The DSR Network

President Trump has a new Afghanistan strategy, just like the old Afghanistan strategy. Are we starting our seventeenth one-year war in Afghanistan, or is the 17th time the charm? On this episode, Rosa Brooks hosts in David's absence, and Kori Schake and Heather Hurlburt offer insights and diverging perspectives on Afghanistan - with special bonus snark on India and Pakistan. Support this show htt...

Trump's racism and affinity for the worst sorts of right wing extremists poured forth defiantly in the wake of the unrest in Charlottesville. The result was an avalanche of criticism and waves of defections from presidential advisory groups and companies supporting his resorts with events. Is this a watershed? Can Trump no longer perform even ceremonial roles as president? And should his cabinet c...

While you were busy fretting about Nazis and the sudden implosion of Donald J. Trump, the Deep State Radio team maintained its steady focus on nuclear apocalypse. With David still away in an undisclosed location, Rosa, Kori and special guests Jeffrey Lewis and Alice Hunt Friend wonder about Trump and the nuclear codes, and argue about whether military personnel have a duty to obey a presidential o...

It’s been a validating week for apocalypse watchers. On this episode of Deep State Radio, David hides in his hardened bunker while Rosa, Kori and guests Alice Hunt Friend and Jeffrey Lewis wonder what should scare us more, heavily armed white supremacists marching through Charlottesville, or the prospect of imminent war with North Korea? Jeffrey – a.k.a. Arms Control Wonk – explains North Korea’s...

In the latest episode of Deep State Radio Julia Ioffe of the Atlantic, Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University and host David Rothkopf take a look at the current state of Washington, DC and the world...and conclude that Rosa's earlier idea of buying up used missile silos and hardened bunkers in order to live out the apocalypse was great real estate advice. We also discuss the merits of having a deli...

What is the geopolitical significance of Putin's torso? What do his exposed nipples say about Russia and its people. Why is it absolutely vital that the President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, never ever ever never sees Putin's fondness for exposing his naked chest as he did recently on a fishing expedition to Siberia as a challenge? Why must America never see the First Torso? Rosa Brooks...

We present you, our beloved Deep State nerds, with the face-off you've been anticipating all summer. Our expert team breaks down rising powers, ruling powers, and the forces that drive war. Graham Allison and Kori Schake debate The Thucydides Trap, Rosa Brooks and David Rothkopf help us make sense of the similarities between ancient and modern history, all while convincing us to read The History o...

Clearly the world has gone, in the words of one Deep State Radio listener nerd, "nuclear grade bonkers." On this episode of the pod, Rosa Brooks, Kori Schake, Julie Smith, and, host, David Rothkopf discuss the latest examples of this including the departure of the worst and shortest lived communications in White House history (with the best nickname...we won't miss you, Mooch) and they debate the...

This week, Ben Wittes of Brookings and Lawfare and David Sanger of the New York Times chat with David Rothkopf about the global consequences of domestic scandals. The President continues to argue that Russia didn’t interfere with the 2016 U.S. elections -- how does this affect his relationship with the intelligence community, constituencies, and the world? At what point does Trump become a direct...

Jared Kushner took centerstage in the America's favorite circus as the week began and in this episode of Deep State Radio, our excellent guest, Lawfare editor Ben Wittes, joins David Sanger of the New York Times and David Rothkopf of somewhere in New Jersey to discuss the pros and cons of how America's Secretary of Everything presented himself. They even found some nice things to say. Also: a disc...

If we didn't have Trump we would have to go back to watching "House of Cards" and "Scandal" for completely implausible, mind-boggling dramas about public officials with no morals and no understanding of how the U.S. government does work or should work. But we do have Trump (for a while anyway) and in this edition of Deep State Radio we discuss the state of the scandals, the president, the presiden...

Is Trumpism a philosophy? Does it have any hint of a philosophy within it? Is there any philosopher that ever existed that would embrace Trump? Does David Sanger remember any of his college philosophy courses? On this episode, Stanford's Kori Schake, Ed Luce of the Financial Times, David Sanger of the New York Times, and David Rothkopf, who grew up in New Jersey, walk us through how Trump may have...

On this episode of Deep State Radio, Lawfare managing editor Susan Hennessey, Georgetown Law School Associate Dean Rosa Brooks and perennially optimistic Stanford military historian Kori Schake take a good hard look at the good hard time some of America's leaders may be doing soon. From recent revelations about Trump, Jr. and his secret meetings with a Russian lawyer to seek dirt on Hillary Clinto...

