Call Me Back - with Dan Senor

Last weekend, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the leader of the Wagner mercenary group, launched a rebellion, coup or putsch against Moscow. It's still hard to discern what it was. As of now, It seems Prigozhin has halted the Wagner operation. The situation is fluid, and we aren’t going to leap to conclusions on this podcast. But our guest today, Richard Fontaine, told me he is skeptical that these events so far reflect real cracks in President Putin’s rule. So I asked Richard to hop on our podcast to unpack where he think events are headed. Richard is the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), bi-partisan foreign policy think tank in Washington, DC. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He serves on the Biden administration’s Defense Policy Board – which advises the Pentagon.

In this special re-published episode, we revisit a captivating conversation that resonated deeply with our audience, offering new listeners an opportunity to delve into the insights shared by Niall Ferguson. In this decade we may finally experience a true crack-up in higher education. There have been comparable periods on American college campuses in the past (in the 1960s and 1980s, for example). But our guest today, historian Niall Ferguson, believes what’s happening now is on a whole other level. Niall is doing something about it -- he’s started a new university. Niall argues that parents -- who had enriching and intellectually diverse experiences when they went to college -- don’t fully appreciate that their own children will experience something completely different when they go off to university. Niall Ferguson has taught at Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and New York University. He’s authored 17 books. He’s currently at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University where he is the MIllbank Family Senior Fellow, and Managing Director of Greenmantle, a macroeconomic and geopolitical advisory firm. Order Niall’s most recent book, “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe” here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/doom-niall-ferguson/1137713414 Learn more about the University of Austin here: https://www.uaustin.org/ Learn more about Greenmantle here: https://www.gmantle.com/

These days there are lots of conversations about the re-shaping of the workforce as a result of the pandemic. Bruce Feiler is just out with a new book – THE SEARCH: Finding Meaningful Work in a Post-Career World – based on years of research on this topic. He is the author of seven New York Times bestsellers. His book WALKING THE BIBLE describes his 10,000-mile journey retracing the Five Books of Moses through the desert. The book spent a year and a half on the New York Times bestseller list. His book WHERE GOD WAS BORN describes his trek visiting biblical sites throughout Israel, Iran and Iraq. His book AMERICA’S PROPHET is the story of the influence of Moses on American history A longtime columnist at the New York Times, Bruce now writes the popular newsletter THE NONLINEAR LIFE. Items discussed in this podcast: The Nonlinear Life newsletter -- https://brucefeiler.substack.com/ The Search -- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-search-bruce-feiler/1142169519

Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times, returns for a conversation immediately following his address at the University of Chicago’s Class Day, where there was an organized — and ultimately unsuccessful — effort against his speech. We discuss his address, the effort against him and lessons learned. Bret also recently returned from a mission to rescue 111 Ethiopian Jews, part of a multi-decade effort to bring thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel to become Israeli citizens, the history of which he unpacks at the end of our conversation. Bret came to The New York Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was most recently deputy editorial page editor and, for 11 years, a foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. And prior to working in Israel, he was based in Brussels for The Wall Street Journal. Today, Bret is also the editor-in-chief of Sapir Journal. Bret was raised in Mexico City, earned his BA at the University of Chicago and his Masters at the London School of Economics. Items discussed in this episode: Sapir Journal — https://sapirjournal.org/ “The Herd of Independent Minds: Has the Avant-Garde Its Own Mass Culture” — https://www.commentary.org/articles/harold-rosenberg-2/the-herd-of-independent-mindshas-the-avant-garde-its-own-mass-culture/ Bret Stephens — “Go Forth and Argue” — https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/02/opinion/free-speech-campus.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare Bret Stephens — “Israel’s Unfinished Exodus Story” — https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/26/opinion/ethiopian-jews-israel.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare “Sideways” — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0375063/ “The Lives of Others” — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/

Today’s guest is surprisingly upbeat about the world. A big factor in his optimism is the revolution in artificial intelligence that we’re about to live through. Tyler Cowen is an economics professor at George Mason University and he’s the faculty director of the Mercatus Center. He is the coauthor – with Alex Tabarock – of the economics blog Marginal Revolution (the #1 economics blog in the world) and the co-founder of Marginal Revolution University. He is the host of the top-rated podcast “Conversations with Tyler”. Cowen’s latest book is Talent: How to Identify Energizers, Creatives, and Winners Around the World. Before that he penned The Great Stagnation, and also The Complacent Class. About a decade ago he wrote Average is Over, which was somewhat prescient about this period we are heading into with AI. He also published a book called Big Business: A love letter to an American anti-hero. Tyler writes a column for Bloomberg View; he has contributed to The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. His academic research has been published in the American Economic Review and the Journal of Political Economy. Items discussed in this episode: Marginal Revolution University -- mru.org Marginal Revolution blog -- marginalrevolution.com Tyler Cowen's books -- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/talent-tyler-cowen/1138462103

