In this podcast, we interview top appointees and civil servants about how they managed to achieve a particular policy goal.
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DOGE is the most interesting story in state capacity right now. Yet although we’ve talked around it on Statecraft, I haven’t covered it directly since the beginning of the administration. In part, that’s because of the whirlwind pace of news, but also because of the sense I get in talking to other DOGE watchers, that we’re like blind men feeling different parts of the elephant. And, frankly, because it’s the most polarizing issue in public discourse right now.But we’re far enough into the administration that some things are clear, and I think it’s relevant for Statecraft readers to hear how I’m personally modeling DOGE. We’re also far enough along that it’s worth taking stock of what we expected and forecasted about DOGE, and where we were wrong. So here are 50 thoughts on DOGE, as concisely as possible. You can read the full thing, as always, at www.statecraft.pub. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub
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27:21
How to Run a Private Military Company
Today’s guest is John Lechner, a writer and researcher. He's here today to talk about his new book about the Wagner Group, a Russian state-funded private military group, or PMC. The book is called Death Is Our Business: Russian Mercenaries and the New Era of Private Warfare, and is out March 4th (you can preorder it here). It’s a crazy read, and draws on multiple trips John took to frontlines in Ukraine, Syria, Libya, the Central African Republic, and Mali. As a mutual friend told me, “John knows more about the Wagner Group than anyone not in the Wagner Group.” I asked John to help me better understand how state capacity works, through the lens of private military companies.Some questions I came into our conversation with:* How does a private military company (PMC) work? What’s the bureaucratic structure of a PMC?* How does a successful PMC operate? How does it scale?* How does a state like Russia use a PMC for its own ends (and how do PMCs use states for their own ends)?* How do Russian PMCs like Wagner compare to American PMCs like Blackwater?Read the full transcript of this episode at www.statecraft.pub. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub
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53:06
There Are Too Many Judicial Injunctions
Friend-of-the-pod Nick Bagley joined us to explain judicial review: why it's not as confusing as it sounds, and why it's at the center of a political firestorm.Bagley is an expert in administrative law who served as special counsel and chief legal counsel to Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer. We've had him on a couple times for conversations on how bureaucracy is breaking government and whether the courts broke environmental review with a recent decision.You can read the full transcript for this conversation and many others at www.statecraft.pub. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub
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33:15
How to Beat Megafires
What happened in LA last month? On that, basically everyone agrees: devastating wildfires that killed at least 29 people and cost at least $100 billion.But why did those fires burn so intensely for so long? I had my own view, but I don’t follow fires closely. So I talked to Matt Weiner, CEO and founder of Megafire Action.We discuss:* California knows it has a fire problem. Why can’t it control it?* Where does mechanical thinning work, and where doesn’t it?* What tools from the Department of Defense should we be using in firefighting?* Do we need more money to fight fires?* Why do the country’s biggest environmental groups oppose fire mitigation?For the full transcript of this conversation and others, visit www.statecraft.pub. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub
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58:24
Why the Two Parties Operate Differently
Today I'm talking with Jo Freeman: a founding member of the women’s liberation movement in the 1960s, a civil rights campaigner, an attendee to every Democratic party convention since 1964, and a political scientist. She’s not the most typical Statecraft guest. But her work on how the two parties work - not just what they believe, but how they operate organizationally - is incredibly insightful. In this conversation, we dig into:* Why do the two parties fight so differently?* What makes someone powerful in each party?* How did the women's movement transform the Democratic Party?* What happened to convention caucuses? Did they stop mattering?* What does it mean when a movement starts "trashing" its own leaders?Reading list:Who You Know Versus Who You Represent: Feminist Influence in the Democratic and Republican PartiesThe Political Culture of the Democratic and Republican PartiesWhy Republican Party Leaders Matter More Than Democratic Ones (by Tanner Greer)Trashing: The Dark Side of SisterhoodThe Tyranny of Structurelessness This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.statecraft.pub
In this podcast, we interview top appointees and civil servants about how they managed to achieve a particular policy goal.
Subscribe at www.statecraft.pub to get interview transcripts in your inbox once a week. www.statecraft.pub
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