great insights into an intriguing character and a pivotal moment in American and modern world history, it is searingly relevant to today. Would an expert like Lansdale even be heard today by a disconnected president who is trying to discredit the intelligence community? Would the kind...

It is impossible to prove that Trump role model Tony Montana was actually speaking about former Trump Campaign Chairman Paul Manafort when he said, "this country was built on laundered money" but he might as well have been. And it may be that the money laundered by Manafort ultimately brings him down...and possibly turns the tide against the president and his family. Or perhaps they did their own...

America's problems extend far beyond Russiagate. In fact, they extend far beyond porn stars and having half the cabinet under investigation, failures in Puerto Rico and near nuclear war with North Korea. They include unprecedented levels of overt corruption in the White House...but perhaps worse for a system that depends on checks and balances, they go further to the fact that no one in Congress s...

The Mueller indictment charging 13 Russians for their efforts to illegally influence America's 2016 presidential election rocked Washington and sent shockwaves worldwide. The President of the U.S. tried to frame it as vindication because it did not point to his own personal collusion with the Russians (or that of any other U.S. individual). But...as our experts Evelyn Farkas, Kori Schake and Ed Lu...

America has an unrealistic Korea policy (denuclearization) that it is not really pursuing that hard (what with not having an ambassador to South Korea, gutting the State Department and leaving it to Mike Pence who is actually not a human being but a not-so-lifelike cardboard cutout). This might not work out so well, argue our experts like our Kori Schake, Rosa Brooks, David Sanger and Joe Cirincio...

We’ve had nuclear weapons for more than 70 years. But we have never had a president quite as deranged as Donald Trump before and the result has made more people pay much closer attention to U.S. nuclear weapons policy than they did in recent years. We bring together this week a great panel to discuss the Nuclear Posture Review, Trump and how to save the world including Joe Cirincione, Jeffrey Lewi...

The Olympics in Korea have prompted a temporary thaw in North-South relations on the Korean peninsula and plenty of political theater including some from the mummified human remains known to the world as U.S. Vice President Mike Pence. Join our experts, Rosa Brooks of Georgetown, Kori Schake of IISS, Evelyn Farkas of the Atlantic Council and Ed Luce of the Financial Times for a discussion about wh...

There's intelligence and then there's basic common sense. Much of the discussion about the recent memo the House released has been lacking in both. Fortunately, however, our experts at Deep State Radio, Georgetown University's Rosa Brooks, IISS' Kori Schake, the Atlantic Council's Evelyn Farkas and the FT's Ed Luce, have plenty of both and on this episode they put the memo in perspective...while a...

There were so many candidates. And Ed Luce of the Financial Times, Kori Schake of IISS and Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University are keenly aware of some of the biggest dopes on the international stage. But in this first ever awarding of this prestigious prize (which Ed made up on this very episode) we have landed on a great choice…and hopefully established a great new milestone in the history of p...

Calm down. We don’t mean “Trumpocalypse” as in the end of the world. We mean it in the sense of the end of the Trump presidency. Who knows, with some luck this could be Trump’s last State of the Union. And that would be good on so many levels. For example, as our experts Rosa Brooks, Kori Schake and Ed Luce note, it would save us from having to listen to the inevitable tedious and misleading stori...

Contrary to what those outside the Deep State may think, the U.S. government has recently undergone an explosion of creativity. Recently we have seen a National Security Strategy, a National Defense Strategy and a Nuclear Posture Review. Some think these are just empty academic exercises. But others, like our guests the Atlantic Council’s Christine Wormuth, Georgetown’s Rosa Brooks and Kori Schake...

Do you ever get the impression people are laughing at you, America? More so recently? It could just be your imaginations. But in the view of our experts, Ambassador Nick Burns, Rosa Brooks and Kori Schake, the reason is all the actual laughter you are hearing from everywhere in the world. The world’s view of America, as recent polls have shown, is at a low point. The question is whether this is so...

Among other things, our amazing Rosa Brooks is part of an elite team of hypocrisy specialists who travel the globe in search of hypocrites in government. Recently, she and her fellow hypocrinauts visited Turkey where they found a rich vein to explore...and plenty of Turks who say the Trump Administration has taught them a lot. MAGA. Join us for the latest episode of #DeepStateRadio and then Tweet...