Upon graduation from the US Military Academy in 1984, HR McMaster served as a commissioned officer in the US Army for thirty-four years. He retired as a lieutenant general in June 2018. From 2014 to 2017, General McMaster designed the future army as the director of the Army Capabilities Integration Center and the deputy commanding general, futures, of the US Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). As commanding general of the Maneuver Center of Excellence at Fort Benning, he oversaw all training and education for the army’s infantry, armor, and cavalry force.He commanded the Combined Joint Inter-Agency Task Force in Afghanistan from 2010 to 2012; he commanded the Third Armored Cavalry Regiment in Iraq from 2005 to 2006; he was also deployed in Operation Desert Storm from 1990 to 1991. General McMaster holds a PhD in military history. He was an assistant professor of history at the US Military Academy. He is author of the bestselling books Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World and Dereliction of Duty: Lyndon Johnson, Robert McNamara, the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Lies that Led to Vietnam. General McMaster is the host of two podcasts: Battlegrounds: International Perspectives on Crucial Challenges and Opportunities and is a regular on GoodFellows, both produced by the Hoover Institution. He is a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University, and he also teaches at Stanford's Graduate School of Business. And he chairs an advisory board at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Discussed in this episode: Dereliction of Duty by HR McMaster: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dereliction-of-duty-h-r-mcmaster/1126012409 Books on China by Frank Dikotter: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/frank%20dikotter Battlegrounds podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/battlegrounds-w-h-r-mcmaster-international-perspectives/id1551042106 GoodFellows podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/goodfellows-conversations-from-the-hoover-institution/id1505855709

In this episode, we go deep on the current phase (the invisible primary) of the 2024 presidential primaries with Mike Murphy, who has worked on a number of presidential campaigns, as well as run 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country. Murphy was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He’s co-host of the critically acclaimed "Hacks on Tap" podcast. Mike is also co-director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future. Articles we discuss in this episode: Mike Murphy -- "Iowa Is a Big Problem for Trump" -- https://plus.thebulwark.com/p/iowa-is-a-big-problem-for-trump Matthew Yglesias -- "Ron DeSantis is struggling without the Covid issue" -- https://www.slowboring.com/p/ron-desantis-is-struggling-without

Items discussed in this episode"Impossible Takes Longer":https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/impossible-takes-longer-daniel-gordis/1141759170 "Netanyahu: The Figures Who Formed Him, and the Duties of Jewish Leadership":https://mosaicmagazine.com/observation/israel-zionism/2021/12/netanyahu-the-figures-who-formed-him-and-the-duties-of-jewish-leadership/ "Israel From The Inside":https://danielgordis.substack.com/

Over the past 16 weeks, Israel has experienced one of the biggest protest movements since its founding. On the surface, these protests were about proposed judicial reforms. But was something deeper going on -- for both sides of this debate? On a recent trip to Israel, Dan sat down with Dr. Micah Goodman to better understand the forces shaping this debate. Micah, who has been on our podcast before, is on the speed-dial of a number of Israeli political leaders. He hosts the most downloaded podcast series in Israel and his books include bestsellers like Catch-67: The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War and, most recently, The Wondering Jew: Israel and the Search for Jewish Identity.

Today we sit down in Israel with Mark Dubowitz, who is the CEO of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD), at a time that Saudi Arabia is reopening its embassy in Tehran, and Iran's relations appear to be flourishing with Beijing, Moscow and much of the Sunni Arab Middle East. Six months ago, Iran was under enormous pressure. What happened? In his role as CEO of FDD, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, DC, Mark has advised the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, and he has testified more than twenty times before the U.S. Congress and foreign legislatures. A former venture capitalist and technology executive, Mark has a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. According to The New York Times, “Mark Dubowitz’s campaign to draw attention to what he saw as the flaws in the Iran nuclear deal has taken its place among the most consequential ever undertaken by a Washington think tank leader.” According to The Atlantic, “Dubowitz has been helping design and push forward sanctions on Iran…establishing the FDD as D.C.’s ground zero for research and policy recommendations aimed at highlighting and fixing what Dubowitz saw as the flaws in the nuclear agreement.”

"Brokenism", by Alana Newhouse - https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/brokenism-alana-newhouse“The Vanishing”, by Jacob Savage - https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/news/articles/the-vanishing

Yaakov Katz – Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post and a former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – returns to our podcast. Earlier, Yaakov Katz served as The Jerusalem Post’s military reporter and defense analyst. He is the author of "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" and co-author of two books: "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" and "Israel vs. Iran - The Shadow War" "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" – shorturl.at/adioS "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" - shorturl.at/fhIJ3

In this special episode we play a conversation that Dan recently had on the Commentary Magazine podcast on the current crisis, how Israel got here and where it goes from here. Be sure to subscribe to Commentary Magazine and its podcast: https://www.commentary.org/

