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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Catch Un-Diplomatic on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

Stephen Wertheim joins as a guest in the Un-Diplomatic Podcast’s special livestream edition. He discusses two of his latest pieces, in the Financial Times and Global Asia magazine respectively. The chat includes thoughts about NATO in Asia, the unreliability of US commitments, how the Democratic Party has ceded peace narratives to Trump, and the romantic views of US power that leads European and Asian powers to think they're free-riding when they're really setting themselves up for a trap. 

"It’s time for Europe’s magical thinking on defence to end": https://on.ft.com/4iSWlkf 

"Asia Should Encourage ‘Trump the Peacemaker’": https://www.globalasia.org/v19no4/cover/asia-should-encourage-trump-the-peacemaker_stephen-wertheim 

Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/ 

Catch Un-Diplomatic on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

Dumpster fire episode live-streamed on Twitch. Military Primacy is Anti-LGBTQ | US Sanctions on Spain for Opposing Genocide? | Israeli Beeper Terrorism | Your National Security Career is a Joke | Amazon’s Anti-Worker Brutality | USCENTCOM Bombing Yemen | Korea’s Fortune-Telling Shaman Coup Plotter | Ukraine-War Conspiracy Theory | Economic Anxiety and the Racist Right | Avocado Toast Beats Cereal

Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com/

Follow Un-Diplomatic on Twitch to get notifications for livestreams: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

This live episode streamed on the Un-Diplomatic Podcast’s new Twitch channel, critiquing a think tank report about nuclear escalation in a conflict with China over Taiwan. 

Twitch Channel: https://www.twitch.tv/undiplomaticpodcast

Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

Stream on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/live/7N3IFWdqb2g?si=LX7vwVg1XNpB3_3v

The report: https://www.csis.org/events/confronting-armageddon-wargaming-nuclear-deterrence-and-its-failures-us-china-conflict-over

Checking in on the dumpster fire that is world politics.

This week:

Trump’s threat to annex Canada expands to Mexico (!).

Australia’s sphere of influence absorbs Nauru.

The South Korean right has been begging for a crisis with North Korea—here’s why.

JD Vance and Trump take on the Syria question.

A Biden China hand wants us to support Trump on China (!).

Further Reading:

JD Vance, Political Realignment, and Syria

At first glance, Australia’s new treaty with Nauru seems to be a win-win. But questions remain

‘He loves to divide and conquer’: Canada and Mexico brace for second Trump term

After Assad: Q&A From Damascus

The Trump Administration’s China Challenge

Checking in on the dumpster fire that is world politics.

This week:

South Korea’s president declares martial law in what is clearly an attempted self-coup.

Trump threatens to annex Canada.

Trump threatens 100% tariffs on BRICS nations for a non-existent alternative currency.

New Zealand’s Labour Party declares its independent foreign policy.

Let them eat nuclear subs—Americans are struggling while the White House tries to add $7.3 billion to the defense budget for nuclear-powered submarines.

Further Reading:

Sh*tting BRICS: Trump, Dollar Primacy, and Multipolarity

Burger King and Popeyes franchises fined for child labor law violations

South Korea’s Conservative Government Is Cracking Down on the Country’s Militant Labor Unions

Release: A Labour Government will not join AUKUS

Julia, Matt, and Van convened for a mailbag episode to answer all the questions you sent in. Is Korea Asia’s hottest flashpoint? What concerns us about Trump’s political appointees? What do we say when someone claims that Trump is “antiwar?” How should we understand the rise of ethnonationalism, and how can we beat it? What does a democratically accountable foreign policy look like?

All that and more!

Checking in on the dumpster fire that is world politics.

This week:

Polling shows that Liz Cheney’s endorsement depressed enthusiasm for Kamala Harris in Pennsylvania and Michigan.

Trump’s national security adviser co-signs Jake Sullivan’s threat perceptions.

Senator Lindsay Graham’s plans to plunder Ukraine—“It’s about the money!”

The Philippines’ vice president threats assassination on…the Philippines’ president.

Fareed Zakaria lavishing praise on Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy (!).

Lessons for surviving autocracy, from a former Hungarian parliamentarian.

Subscribe to the Un-Diplomatic Newsletter: https://www.un-diplomatic.com

Further Reading:

Data for Progress polling snapshot

Trump’s national security pick: I’m on same page as Jake Sullivan about ‘our adversaries’

Lindsay Graham on Ukraine

The Philippine vice president publicly threatens to have the president assassinated

Fareed Zakaria shares why he’s excited for Trump’s DOGE

I Watched Orbán Destroy Hungary’s Democracy. Here’s My Advice for the Trump Era

How does the incoming Trump administration affect the future of EU defense? What obstacles does Europe face in advancing strategic autonomy? Nevada Lee joins the podcast to discuss recent initiatives to bolster European self-reliance, and why the United States should support them.

Read Nevada’s policy memo on the topic, here: https://www.stimson.org/2024/eu-defense-this-time-might-be-different/

Watch out for publication of her thesis, which she’s trying to un-embargo, here: https://doi.org/10.2870/0338094

Follow her on X if you’re still there: https://x.com/nevadajoan

The world is a dumpster fire right now. For my own sanity, but also for yours, we need more critical takes about current events. There’s too much happening and it’s hard to keep track of everything that matters.

So as a bonus for patrons of the newsletter, I’m going to check in each week with a run down of stories that deserve amplification, with critiques from the Un-Diplomatic perspective.

This week:

The gigification of Temu supply chains amid great-power rivalry.

The Russian missile crisis and what it has to do with North Korea.

The hikoi protest march in New Zealand as a beacon of hope for humanity.

Further Reading:

Biden Allows Ukraine to Strike Russia With Long-Range U.S. Missiles

The U.S. Chinese immigrants running Temu shipping centers from their homes

Live updates: Hīkoi concludes as attention shifts to inside parliament

Free preview crossover with the Bang-Bang Podcast!

Arguably the most successful revolutionary film of all time, Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers boasts many legacies. For film buffs, its import derives from its landmark status in the pantheon of Italian neorealism and political cinema. For anti-imperialists, its value comes from its hardnosed but sympathetic depictions of armed struggle. And for imperialists or right-wing strongmen, the film has been deployed as a realistic guidebook for counterinsurgency. Van and Lyle relate these competing readings to the War on Terror and the latest debates around Gaza, Palestine, and liberation.

Get the full episode and subscribe at https://www.bangbangpod.com/p/the-battle-of-algiers-1966.

Further Reading:

A Savage War of Peace (1977), by Alistair Horne

Discourse on Colonialism (1955), by Aimé Césaire

The Wretched of the Earth (1961), by Franz Fanon

“Negroes are Anti-Semitic Because They’re Anti-White” (1967), by James Baldwin

“Open Letter to the Born Again” (1979), by James Baldwin

On Violence (1970), by Hannah Arendt

“No regrets from an ex-Algerian rebel immortalized in film” (2007), Interview with Saadi Yacef

“The Communists and the Colonized” (2016), Interview with Selim Nadi

Hamas Contained (2018), by Tareq Baconi

The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine (2020), by Rashid Khalidi