Vandenberg Flash Focus

Ambassador Paula J. Dobriansky, Vice Chair of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy & Security, former Under Secretary of State for Global Affairs, and Vandenberg Coalition Governance Board member joins Flash Focus to discuss this week’s NATO summit in Washington, D.C. marking the 75th anniversary of the transatlantic Alliance. Against the backdrop of a protracted war waged by R...

Dr. Victor Cha, senior vice president for Asia and Korea at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a distinguished university professor of government at Georgetown University, and a member of the Vandenberg Coalition advisory board, joins Flash Focus to discuss the recent meeting between Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un, a summit that designated a ‘compr...

Emilio Gonzalez , former Director of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) under President George W. Bush and a member of the Vandenberg Coalition advisory board, joins Flash Focus to discuss the record-breaking surge of illegal immigration under President Biden, an overwhelmed American immigration system, broken border securit...

Vandenberg is joined by authors Richard Fontaine and Robert Blackwill to discuss their new book, Lost Decade: The US Pivot to Asia and the Rise of Chinese Power moderated by Vandenberg Director of Strategic Partnerships Sydney Novak.  U.S. policymakers often discuss a need to “pivot to Asia,” but what does that mean exactly? Lost Decade authors Richard Fontaine and Amb. Robert Blackwill tell...

Garrett Exner, an adjunct fellow at Hudson Institute, executive director of the Public Interest Fellowship , board member of Veterans on Duty, and Marine Corps veteran joins Vandenberg Coalition Executive Director Carrie Filipetti to discuss the significance of the 80th anniversary of D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in history in which Allied troops landed in Normandy to liberate Europe. In...

Connor Pfeiffer , Director of Congressional Relations at FDD Action and senior advisor and former executive director of the Forum for American Leadership joins Flash Focus to discuss Mexico's elections this past weekend, the significance of Claudia Sheinbaum's presidential election victory for politics in Mexico, the future of U.S.-Mexican cooperation on matters like the migration crisis, counteri...

Ambassador J. Peter Pham , distinguished fellow at the Atlantic Council, served as the U.S.'s first-ever U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel Region during the Trump administration, and a member of the Vandenberg Coalition advisory board, joins Flash Focus to discuss the recent coups across the Sahel regions, where in countries Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger have seen their elected governments fall and...

Dr. Matthew Kroenig , Vice President and Senior Director at the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security and a member of the Vandenberg Coalition advisory board, joins Flash Focus to discuss the recent summit between Russia’s President Putin and China’s President Xi in which the two autocrats signed a joint statement on a “new era” of partnership. Matt outlines the history and...

Bonnie Glick , Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Senior Adviser with the Project on Prosperity and Development at CSIS, and Advisory Board member of the Vandenberg Coalition, joins Flash Focus to discuss the Middle East’s most recent developments—the crash of a helicopter carrying Iran’s President and Foreign Minister on board and the International Criminal Court’s issuan...

Secretary Robert Wilkie joins Flash Focus to discuss the Biden Administration's unprecedented move to threaten an arms embargo of Israel, a vital U.S. partner in the Middle East currently embroiled in war. In order to defeat Hamas in Gaza, it is imperative that the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) eliminate Hamas's final brigade in Rafah. Efforts by the United States to delay or obstruct such an opera...

On this episode, we are joined by Carine Hajjar —an opinion and editorial writer at The Boston Globe —to discuss her recent coverage of American college campuses embroiled in anti-Israeli protests and encampments. A recent graduate of Harvard, Carine returned to her alma mater, along with the campuses of NYU, Columbia, and MIT, to gain an understanding of the chaos as it unfolds. She joins us to d...

Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL) joins TVC Executive Director Carrie Filipetti to discuss his role on the House Committee on Appropriations, Subcommittee on Defense, and his role as Chairman of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs at a time of global uncertainty in the strength of American leadership aboard.  This special episode is part of the Vandenberg Coalition...

Zack Cooper joins Flash Focus to discuss Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida's state visit to Washington this week. What are the top-takeaways and how should policymakers think about our relationship with the country that is arguably our most important ally? Japan is central to America's alliance network in the Indo-Pacific and the Administration sees a willing security partner in Japanese Prime...