Is the US Government trying to re-engage and bring down the temperature with China? Why right now? And what about the resurgent findings on the possible lab leaked accident (on the origin of the pandemic)? Where does this fit into the de-escalation dynamic? Josh Rogin is a long-time foreign affairs journalist, currently a columnist for The Washington Post. He’s also a Political Analyst for CNN. He’s the author of the bestselling book: “Chaos Under Heaven: Trump, Xi, and the Battle for the Twenty-First Century” Josh's columns discussed in this episode: "The State Department is wrong to play down China’s bad actions"- https://tinyurl.com/3dxtm9a3 "The investigation into covid’s origins must continue" - https://tinyurl.com/3j3ubz4v Ukrainians are begging for cluster munitions to stop the Russians - https://tinyurl.com/yr9vhe7k

Twenty years ago this past week, on March 19, 2003, the United States invaded Iraq, marking the second time the U.S. fought a war in Iraq in just over a decade. What is the legacy for U.S. foreign policy, for the Middle East, and for domestic public opinion on America's role in the world? Journalist Eli Lake traveled to Iraq six times since the invasion 20 years ago. He is contributing editor to Commentary Magazine and a columnist for The New York Sun. He was formerly a columnist for Bloomberg. He is also the host of "The Re-education with Eli Lake" podcast. Items discussed in this episode: "The Iraq War, 20 Years Later" -- https://tinyurl.com/yzx7juzc "Saddam Hussein's Demise" -- https://tinyurl.com/bdhdu2et

China just announced that it had brokered a deal between Saudi Arabia and Iran to restore diplomatic relations, for the first time since they were officially severed in 2016. But this news begs more questions than it answers. To help us understand what it means for Washington, Jerusalem, Beijing, Tehran, and Riyadh, Rich Goldberg joins the podcast. Rich is a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. From 2019-2020, he served as a Director for Countering Iranian Weapons of Mass Destruction for the White House National Security Council. He previously served as a national security staffer in the US Senate and US House. He was a founding staff director of the House U.S.-China Working Group and was among the first Americans ever to visit China’s human space launch center. A leader in efforts to expand U.S. missile defense cooperation with Israel, Rich played a key role in U.S. funding for the Iron Dome. Rich is an officer in the U.S. Navy Reserve with military experience on the Joint Staff and in Afghanistan.

Eric Cohen is the CEO of Tikvah. He was the founder and remains editor-at-large of the New Atlantis, and he serves as the publisher of Mosaic. Eric has written for The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, and Commentary, He is the author of In the Shadow of Progress: Being Human in the Age of Technology. He previously worked for the U.S. President’s Council on Bioethics. Eric's work can be found at: TikvahFund.org The Mosaic essay we discuss in this episode: "The Spirit of Jewish Classical Education", by Eric and Cohen & Mitchell Rocklin https://mosaicmagazine.com/essay/history-ideas/2023/02/the-spirit-of-jewish-classical-education/ Column by Tyler Cowen: "Wokeism Has Peaked" https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-02-18/wokeism-has-peaked-in-america-but-is-still-globally-influential#xj4y7vzkg The New Atlantis https://www.thenewatlantis.com/

On the topic of geopolitics, international flashpoints and the state of the war, a surprisingly optimistic Richard Fontaine returns to our podcast. Richard is the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a bi-partisan foriegn policy think tank in Washington, DC. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He serves on the Biden administration’s Defense Policy Board – which advises the Pentagon. Richard’s oped discussed in this episode: https://warontherocks.com/2023/02/of-strategy-and-schnitzel-munich-security-conference-2023/

Historian Niall Ferguson returns to the podcast to look at how the current Cold War could turn hot. Niall has taught at Harvard, Cambridge, Oxford and New York University. He’s authored 17 books. He’s currently at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University where he is the MIllbank Family Senior Fellow, and Managing Director of Greenmantle, a macroeconomic and geopolitical advisory firm. Order Niall’s most recent book, “Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe” here: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/doom-niall-ferguson/1137713414 Learn more about the University of Austin here: https://www.uaustin.org/ Learn more about Greenmantle here: https://www.gmantle.com/ Email me questions, comments and ideas at [email protected].

The Abraham Accords were signed in September 2020. This agreement between Israel, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, marked the first full normalization agreement between Israel and an Arab country since the 1994 Jordan-Israel agreement. Soon after the September 2020 signing, Morocco and Sudan joined the Accords as well. Since these historic breakthroughs, Israel has been through wild political swings, from a left-right coalition government that included Naftali Bennett from the Right, Yair Lapid from the center-Left, and Mansour Abbas from a Muslim-Arab party. Fast forward to today, there is a government of the Right led by Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been on this podcast. And through it all, the Abraham Accords have endured. One of the architects of the accords was Aryeh Lightstone, who served as Senior Advisor to the U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman from 2017 to 2021. On a recent trip to Israel, I sat down with Aryeh to hear the latest and also discuss his book, "Let My People Know: The Incredible Story of Middle East Peace―and What Lies Ahead." Aryeh played a critical role in the opening of the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem and he was a U.S. Government point person in the Middle East for the actualization of the Abraham Accords. Aryeh Lightsone's book: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/let-my-people-know-aryeh-lightstone/1140125201

