What Tupac predicted about the defense budget. Pete Hegseth unveils Trump's imperialist peace plan for Ukraine. The Monroe Doctrine means mercenary imperialism. Why the Democratic Party can't critique Trump's lies about being antiwar. In the Trump era, being anti-anti-China is worse than being a white nationalist.

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Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the individuals and not of any institutions.

Dr. Van Jackson gave a public lecture at the Havens Wright Center for Social Justice in the Department of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin on February 4, 2025. This episode is the full set of remarks plus Q&A from that lecture.

About the lecture: The concept of the “national interest,” Van Jackson argues, has become an under-appreciated source of global insecurity. Not because there is anything intrinsically wrong with people having interests that must be preserved, promoted, or protected. Rather, the “national interest” as such obscures whose interests are served (and harmed) by the efforts of policy elites to secure the state. Governments routinely use the language of the national interest to justify a politics of violence, secrecy, and exclusion while bracketing off explicit questions of morality and justice. And national frameworks for mobilizing resources and collective action are logically mismatched against global threats like climate change. But rather than wishing away the modern nation-state or simply suggesting changes to the words that governing elites use, this lecture argues that addressing the contradictions in the national interest—as well as some of international security studies’ most cherished strategic constructs—is a start point for constructing more durable forms of security.

The full video lecture: https://youtu.be/6uEGvZQTjNA?si=LvOqClXur72a7v7T

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Why Palantir and the new Silicon Valley defense-industrial cartel is bad news for humanity. How to talk about USAID without starting World War III (w/ cameo from Senator Chris Murphy). ICE immigration raids are trying to perform terror. Foreign influence is the new cocaine--legal for white folks. And imagining what a restraint-based, antimilitarist foreign policy could look like in Asia if the Philippines could make a missiles-for-peace deal with China.

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Why JD Vance's understanding of Christian patriotism fundamentally misunderstands christianity...on purpose. ANTIFA is not a terrorist organization, and we should all be antifascist. Why Burmese scholarships are not woke and DOGE has cut too far. And how to cut the Pentagon intelligently.

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Read Julia's report (with William Hartung and Gabe Murphy) on cutting defense spending: https://www.stimson.org/2025/developing-efficient-effective-defense/

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The views expressed are theirs alone.

The gang's back with another variety episode. Why Saudi Arabia throws so much money at Trump. Matt's trip to Israel amid ceasefire negotiations. The truth about DEI initiatives and the Pentagon. The best time for nuclear no first-use was 4 years ago; the second best time is now. What's Elon Musk doing with far right parties in Europe? And why is "the quad" both a joke and Steve Bannon's Asia fantasy?

More Perfect Union: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Su8NHZY-CyY&t=92s

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Guest Daniel Bessner of The American Prestige Podcast joins the Un-Diplomatic livestream to talk about many topics. Is international relations dead or just irrelevant? Where did Democrats go more wrong, on domestic or foreign policy? What was the problem with Noam Chomsky's theory of change? And what even is a crisis of liberalism?

Subscribe to The American Prestige Podcast: https://americanprestige.supportingcast.fm/listen

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Just for the strategy nerds, sharing a free preview of the Bang-Bang Podcast episode covering Ender’s Game, the 2013 film adaptation of Orson Scott Card’s classic sci-fi novel of the same name. Neither achieving box office nor critical success, the movie still evokes a wide range of reactions. Especially when it comes to its ambiguous relationship to the original text. Van and Lyle have fellow vet and strategist Alexander McCoy on the show to debate their competing reads. Along the way, they come to agree that certain insights gleaned from the cinematic rendering might be at odds with Card’s politics. Ranging from the ultimate lovelessness of war to the emptiness of any strategy unharnessed from justice and peace.

Subscribe to the Bang-Bang Podcast for the full episode and more: https://www.bangbangpod.com

Alex on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/alexandermccoy.bsky.social

“A Primer on Orson Scott Card and the Ender’s Game Controversy,” by Anna Silman

The Internationalists, by Alexander Ward

“The Great Humbling,” by David Klion

“Four Futures,” By Peter Frase

Strategy and Conscience, by Anatol Rapaport

What is the role of crypto and AI in the new American oligarchy? What does it mean that Mark Zuckerberg has declared a re-embrace of "politics?" And what do Palantir, Anduril, and the new defense-industrial cartel have to do with everything from domestic governance to World War III and the "future of war?" All that and more in Van Jackson's chat with Max Read.

Subscribe to Max's ReadMax newsletter: https://maxread.substack.com

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