The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

Mar 07 2025 227 ep. 50 mins 1.3k
The Un-Diplomatic Podcast artwork

Global power politics, for the people. Hosted by Van Jackson, Julia Gledhill, and Matt Duss. The views expressed are theirs alone (not those of any institution or employer).

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Palestine at the Oscars | China Tariffs NBD | Working-Class Homeless | Ukraine's Peace Problems | Ep. 225

Mar 07 2025 53 mins  
What it means that No Other Land won the Oscar for best documentary. The wicked politics of Ukraine's peace problems. Why China in't mussed about Trump's tariffs. The tradeoff between Taiwan's security and chip manufacturing in the US. And the growing problem of working-class homeless in America: You drive UberEats because of America's permanent war economy.

Non-Aligned Europe | Primacy-Multipolarity | Nuking the Nuclear Triad | Ukraine's Critical Minerals | Ep. 224

Mar 01 2025 61 mins  
Explaining Europe's shift to strategic non-alignment. The false god of nuclear deterrence--why the nuclear triad is overrated. Making sense of the Pentagon's fake spending cuts. Privateer forces and American imperialism--the $25 billion Erik Prince proposal. Gen Z and Millennials can't afford a home. Expelling Canada from a Five-Eyes that nobody wants. Why great-power competition w

Three Kings (1999) w/ Kevin Fox | Bang-Bang Podcast Crossover | Ep. 223

Feb 22 2025 47 mins  
Free preview episode cross-over with the Bang-Bang Podcast. A madcap collage of American Berserk—that’s one way to describe David O. Russell’s Three Kings, and it’s exactly how Van, Lyle, and screenwriter Kevin Fox dive into it. This two-part episode (the second installment drops shortly) unpacks the film’s wild genre mash-up: comic book absurdities collide with nods to

White Nationalism and China | Ukraine's Imperial Peace | Tupac and the Pentagon | Mercenary Monroe Doctrine | Democratic War Hawks | Ep. 222

Feb 15 2025 57 mins  
In the Trump era, being anti-anti-China is worse than being a white nationalist. 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.

Live Lecture! What Good is the National Interest? Rethinking the Foundations of Peace, Democracy, and War

Feb 10 2025 75 mins  
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. No

Palantir is Evil | USAID w/out World War III | ICE Performing Terror | Imagining Restraint in Asia | Foreign Influence is the New Cocaine | Ep. 220

Feb 06 2025 34 mins  
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

Perils of Christian Patriotism | We're All Antifascist (Right?) | How to Cut the Pentagon Ep. 219

Jan 31 2025 42 mins  
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.

How Saudi Arabia Bought Trump, DEI and Militarism, Nuclear No First-Use, Elon Musk and the Far Right | Ep. 218

Jan 24 2025 51 mins  
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 Ban

Live! Guest Daniel Bessner on The Crisis of Liberalism, The Failure of Democrats, and the Truth About Chomsky | Ep. 217

Jan 21 2025 44 mins  
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?

Ender's Game w/ Alexander McCoy (2013) | Bang-Bang Podcast Crossover | Ep. 216

Jan 13 2025 36 mins  
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