In this episode, we go deep on 2024 presidential primaries with Mike Murphy, who has worked on 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country. Murphy was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He’s co-host of the critically acclaimed "Hacks on Tap" podcast. Mike is also co-director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future. Articles we discuss in this episode: “Biden is as good as it gets for the Democrats”, by Michael Brendan Dougherty: https://www.nationalreview.com/2023/01/bidens-as-good-as-it-gets-for-democrats/ “Biden's State of the Union Was a Feisty Return to '90s Politics. Republicans Should Be Afraid,” by Josh Barro: https://www.joshbarro.com/p/bidens-state-of-the-union-was-a-feisty

Mike Tannenbaum has more than 2 decades of experience in NFL team front offices. He was an executive vice president of football operations for the Miami Dolphins (2015-18), and executive vice president and general manager for the New York Jets (2006-12). Under Mike’s leadership, the Jets advanced to the playoffs in three seasons, won four playoff games and made two AFC Championship game appearances. Mike’s tenure as general manager of the Jets marked the most successful seven-year period in franchise history.He’s also worked with legendary NFL coaches, from Bill Parcells to Bill Belichick. Today Mike is an ESPN analyst – ESPN’s NFL Front Office Insider. In addition to his ESPN role, Tannenbaum is the founder of football think tank and news and commentary platform, The 33rd Team, and he teaches Football Business Management: The Inner Workings of the NFL at Columbia University. Mike began his NFL career as an intern for the New Orleans Saints in 1994. Discussed on the show: The33rdteam.com

Are we actually headed for a replay of Trump vs Biden in 2024? How strong is Trump heading into the GOP primaries? Is Biden certain to be the Democratic nominee? Do Biden and Trump need each other? And what role will Trump play in 2024 if he’s NOT the Republican nominee? Maggie Haberman, senior political correspondent for The New York Times, returns to the podcast. For the entirety of the Trump administration, Maggie Haberman was a White House correspondent for The New York Times. She joined The Times in 2015. Maggie is part of a team at The Times that won a Pulitzer, and she is the author of the book Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America. Before joining The New York Times, Maggie was a reporter at Politico, The New York Post and The New York Daily News. Maggie Haberman's book, Confidence Man: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/confidence-man-maggie-haberman/1140985472 Articles discussed in this episode: "Some Democrats are worried about Harris’s political prospects" - https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/30/harris-democrats-worry/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email "Few Americans are excited about a Biden-Trump rematch, Post-ABC poll finds" https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/02/05/poll-biden-trump-2024/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

Congressman Mike Gallagher returns to our podcast, this time to look ahead at American foreign policy in 2023. Congressman Gallagher -- of Wisconsin's 8th CD -- has a unique perspective, since he’s just been tapped to lead the newly created House Select Committee on China. Congressman Gallagher served for seven years on active duty in the Marine Corps, including two deployments to Iraq. He served as a top staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Congressman Gallagher has a bachelor’s degree from Princeton University, a master’s degree in Security Studies from Georgetown University, a second master's in Strategic Intelligence from National Intelligence University, and a PhD in International Relations from Georgetown. Rep. Gallagher has served on the House Armed Services Committee and the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. In addition to foreign policy, in this episode, we also wound up talking about the new Congress and the reforms made during the Speaker's election. In this episode, we discussed Yuval Levin's "Some Good Can Come Out of the Kevin McCarthy Fiasco" -- https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/10/opinion/kevin-mccarthy-speaker-house.html

In this episode, we break down changes in our media diets that have been changed as a result of the pandemic and the tech market boom, and what will revert back to VERY pre-pandemic habits. John Podhoretz returns to our conversation. He’s been a prolific TV and film critic for over four decades. John is editor in chief of Commentary Magazine and host of Commentary’s award-winning daily podcast, he’s a columnist for the New York Post, a book author, and was film critic for the Weekly Standard and television critic for the New York Post.

Is there any precedent for combating inflation that doesn’t end in recession or depression? This is one of many questions we have for Dr. Mohamed El-Erian as we look ahead to 2023. What should we expect this year in the markets and the economy? Mohamed El-Erian is President of Queens' College at Cambridge University. He serves as part-time Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz and Chair of Gramercy Fund Management. He’s a Professor at The Wharton School, he is a Financial Times contributing editor, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, and the author of two New York Times best sellers. He serves on the board of the National Bureau of Economic Research, and of Barclays and Under Armour. From 2007-2014, Mohammed was CEO/co-CIO of PIMCO and was chair of President Obama's Global Development Council. He also served two years as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard’s endowment. He has been chair of the Microsoft Investment Advisory Board since 2007. Essay discussed in this episode: "Not Just Another Recession: Why the Global Economy May Never Be the Same" https://www.foreignaffairs.com/world/not-just-another-recession-global-economy

