Post Archives

This week, Kelly talks with Carolina Jiménez Sandoval about the state of play between the United States and Venezuela amid increasing tensions, military strikes, and continued economic upheavel in the country. Guest speaker Carolina Jiménez Sandoval is the President of the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA). She holds over 20 years of experience in […]

This week, Kelly and Tristen unpack NATO’s defense ministers meeting in Brussels and the Trump–Zelenskyy visit to the White House—what it means for Ukraine aid, European drone-defense plans, and the Tomahawk debate. They then turn to political turbulence in Cameroon and Peru, give a quick update on Madagascar’s military-led transition, and close with with CSIS’s […]

This week, Kelly and Tristen break down President Trump and Prime Minister Netanyahu’s 20-point Gaza peace plan and what it signals for U.S.-Israel relations, as well as the ongoing ceasefire negotiations. They then look at the Gen-Z-led protests spreading across Morocco and Madagascar — echoing Nepal’s youth uprising weeks ago — and close with Europe’s […]

This week, Kelly talks with Stanford University professor and author Dan Edelstein about his new book, The Revolution to Come: A History of an Idea from Thucydides to Lenin, (Princeton University Press, 2025). The book looks at how political thinkers from Plato to John Adams saw revolutions as a grave threat to society and advocated […]

This week, Kelly talks with Reuters reporter and author Ernest Scheyder about critical minerals and his new book: “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives.” Guest speaker Ernest Scheyder is a senior correspondent with Reuters covering critical minerals and the global energy transition. “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and […]

This week, Kelly talks with Reuters reporter and author Ernest Scheyder about critical minerals and his new book: “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and the Global Battle to Power Our Lives.” Guest speaker Ernest Scheyder is a senior correspondent with Reuters covering critical minerals and the global energy transition. “The War Below: Lithium, Copper, and […]

This week, Kelly and Tristen talk through Trump’s speech at the UN General Assembly, his visit last week to the UK, and the administration’s recent strikes on suspected Venezuelan cartels. They also provide some brief updates since the last episode: on Jair Bolsonaro’s conviction in Brazil and the new Saudi-Pakistan defense agreement. Kelly then talks […]

Kelly talks with Emma Ashford about her new book, First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World (Yale University Press, 2025), where she proposes a return to a more pragmatic, realist set of strategic principles, ones better suited for the emerging multipolar world, that would pursue narrower U.S. interests, cultivate the capabilities of […]

This week, Kelly and Tristan cover Israel’s unprecedented strike on Hamas leaders in Doha and the diplomatic fallout for Qatar and the Gaza ceasefire talks, the historic trial of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro and what it means for democratic resilience, and Beijing’s memory-politics summit—complete with a military parade and a guest list signaling China’s […]