The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

Why is the State Department's Office of Policy Planning so obsessed with George Kennan...and China's ideology?  The untold story of how America lost economic primacy in Asia, and why nobody talks abo…

Australians are getting economically coerced by China but not everyone knows why.  Militarism is bad, but militarists who've never been in a fight are the worst.  What North Korea has in store for Bi…

What it's like to interview at Stanford University (!).  What Veep's Jonah Ryan can teach aspiring Washington technocrats.  On Trumpian fascism.  Why elite think tanks are ripe for corruption.  And w…

What makes Elon Musk a wannabe totalitarian?  A new book on space expansionism paints a dark picture.  Why Taiwan is the O.G. China.  How to fit Milton Friedman and LL Cool J in the same sentence.  S…

What's 50 Cent's beef with Franz Fanon?  And what makes Ice Cube different than 50 Cent?  What to make of China's escalation of wolf-warrior diplomacy.  The progressive debate about American foreign …

How Washington punishes those who support peace.  What real diversity in foreign policy looks like.  Why rivalries make people stupid, especially great-power ones.  Why Vietnam is probably not Asia's…

Why does Judd Apatow have a better grasp on the China problem than Washington does?  How should we understand the Indo-Pacific Quad, and what's a "speech-act institution?"  Does Turkey have an imperi…

Black self defense is essential to minimize state violence.  Good strategy isn't infinite.  The war-game might be rigged, but it can still be fun.  Is the China-US relationship a security dilemma, or…

Don't believe the hawks--Biden has no credibility problem in Asia.  India shows China how democracies do trolling better.  The convergences and divergences of Marxist and progressive foreign policy. …

Van explains how the Galactic Republic in Star Wars fell, and why it's so germane today.  The South Korean Left sees Chinese imperialism more clearly than most Americans.  America's sphere of influen…

Why we need to wait before debating whether to defend Taiwan.  How good is the Netflix show Cobra Kai?  Why Martha Nussbaum has evolved about the cosmopolitan tradition.  How much of China's foreign …

The racist motivations woven into China rivalry.  Why nobody talks about American colonies hiding in plain sight.  How to manufacture a Cold War with China.  Australia shows the way in counter-imperi…

In this hustle episode of the pod, Van Jackson sits down with Ankit Panda to talk about writing productivity hacks, how to become a foreign policy pundit, and tips for straddling new media and the th…

Proliferation optimism or pessimism?  Van weighs in on the classic Sagan-Waltz debate.  Why liberals are of two minds about China.  And what's wrong with advocating for a military coup in the United …

How does one get into the think tank game? Van explains. How does one use war-games to manipulate policy? Van explains. Why is our historical imagination limited to Greek and Roman history? Again, Va…

The good, bad, and ugly of Biden picking Susan Rice for Vice President.  Why progressives need sanctions too, and how a new think tank report sheds light on how it might work.  The Pentagon has milit…

The US is going to withdraw troops from South Korea--you heard it here first.  The Democratic Party platform throws a bone to progressives, mostly.  Pompeo rejects Nixon, and shows himself to be wors…

A foreign policy reckoning is coming for the establishment Democrats in Congress.   Kanye West can't be president, but he can mess it up for Biden.  If China invades Taiwan, the real press it will pa…