“Democrats fall in love. Republicans fall in line." So said former President Bill Clinton. But it didn't seem that way last week, as House Republicans struggled to select a new Speaker. A band of rebels wasn’t getting in line for anyone - not for the most recent leaders of the House Republican Conference, not for the leaders of their own House Freedom Caucus, and not even for former President Trump. What happened? What does it tell us about the current state of Republican politics heading into 2024, and about Republican governance in Congress, as Washington has to take up issues like the Debt Ceiling.Matt Continetti is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, founding editor of The Washington Free Beacon, and a columnist for Commentary Magazine. He’s also the author of several books. His most recent book is called “The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism”.Also read Matt's most recent Washington Post piece "House Republicans, There you go again".And, for our next two episodes, send a question for Congressman Mike Gallagher or Mohamed El-Erian by emailing a voice memo to [email protected] (please keep the question to under 30 seconds).

WIth Prime Minister Netanyahu's new government now sworn in, and also developments for Israel at the UN, Yaakov Katz – Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post – returns to our podcast. Earlier, Yaakov was an advisor to former Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett. He served as The Jerusalem Post’s military reporter and defense analyst. He is the author of "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" and co-author of two books: "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" and "Israel vs. Iran - The Shadow War" "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" – shorturl.at/adioS "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" - shorturl.at/fhIJ3

One of our regular guests – Bret Stephens, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The New York Times – returns for a conversation on cancel culture, anti-semitism and a new issue of a journal he edits, called Sapir. Bret joined The New York Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was most recently deputy editorial page editor and, for 11 years, a foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor-in-chief of The Jerusalem Post. And prior to Israel, he was based in Brussels for The Wall Street Journal. In this episode we speak extensively about Sapir: https://sapirjournal.org/

U.S. Senator Tom Cotton recently announced that he would not run for president in 2024. And yet at the same time, he continues to be one of the most important voices in Washington on all matters involving American foreign policy and national security. Senator Cotton also recently penned a new book, called Only The Strong. He returns to the podcast to discuss issues ranging from Iran and Russia/Ukraine to China and a proposed ban of TikTok. Senator Cotton represents Arkansas in the Senate. He currently serves on the Senate Judiciary Committee -- where he is the Ranking Member for the Subcommittee on Criminal Justice and Counterterrorism; he sits on the Intelligence Committee, and the Armed Services Committee. He is a graduate of Harvard, and Harvard Law School. He served nearly five years on active duty in the United States Army as an Infantry Officer. -- in Iraq with the 101st Airborne and in Afghanistan with a Provincial Reconstruction Team. Between combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, Senator Cotton also served as a platoon leader in the Old Guard in Arlington Cemetery. To order copies of Senator Cotton's books: Only the Strong -- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/only-the-strong-tom-cotton/1141450141 Sacred Duty -- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sacred-duty-tom-cotton/1129745532

Yuval Levin returns to the podcast. He's especially focused on whether we will have a replay of Trump vs Biden in 2024 or a new generation of leaders from both parties. Yuval discusses the promise of a number of these newer candidates and challenges they face. Yuval is the Director of Social, Cultural, and Constitutional Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. He’s the editor-in-chief of National Affairs, a quarterly journal of essays about domestic policy, political economy, and political thought. And he's authored numerous books, including “A Time To Build”, “The Fractured Republic”, and “The Great Debate: Edmund Burke, Thomas Paine, and the Birth of Right and Left”. Yuval served as a member of the White House domestic policy staff under President George W. Bush. He earned his masters and PhD from the University of Chicago. Towards the end of our conversation, Yuval remembers Michael Gerson, former chief speechwriter to President George W. Bush and Washington Post columnist. To read Michael Gerson's Washington Post columns: https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/michael-gerson/ To order his books - Heroic Conservatism: Why Republicans Need to Embrace America's Ideals (And Why They Deserve to Fail If They Don't): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heroic-conservatism-michael-j-gerson/1008425020?ean=9780061349515 City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era (with Peter Wehner): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/city-of-man-michael-gerson/1100395408?ean=9781575679280 To read Yuval Levin's tribute to Michael Gerson: https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/remembering-my-friend-mike-gerson/

President Biden recently warned that the U.S. faces a 'decisive decade' in its rivalry with China. Are we sleepwalking through this decisive decade? That's what Bret Stephens of The New York Times argues in the Times. (Not only with regard to China but also a range of geopolitical challenges across the globe.) In this conversation, Bret looks at China, Russia/Ukraine, and U.S. defense readiness. He also raises important questions about where the revolution in Iran is going. Bret is a Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for The Times. He came to The Times after a long career with The Wall Street Journal, where he was most recently deputy editorial page editor and, for 11 years, a foreign affairs columnist. Before that, he was editor in chief of The Jerusalem Post, where he was based in Israel. Bret was raised in Mexico City, earned his BA at the University of Chicago and his Masters at the London School of Economics. Bret is also the editor in chief of the journal, Sapir - sapirjournal.org

