Global Tantrum! with Steve Palley and Prof. Galen Jackson

We’ve seen enough to believe that the Xi Jinping - Vladimir Putin bromance has staying power. Heads of state (even neighboring ones like Russia and China) simply don’t officially visit with one anoth…

Why, exactly, has the Trump Administration dispatched 2200 Marines, several guided missile destroyers, and at least one nuclear attack sub(!) towards the northern coast of Venezuela?

Ostensibly to int…

Long one of the largest, most populated and most powerful states in the Middle East, Iran is a natural potential hegemon for the region, and indeed has enjoyed that title for centuries on end over it…

Unassuming, colorless, charisma-free, a cipher, a bureaucrat: early in his career, first at the KGB and then working for the city government of St. Petersburg, Vladimir Putin was deceptively easy to …

Profs. Brett Goldstein and Brett Benson, political scientists who are also members of Vanderbilt’s Wicked Problems Lab (yes, this is a real thing!), recently wrote in the New York Times about a Chine…

Ah, the humble quadcopter: breaker of parkland reveries, disturber of neighborhood peace, deliverer of Amazon sundries… and destroyer of Russian invaders in eastern Ukraine.

In a development absolutel…

This week, Steve and Galen are joined by Andrew Leber, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Tulane University, to discuss the shifting geopolitical dynamics in the Middle East. The discussi…

Over the last few days, the Trump Administration ordered a pause on some military aid to Ukraine, including vital air defense materials, while Putin’s Russia conducted its largest bombardment of that…

That was a perfect time to take two weeks off from podcasting! Not that we think there’s a cause-effect situation at play here, but it is remarkable how a big Israel-Iran-U.S. air war kicked off the …

In this episode of Global Tantrum, we’re indulging our love of sports metaphors once again by conducting a Great Power Draft. We rank countries based on various metrics such as demographics, military…

In this episode of Global Tantrum, Steve Palley and Professor Galen Jackson dive deep into the big-picture debate over unipolarity and US hegemony. Is the United States still the world's sole superpo…

Last week, Ukraine and Russia entered direct talks for the first time since the early part of the war in 2022. A minor prisoner exchange has ensued, which is great — except that Russia hasn’t stopped…

After recording our episode on the ongoing hostilities yesterday, we didn’t quite get around to editing and posting — but believe us when we say that nobody is happier than we are that this is the ou…

This week, Steve and Galen discuss the escalating conflict between India and Pakistan. They discuss the recent terrorist attack in Kashmir, historical tensions, and the potential for dangerous nuclea…

In this episode of Global Tantrum, Steve and Galen discuss the latest developments in Iran's nuclear situation, diving into an in-depth analysis of Iran's current nuclear and conventional capabilitie…

In this episode of Global Tantrum, Steve and Galen dive into the escalating tensions in the Taiwan Strait. They discuss the recent military activities of the People's Liberation Army Navy around Taiw…

In episode of Global Tantrum, Ryan Weldzius of Villanova University once again joins Steve and Galen to jump into the imposition of unprecedented tariffs by the Trump administration. The discussion c…

In this episode of Global Tantrum!, Steve and Galen welcome Assistant Professor Ryan Weldzius of Villanova to discuss the Trump Administration’s tariff plans. But before they do that, they have very …

In this episode of Global Tantrum, Steve and Galen delve into an in-depth analysis of grand strategy: from George Washington's isolationism to America's role as a global power post-World War II and p…

Steve and Galen dive into the wild world of extended nuclear deterrence on this episode of Global Tantrum! They tackle South Korea's recent statements about nuclear armament, the concept of extended …