Parallax Views w/ J.G. Michael
Society & Culture
On this edition of Parallax Views, Christopher Mott, a Research Fellow at the Institute for Peace & Diplomacy and author The Formless Empire: A Short History of Diplomacy and Warfare in Central Asia, joins Parallax Views to discuss his recent CovertAction Magazine piece "Samantha Power and the Cosmopolitan Crusaders". Applying his knowledge as someone who has worked inside the U.S. State Department, Chris explains the foreign policy thought of the diplomat and government official Samantha Power, whose influential book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide was foundational to R2P (Responsible to Protect) doctrine. R2P, Mott explains, holds that powerful nations (ie: the U.S. and NATO-aligned states) have a duty to stop human rights abuses around the world. Although a noble cause in theory, Mott argues that R2P in practice has not always worked perfectly in practice. In this regard Mott examines the Obama-era intervention into Libya on humanitarian grounds and how Libya has turned into a chaotic failed state that's led to the return of the slave trade to North Africa. In addition to all of this Mott and I also discuss:
- Fear of another Weimar moment haunting beltway foreign policy circles and the role that plays in driving interventionist policymaking
- The question of isolationism, the specter of WWII, and Stephen Wertheim's Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy
- Foreign policy realism and its variations including offensive realism and defensive realism
- Sun Tzu, the risks of war, diplomacy vs. military force, and the question of grand strategy
- The role of ideological, systemic, and economic factors in U.S. foreign policy
- Democratic Peace Theory, American exceptionalism, and Kantian liberal cosmopolitanism
- Sanctions, the potential critique of their effectiveness in achieving state policy goals, and the Iran deal/JCPOA; sanctions as a form of economic warfare
- Jihadism, cosmopolitanism, and state collapse
- U.S.-China relations, human rights rhetoric, and whataboutisms
- American exceptionalism as having a right, left, and center form
- U.S. foreign policy, puritanical morality plays, and protagonist syndrome
- Tyler Cowen's Bloomberg op-ed arguing for using "Wokeism" (a very vague term removed from its original context on Black Twitter) to rebrand American exceptionalism
- And much, much more!
Violence Erupts in Israel/Palestine (Jenin Massacre & E. Jerusalem Shooting) w/ Richard Silverstein/Did Thomas Friedman Run Cover for an Israeli Nuclear Smuggling Operation? w/ Grant F. Smith
Pro-Social Deep Fakes? w/ Stephanie Lepp
Hannah Arendt, Adolf Eichmann, & the Problems With the Banality of Evil Hypothesis w/ Ramon Glazov
The Empty Wagon: Zionism’s Journey from Identity Crisis to Identity Theft w/ Rabbi Yaakov Shapiro
Permanent Distortion: How the Financial Markets Abandoned the Real Economy Forever w/ Nomi Prins
Behind the Scenes of the Class Warfare, Body-Horor Cult Classic SOCIETY (+ BRIDE OF RE-ANIMATOR, SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT 4, & GIRL NEXT) w/ Screenwriter Zeph E. Daniel
The Emirati Lobby and Foreign Influence Operations in the U.S. w/ Ben Freeman
Chatting w/ Casper Kelly of Adult Swim Yule Log, Too Many Cooks, & Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell Fame
The Strange Story of Nazi Satanists, the Feds, & Montenegro’s Orthodox Church w/ Boris & Rey of The Empire Never Ended Podcast
Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia w/ Natasha Lance Rogoff
UNLOCKED: Absurdist Humor and Horror Collide in Butt Boy and Tiny Cinema w/ Tyler Cornack and Ryan Koch
Horror Cult Classic Black Christmas, the It’s Me Billy Fan Film, Wes Craven’s New Nightmare Fan Sequel, and Voice Acting w/ Dave McRae
Gremlinology for the Holidays! w/ Robbie Martin
The Delay of the Yemen War Powers Resolution w/ Hassan El-Tayyab/Understanding Hanukkah and Jewish Culture w/ Deborah Dash Moore
Israeli Politics from a Progressive Jewish-American Perspective w/ Abe Silberstein/Combating the Israeli Far-Right and Antisemitism at the Same Time w/ Stephen Zunes
The Life & Films of Steven Spielberg + Myth and Reality in THE FABELMANS w/ Joseph McBride
Lawsuit Over JFK Documents, Lee Harvey Oswald, & the CIA w/ Jefferson Morley/FBI Surveillance and the ”Black Identity Extremist” Label w/ Patrick Eddington
The Problems of U.S. Arms Sales Policy w/ Jordan Cohen/Student Confronts Liz Cheney Over Iraq War w/ Mitch Robson
Money-Driven Politics in an Age of Global Tumult w/ Thomas Ferguson/Railroad Workers, Corporate Power, and Congress w/ Jack Rasmus
New Film FARHA Tells a Coming-of-Age Survival Story Set Amidst the Nakba w/ Darin J. Sallam/The Sordid History of Guantanamo Bay w/ Andy Worthington
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