From civil disobedience we have not seen in China since Tiananmen Square, to loosening zero covid policy, and leadership tightening its political grip in unprecedented ways, this has been quite a few weeks in China. What is US policy on a range of issues – the protests, semiconductors, Taiwan and also TikTok? Matt Pottinger returns to the podcast. Matt covered China and lived in China as a journalist for Reuters and then The Wall Street Journal. Then, in his early 30s, he made quite a career change. Matt joined the US Marine Corps, and had multiple combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan. Later on Matt played an instrumental role in reshaping the West’s relationship with China, when he served as the deputy National Security Advisor in the Trump administration, and was the architect of the administration’s strategy towards China. Today, he is regularly called upon by policymakers on both sides of the aisle, to consult on US policy towards China. He recently co-authored an essay for Foreign Affairs titled “Xi Jinping in His Own Words” -- https://tinyurl.com/2t59vm7z Matt is a Distinguished Visiting Fellow at the Hoover Institution and Chair of the China program at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

Most of the post-midterm commentary has been focused on how the Democrats pulled off a surprise win in holding the majority in the U.S. Senate, and only lost the U.S. House of Representatives by a slim margin. But former Clinton and Schumer strategist -- and current Bloomberg senior advisor - Howard Wolfson is asking something entirely different: why DID the Democrats lose the House? Suggesting that they could have bucked history altogether and won the House too. Howard answers this question in a provocative piece he penned for The New York Times (https://tinyurl.com/2zeh87a2). While a red wave may not have materialized nationally, there was a red wave in New York State, the bluest of blue states. Howard thinks it has major implications for Democrats nationally. Howard was the New York City Deputy Mayor for Government Affairs and Communications, under Mayor Bloomberg. Previously, he served as the communications director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Earlier, he was Chief of Staff to Congresswoman Nita Lowey, Executive Director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and worked on campaigns at every level of government, advising Senators Schumer and Gillibrand, and former Governor Andrew Cuomo. Today he continues to work for Mayor Bloomberg, advising him on a number of political projects and overseeing education programs through Bloomberg Philanthropies.

Looking back with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on his new book, “BiBi: My Story”. Also looking forward to his next government’s approach to Saudi Arabia (could we see an expansion of the Abraham Accords?); Israel’s position in the Russia-Ukraine war (will Israel’s posture change under his leadership?); and what he sees as the implications of events on the streets of Iran. We spoke at an event hosted by The Streicker Cultural Center at Temple Emanu-El: https://streicker.nyc/

In this episode, we go deep on deconstructing the mid-term results. We try to understand the implications for both parties heading into 2024. (And Murphy even tries to draw a connection between Richard Nixon and Mahatma Gandhi). Mike Murphy has worked on 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country, including 12 wins in Blue States. He was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He’s co-host of the critically acclaimed "Hacks on Tap" podcast. Mike is also co-director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future.

Yaakov Katz – Editor-in-Chief of The Jerusalem Post and a former advisor to Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett – returns to our podcast. Earlier, Yaakov Katz served as The Jerusalem Post’s military reporter and defense analyst. He is the author of "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" and co-author of two books: "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" and "Israel vs. Iran - The Shadow War" "Shadow Strike: Inside Israel's Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power" – shorturl.at/adioS "Weapon Wizards - How Israel Became a High-Tech Military Superpower" - shorturl.at/fhIJ3

We join the team at Commentary Magazine for a discussion on scenarios for Israel's next government coming out of this election (the 5th in 44 months!). Subscribe to commentary magazine by going to: commentary.org

Record inflation, another wake-up call out of Beijing, a new prime minister in the UK, overhang of supply chain shocks and massive fiscal and monetary stimulus from the pandemic, all against the backdrop of the Russia-Ukraine war, which shows no signs of abating. What are the economic implications of all this? What should Central Banks be doing? Dr. Mohamed El-Erian returns to the podcast. He is President of Queens' College at Cambridge University. Mohamed serves as part-time Chief Economic Advisor at Allianz and Chair of Gramercy Fund Management. He’s a Professor at The Wharton School, he is a Financial Times contributing editor, Bloomberg Opinion columnist, and the author of two New York Times best sellers. He serves on several non-profit boards, including the NBER, and those of Barclays and Under Armour. From 2007-2014, Mohamed served as CEO/co-CIO of PIMCO. He worked at PIMCO for a total of fourteen years, and was chair of President Obama's Global Development Council. Mohamed also served two years as president and CEO of Harvard Management Company, the entity that manages Harvard’s endowment. He has been chair of the Microsoft Investment Advisory Board since 2007.

With less than 3 weeks to the mid-term elections, Karl Rove joins the conversation. Karl served as Senior Advisor to President George W. Bush and White House Deputy Chief of Staff. He was the architect of both of President Bush’s 2000 and 2004 presidential campaigns. He is the author "The Triumph of William McKinley" and also "Courage and Consequence". He writes a weekly column for The Wall Street Journal.

