Background Briefing: December 9, 2024
How the Islamist Capture of Syria Upends Regional and Global Geopolitics
We begin with the fall of the 54-year brutal rule of the Assad clan in Syria after having stayed in power with the help of Russia and Iran by killing their own citizens while turning the country into a narcostate. Joining us to assess how the Islamist capture of Syria has upended regional and global geopolitics with dominoes likely to fall to the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan and even Egypt is Paul Pillar, who served for 30 years as an analyst at the CIA, in which his last position was National Intelligence Officer for the Near East and South Asia. Previously, he served as chief of analytic units at the CIA covering portions of the Near East, the Persian Gulf, and South Asia. He has also headed the Assessments and Information Group of the DCI’s Counterterrorist Center and is currently a nonresident senior fellow of the Center for Security Studies at Georgetown University and an Associate Fellow at the Geneva Center for Security Policy and a nonresident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. His latest book is Beyond the Water’s Edge How Partisanship Corrupts U.S. Foreign Policy.
How Americans Need an Alternative to the Choice Between Trump’s “America First” Unilateralism and Biden’s “America is Back” Nostalgia
Then we examine how Americans need an alternative to the choice between Trump’s “America first” unilateralism or Biden’s “America is back” nostalgia which, instead of offering a genuine foreign policy for the middle class, let alone the working class, has Washington pursuing global military hegemony for the ruling class. Joining us is Dr. Nancy Okail, President & CEO of the Center for International Policy. A scholar and advocate of human rights, justice, peace and equity, she has over 20 years of experience working on these issues across the Middle East and North Africa, as well as globally, and she provides policy recommendations to senior government officials in the U.S. and Europe. We will discuss her article at Foreign Affairs “America is Cursed by a Foreign Policy of Nostalgia.”