Eric and Eliot discuss appeasement and the striking similarities between Putin’s recent demands and Hitler’s insistence that the Czechs surrender the heavily fortified Sudetenland. They then turn to the latest idiocy coming from the administration, including Trump’s demolition of the East Wing, the Pentagon’s new exclusively right-wing press corps, and the live-fire Marine exercise that sent ordnance onto I-5 in California during a salute to Pete Hegseth and JD Vance. They also examine Putin’s phone call with Trump and the situation in Ukraine, along with Trump’s accelerating campaign of regime change in Venezuela. They end the week’s conversation with thoughts on the No Kings protests and the daunting prospects for a sustained ceasefire in Gaza.
Show Notes:
- Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War: https://a.co/d/awNtPTM
- Eric & David Kramer’s latest on Ukraine: https://thedispatch.com/article/trump-putin-budapest-ukraine-tomahawks/
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
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1:03:29
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1:03:29
The Dark Forces Conspiring Against Democracy (w/ Bill Galston)
Eric and Eliot welcome William Galston to Shield of the Republic to discuss his recent book, Anger, Fear, Domination: Dark Passions and the Power of Political Speech. They explore why liberal-democrats tend to underestimate the importance of these forces and the special peril they might present to representative government. They also talk about why the dark passions seem to be so predominant in politics globally and the different schools of thought regarding democracy's staying power in the long run.
Anger, Fear, Domination: Dark Passions and the Power of Political Speech:
https://a.co/d/8B6dFfk
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
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47:19
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47:19
How The Jews Fought Rome
Eliot and Eric welcome back friend of the show Barry Strauss, the Corliss Page Dean Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University. They discuss the series of Jewish revolts against Roman rule in 67-70 AD and the subsequent Roman siege of Masada, as well as the later Diaspora and Bar Kochba revolts situating them in the geostrategic competition between the Roman and Parthian empires. Barry explains the complications of the ethnic and religious divisions in Judea as well as the role of Jewish apocalyptic and messianic thinking on the protagonists of these serial rebellions. He also touches on the reasons why Judea was seemingly so hard to govern for the Romans, the divisions among Jews, and the degree to which archaeology and numismatics can add to the surviving literary accounts of the wars between Rome and the Jews.
Jews vs. Rome: Two Centuries of Rebellion Against the World's Mightiest Empire:
https://a.co/d/9xfsZOd
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
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54:07
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54:07
Alliances With Dictators Never Last (w/ Tim Bouverie)
Eric welcomes historian Tim Bouverie, author of Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World, to Shield of the Republic. They discuss Tim’s fascinating account of the interplay among personalities and larger forces during the Second World War. They touch on Anglo-French relations and the role of Charles de Gaulle, Britain’s failed efforts to bring Turkey into the war as an ally, as well as the diplomacy of FDR, Churchill, and Stalin at the wartime conferences at Tehran and Yalta. They discuss the relative success of British and American diplomacy during World War II as well as lessons from the record of wartime diplomacy for alliance management and coalition maintenance today.
Allies at War: How the Struggles Between the Allied Powers Shaped the War and the World: https://a.co/d/caX7je6
Appeasement: Chamberlain, Hitler, Churchill, and the Road to War: https://a.co/d/6cPWr7G
Tickets to Bulwark Live in DC (10/8) with Sarah, Tim and JVL are on sale now at https://TheBulwark.com/events
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
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54:17
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54:17
SPECIAL EPISODE: Trump Preaches Insanity to The General Officers
On a special edition of Shield of the Republic, Eric and Eliot break down Secretary of Defense Hegseth and President Donald Trump's speeches to the General Officer Corps at Quantico this week. They discuss the administration's ongoing damage to civil-military relations and the implications for the future of our armed forces.
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.
Tickets to Bulwark Live in DC (10/8) with Sarah, Tim and JVL are on sale now at https://TheBulwark.com/events
Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. We probe beyond the hive mind of Washington conventional wisdom on national security and foreign affairs.
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