With increasing talk about nuclear threats, we have three questions in this episode: What do we know from Putin’s past behavior that could inform how high up the ladder of escalation he is prepared to go? What are the next rungs up the ladder of escalation before the nuclear threat is real? As Putin moves up this escalatory ladder, what are the calculations of Zelensky, Europe’s leaders, and President Biden? Military analyst and Russia historian Fred Kagan returns to the podcast. Fred is the director of the American Critical Threats Project at the American Enterprise Institute and a former professor of military history at West Point, where he taught for ten years. Fred regularly advises senior US military commanders. He earned his PhD in Russian and Soviet military history at Yale University. Fred has a contrarian take on possible off-ramps for Putin (spoiler-alert: he doesn’t think there are any). And Fred also has a contrarian take on President Biden’s recent comments about a “nuclear armageddon”. To follow Fred Kagan’s work, the easiest way to do that is to go to AEI.org and understandingwar.org.

We have all seen the images of women in cities across Iran burning their headscarves and cutting their hair in public to chants of "Death to the dictator.". The protests began after the September 13th death of 22-year-old Masha Amini. According to reports, Iranian morality police had accused Amini of violating laws mandating women cover their hair. These events appear to have sparked a major public backlash against the Iranian regime. But how serious is the threat to the Iranian regime? Reuel Marc Gerecht is a senior fellow at the Washington-based think tank, the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies. He was previously a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Earlier, he served as a Middle Eastern specialist at the CIA’s Directorate of Operations. In that role, he was focused on Iran targets. Among his many books, Reuel is the author of Know Thine Enemy: A Spy’s Journey into Revolutionary Iran and The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy. He has been a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, as well as a frequent contributor to The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, and The Dispatch.

Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, begins in a few days. Kol Nidrei, is one of the most misunderstood parts of the Jewish high holidays -- and of the entirety of Jewish liturgy -- according to Rabbi Meir Soloveichik. He laid this out in a recent thought-provoking piece in The Wall Street Journal, which you can access here: https://tinyurl.com/44e4z7z8 Rabbi Soloveichik is the senior rabbi of Congregation Shearith Israel in Manhattan, the oldest Jewish congregation in the United States. He is also director of the Straus Center for Torah and Western Thought at Yeshiva University. He has a must-listen daily podcast called Bible 365, which you can access through the Tikvah Fund. He is prolific – he writes a monthly column in Commentary magazine, and his writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Mosaic, the Jewish Review of Books, and many other outlets. You can keep up with all of his work at meirsoloveichik.com

Vladamir Putin has announced what he called a “partial mobilization” of up to 300,000 reservists. According to reports, these reservists are basically former conscripts that will need training. Meanwhile, commercial flights out of Russia are apparently selling out, fast. The Russian Duma, on the other hand, is passing a law to clamp down on anyone evading their military service. And then there was Putin’s seeming dangling of the nuclear threat again. All against the backdrop of the Kremlin organizing referenda on whether four occupied regions in Ukraine should fall under Russian sovereignty. And how do we assess US military support for Ukraine? Richard Fontaine is the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), bi-partisan foriegn policy think tank in Washington, DC. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He serves on the Biden administration’s Defense Policy Board – which advises the Pentagon. Richard is also just back from a trip to the Middle East – so we also talk at the end about the two-year anniversary of the Abraham Accords (a topic we’ll be returning to from time to time on this podcast) and also the status of the Iran deal negotiations.

Between now and November, we will be taking a close look at the midterm election season, which -- for most voters -- is just kicking off now. If history is a guide, the first mid-term election cycle of a new president should result in the opposing party (the party not in the White House) scoring a wave of victories in Congress. How big will the wave be? New polls suggest that there may not be much of a wave for Republicans. But are these new polls missing something? To offer a masterclass in how to de-code the polls -- and a number of other dynamics in these midterms -- Mike Murphy returns to the podcast. Mike’s worked on 26 gubernatorial and US Senate races across the country, including 12 wins in Blue States – something that’s getting harder and harder to do for Republicans. He was a top strategist for John McCain, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Arnold Schwarzenegger. He’s a political analyst for NBC and MSNBC. He’s co-host of the Hacks on Tap podcast and newsletter. And Mike’s also co director of the University of Southern California’s Center for the Political Future. Pieces discussed in this episode: Mark Mellman: : https://tinyurl.com/3v74z3hp Nate Cohn: https://tinyurl.com/dzjrbc2m Hacks on Tap podcast: https://tinyurl.com/55j5pe5k Hacks on Tap newsletter: https://tinyurl.com/yckkzrpx