While the people of Hawaii were terrified by an errant alert indicating an incoming ballistic missile attack, the rest of the country remained frightened by what would happen even if there were not such an attack. Judging from Donald Trump's plans for nuclear weapons and his temperament, of course, the risk of going without further such scares decreases daily. On this episode of Deep State Radio,...

Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA and yet oddly, a former Congressman who still seems to be running for something, threw down the gauntlet to the true Deep State when he said that New York Times reporter and Deep State Radio stalwart got it wrong on how the CIA missed the sudden acceleration of North Korea's nuclear program. Tune in to this episode to hear the man known to all as "David You're Exac...

Late at night in the office of Chief of Staff John Kelly. The phone rings. He picks it up and hears heavy breathing. Then a raspy voice…could it be Bannon…could it be Wolff…says “Have you checked the President?” Kelly lurches forward and grabs a secure line. “Trace the call!” Then, the chilling answer comes back. The call is coming from inside the White House!!! You think that’s a horror story? Th...

Contrary to popular belief, according to quoteinvestigator.com, Sam Goldwyn did not utter the immortal line that is the title of this episode. Nor did physicist Niels Bohr to whom it is also attributed. Instead, the first person to offer it up was Danish pol Karl Kristien Steincke in his immortal work, "Farvel Og Tak", published in 1948. Which serves as a useful reminder that if we can't even get...

Is it over yet? Can we come out of our basements now? Is the worst year ever over? Well...yes and no. Yes, dear Deep State Radio nerds, you can come out of your basements. It is 2018. But no, the worst may not be over. This week in two special episodes, we look back at the trends and unfinished business of 2017 in order to help us predict the catastrophes, screw-ups and near misses of 2018. Oh, an...

In David Rothkopf’s absence this week, Rosa Brooks hosts and reminds listeners that the Deep State Radio crew will soon be retreating into the bunker for some holiday eggnog, before resuming in the new year. The Atlantic’s Julia Ioffe argues that Putin is overrated, and the BBC’s Kim Ghattis and Kori Schake argue that the new US National Security Strategy is also overrated (and incoherent). Julia...

With David Rothkopf away circling the globe this week on the Deep State Radio spy plane, Rosa Brooks and Kori Schake are joined by the Atlantic’s Julia Ioffe and the BBC’s Kim Ghattis. Joining in live from Beirut, Kim reveals that not everyone in the Lebanon is obsessed with US foreign policy, because most people are too busy snacking and getting ready for Christmas. Meanwhile, every single UN Sec...

It's easy to blame the pols. For the pols its easy to blame one another. (Or if you are Roy Moore, who used to be a Senate candidate in the U.S., you can blame the sinners. Or Mitch McConnell. Or Sassy, the horse. Take your pick). But when policies don't match the global situation and policy advisors don't have the courage to stand up to their bosses and countries like America end up with the Whit...

Was the Jerusalem deal a complete scam? Has it torpedoed US influence on the peace process? Was it not even the most important Mideast news of the past few days? Was that really Vladimir Putin's Victory Lap around the Middle East? Hisham Melham, David Sanger, Ed Luce, Kori Schake discuss. Join in! Support this show http://supporter.acast.com/deepstateradio. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and op...

In a week marked by a "stunning" announcement about U.S policy toward Jerusalem and more Russia revelations, is the biggest shock of all is that Trump's foreign policy is still so much like that of Barack Obama? Or is that just the policy of the State Department and the Department of Defense while the real difference is the president who is in his own orbit. Tune in to this episode of Deep State R...

As panelist Kori Schake recounts, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers once noted that if you staff an administration exclusively with "C" people you will get a "D" staff. He never contemplated the situation we find ourselves in today. As we in the Third Sub-basement of the Ministry of Snark contemplate the Flynn plea deal, the statements of Trump's lawyers, the foreign policy pronouncements of...

You would think that Deep State Radio would have a special celebration for our 50th podcast. You probably imagined a giant blow out in silo somewhere with confetti and an interpretative reading of the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo. Well...that happened. But you were invited. You don't have the clearance. Invitations were extended purely on a need-to-party-basis. But if you need a consolation prize....