If you were playing in the Trump Division of a Fantasy Felony League, who would you pick in the draft to accumulate the most points for subpoenas, indictments, convictions, appeals, counts of perjury, lawyers, lawyer resignations, and/or denigrating “Godfather” movie references in the press? Fredo (Don, Jr.)? Jared? Flynn? Manafort? Roger “Crazy Eyes” Stone? Agent Orange himself? Our experts inclu...

Rotten Tomatoes gives "National Lampoon's European Vacation" a score of 39 percent. But if they had rated "Donald Trump's European Vacation" the score would have been a lot lower--especially if they were listening to our panel. Rosa Brooks of Georgetown, Kori Schake of Stanford, Susan Hennessey of Lawfare and David Rothkopf of somewhere in New Jersey, join for a play-by-play breakdown of the presi...

On this second episode of Deep State Radio recorded in the sylvan beauty of Aspen, Colorado during the Ideas Festival, our regulars including Kori Schake of Stanford, David Sanger of the New York Times and Ed Luce of the Financial Times, explore a few of the top overheard high up in the Rockies. Then they ponder the nature of elites at events like Aspen and why it might be that they seem a bit out...

In this report from the Aspen Ideas festival and other undisclosed but nonetheless elitist locations, the Deep State Radio gang--including Ed Luce and David Rothkopf in Aspen, David Sanger in Vermont and Kori Schake from Stanford--discuss readout from Aspen discussions, including notably David's panel encounter in which General David Petraeus argued that it was "immaterial" whether Trump was unfit...

Generals understand it. America’s health is related the country’s military readiness. That’s why they’ve produced reports like, “Too Fat to Fight” points out Georgetown’s Rosa Brooks on this episode. She and Kori Schake of Stanford and Julia Ioffe of the Atlantic then go on to argue that whether it's an epidemic like obesity or proposed health care reforms that will make millions suffer and thousa...

America’s last three presidents couldn’t have been more different and yet they all contributed to declining U.S. international influence in real ways. So, is that a good thing or a bad thing? Depends on where you are sitting argue our three great panelists Rosa Brooks of Georgetown Law School, Kori Schake of Stanford and Julia Ioffe of The Atlantic. Or is the real question not so much about the US...

Do low tech attacks on soft targets suggest a change in the nature of both the war on terror and how our societies express their political dysfunction? Or is the mayhem that drives the news daily more or less what we have always seen in the past? On this episode of Deep State Radio, Georgetown Law School’s Rosa Brooks, Stanford’s Kori Schake and CNAS’ Julie Smith try to get past the headlines and...

On this episode of Deep State Radio, our regulars Kori Schake of Stanford, Rosa Brooks of Georgetown and host David Rothkopf are joined by former top White House national security aide Julie Smith. The discussion focuses on the escalations and complications that are making virtually every flashpoint in the Middle East more dangerous, what the White House is (not) doing about it and why leaving it...

In this episode of Deep State Radio our special guest Edward Luce of the Financial Times joins Georgetown's Rosa Brooks, Stanford's Kori Schake and the New York Times' David Sanger to discuss what's gone wrong in Anglo-American democracy, what's gone remarkably right in France, why Rosa is still in Canada, and why it may be that it's not just Trump that's contributed to the end of the Pax American...

There's lots we don't know about how things are going to shake out in the small constellation of scandals that surround America's president. But there is one thing that's clear. The cloud Donald Trump wanted James Comey to help remove is not going away anytime soon. Does this mean America's president is no longer the most powerful man in the world? Is Trump the least influential American president...

America's Twitter-bomber-in-chief has caused plenty of mayhem during his wild ride through the first half year in the presidency, but he hasn't really been tested by a crisis. On this episode, guests Rosa Brooks, Kori Shake and David Sanger discuss what clues deep staters might have gleaned about how the big guy might handle a terrorist attack or an international incident. They also consider just...

On this pilot episode of the Deep State Radio podcast (secretly taped in the third sub-basement of the Ministry of Snark), guests Rosa Brooks of Georgetown University, Kori Schake of Stanford and David Sanger of the New York Times reunite with host David Rothkopf for a look under the hood of the fine-tuned machine that is the Trump Administration. The apocalypse comes up. And then there are the re...