Vandenberg is joined by authors Matthew Kroenig & Dan Negrea to discuss their new book, We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War . Many argue that today's Republican Party is divided, but this book argues that the outline of a GOP foreign policy consensus is emerging just beneath the surface. We call this emerging Republican foreign policy doctrine the Trump-Reagan fus...

Juan Cruz and Ana Quintana join Flash Focus guest host Carrie Filipetti to dissect the unfolding crisis in the Caribbean island nation. For months, unrest has been growing and violence has escalated in the streets. Meanwhile, Haiti's prime minister is trapped in Puerto Rico, Kenya has promised to send a security force to the island, and the United States has promised financial support. Juan Cruz i...

Richard Fontaine joins Flash Focus to discuss the war in Ukraine on the eve of the second anniversary of Russia's invasion (Feb. 24th). Since 2022, Ukraine has held the line against Russia and maintained its independence, but not without great cost. Congress is now debating whether or not to approve another aid package to the embattled country. Richard is the CEO of the Center for a New American S...

As Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine approaches its second anniversary, the U.S. Congress is debating whether to continue providing military aid to Kyiv. Lost in the noise, however, is what is actually happening on the ground. Flash Focus welcomes Heather Nauert , former spokesperson for the U.S. Department of State, to discuss her recent visit to the war-torn country and the conditions f...

On Saturday (1/13), voters in Taiwan elected incumbent vice president Lai Ching-te to serve as president, the first time an incumbent party has won a third successive presidential election. What was the PRC's reaction and what does Lai's election mean for cross-strait relations and the U.S.-Taiwan relationship? Flash Focus welcomes Russell Hsiao , executive director of the Global Taiwan Institute,...

For weeks, Iran-backed Houthi terrorists have attacked civilian shipping as well as U.S. & allied warships in an attempt to blockade the southern approach to the Suez Canal through the Red Sea. Last night (Jan. 11) after weeks of defensive convoy operations by a multinational naval coalition, the U.S. and U.K. launched missile and airstrikes to take out Houthi missile and drone launching sites...

Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthis—across the Middle East, chaos and violence can be traced back to the Islamic Republic of Iran through its terrorist proxy groups. Vandenberg Coalition founder & chairman Elliott Abrams joins us to discuss the state of the Israel-Hamas War and how it relates to the broader Middle East. 00:01:00 Update on the situation in Israel & Gaza 00:02:35 The ground war and wh...

The Vandenberg Coalition's Executive Director, Carrie Filipetti, sat down with Congresswoman Ashley Hinson (R-IA) to discuss her role on the House Select Committee on the CCP, securing the national defense at a time of fiscal uncertainty, the importance of American leadership, and more. This special episode is part of the Vandenberg Coalition's Future of Conservative Foreign Policy series, where w...

We are joined by Vandenberg's Ana Quintana & former U.S. Special Envoy to the Great Lakes Region of Africa, Amb. J. Peter Pham , to discuss the collapse of governance in Haiti and why Kenya has taken the lead of the UN-sanctioned multinational security force being sent to the island country. 00:01:25 Situation in Haiti and why the UN approved an outside intervention 00:05:08 Why is Kenya the l...

We sit down with the Hudson Institute's Luke Coffey to discuss the current state of the war in Ukraine, the fight brewing in Congress over additional U.S. military aid, and the course of the war as it enters its second year. Mentioned in the Episode : The Fourteen Facts About U.S. Aid to Ukraine The Decisive Moment for Ukraine: A Conversation with Andriy Yermak, Head of the Office of the President...

Vandenberg's own Carrie Filipetti joins Flash Focus to unpack this week's opposition presidential primary in Venezuela, how the Maduro regime maintains its grip on power, and how political change in Venezuela would affect U.S. interests in the Western Hemisphere.

We sit down with Richard Goldberg —a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies & Vandenberg Coalition Advisory Board member—to discuss President Biden's trip to Israel yesterday, the IDF's ongoing campaign against Hamas, and the still-unfolding ramifications of Hamas' brutal terrorist attack on Israel almost two weeks ago. This episode was recorded on Thursday, October 19th.