Are we getting closer to or farther away from an Iran deal? Walter Russell Mead of The Wall Street Journal has been following developments closely. I wanted to check in with him. But I also wanted to talk to Walter about his big new and groundbreaking book, called “The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People.” Walter has been immersed in writing this book for over a decade – it covers the history of the U.S.-Israel relationship, but it’s much more than that. It’s also a book about the history of US foreign policy. What has been America’s calculation behind U.S. support for Israel? Is it based on shared values – a fellow democracy in a dangerous region, defending a country born out of the ashes of the Holocaust? Or has U.S. policy been based on realpolitik – because Israel advances U.S. geopolitical interests? Or is it a blend of all of the above? What role does U.S. domestic politics play in all of this, if at all? Walter’s book frames our discussion not only about the history of the U.S.-Israel relationship, but the future of the relationship, and the future of U.S. foreign policy. Walter is at the Hudson Institute, he is the Global View Columnist at The Wall Street Journal and a professor at Bard College. He was previously the Henry Kissinger fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. The Arc of a Covenant: The United States, Israel, and the Fate of the Jewish People: shorturl.at/bdhpz

While the unemployment rate ticked up slightly to 3.7% in August from a low of 3.5% in July, job growth still remained well above the pre-covid trend. There are over 11 million job openings – that’s more than twice the number of unemployed people. But according to a growing body of economics and social science research, the headline jobs numbers that we all track conceals a much bigger problem – the hidden crisis of able-bodied workers in their prime working age (25-54 years old), actually choosing to completely withdraw from the labor force. This has been a growing trend since the 1960s, but the pandemic accelerated it. One of these experts is Nicholas Eberstadt, who wrote a book in 2016 called “Men Without Work: America’s Invisible Crisis”. He’s re-releasing the book this week, updated as the Post-Pandemic Edition. Eberstadt is at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), where he researches and writes extensively on demographics and economic development generally. He has written numerous books. He earned his PhD and masters degree in political economy from Harvard, and a Master of Science from the London School of Economics.

Matti Friedman is one of the most thoughtful writers when it comes to all matters related to Israel, on the broader Middle East, and also on trends in the world of journalism. He is a monthly writer for Tablet Magazine and a regular contributor to The Atlantic. His newest book is called “Who by Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai.” Before that he published "Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel," and before that "Pumpkinflowers: A Soldier’s Story of a Forgotten War," which was chosen as a New York Times’ Notable Book and as one of Amazon’s 10 best books of the year, and was selected as one of the year’s best by Foreign Affairs Magazine. Matti’s army service included tours in Lebanon. His work as a reporter has taken him from Israel to Lebanon, Morocco, Moscow, the Caucasus, and Washington, DC. He is a former Associated Press correspondent and essayist for the New York Times opinion section. We cover a lot of topics in this podcast, including how to make sense of the recent Israel-Gaza flare-up, how to view it in the frame of the broader Middle East, the state of journalism and how it covers geopolitical events and wars, and we also dive into his newest book, “Who By Fire." Matti Friedman's published works that we discuss in this episode: "There Is No 'Israeli-Palestinian Conflict'" -- The New York Times -- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/16/opinion/israeli-palestinian-conflict-matti-friedman.htm" "An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth" -- Tablet Magazine -- https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/israel-insider-guide "What The Media Gets Wrong About Israel" -- The Atlantic -- https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2014/11/how-the-media-makes-the-israel-story/383262/ "The New Kibbutz" -- Tablet Magazine -- https://www.tabletmag.com/sections/israel-middle-east/articles/kibbutz-matti-friedman "Who By Fire: Leonard Cohen in the Sinai" -- https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/who-by-fire-matti-friedman/1140395710?ean=9781954118072

What is happening right now in Vienna with the negotiations over the future of Iran’s nuclear program? What was the significance of Putin’s recent trip to Iran? What is the nature of China’s relationship with Iran, and what can it tell us about Beijing’s grand strategy? And if Iran continues to build its nuclear program, what is Israel’s Plan B? These are some of the questions we explore with Mark Dubowitz, who is the CEO of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, DC. We sat down with while we’re in Israel. Mark has advised the Bush, Obama, Trump and Biden administrations and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle and testified more than twenty times before the U.S. Congress and foreign legislatures. A former venture capitalist and technology executive, Mark has a master’s degree in international public policy from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies. According to The New York Times, “Mark Dubowitz’s campaign to draw attention to what he saw as the flaws in the Iran nuclear deal has taken its place among the most consequential ever undertaken by a Washington think tank leader.” According to The Atlantic, “Dubowitz has been helping design and push forward sanctions on Iran…establishing the FDD as D.C.’s ground zero for research and policy recommendations aimed at highlighting and fixing what Dubowitz saw as the flaws in the nuclear agreement.”

Why did Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei get such outsized attention? She’s not the first US Speaker to travel to Taiwan. Why did the killing of Ayman al-Zawahiri get so little attention? After all, he was one of the three most important figures in al-Qaeda's leadership for decades. And why the dwindling focus on the Russia-Ukraine war? Where does the war stand right now? Richard Fontaine returns to the conversation. He is the CEO of the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), a bi-partisan foreign policy think tank in Washington, DC. Prior to CNAS, he was foreign policy advisor to Senator John McCain and worked at the State Department, the National Security Council, and on the staff of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He currently serves on the Pentagon’s Defense Policy Board.