Podcasts · Government · Business
The Truth of the Matter
CSIS | Center for Strategic and International Studies
300 episodes
A weekly analysis of the complex policy issues driving the news.
Episodes page 1 of 6
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AI Competition and Security: A discussion with Kemba Walden and Devin Lynch
“We’re in a whole tangled mess…we’ve gotten ourselves into a tangled mess around not just securing our infrastructure, but also around competition for the pieces of our infrastructure.” AI has become a cornerstone of…
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Keeping Our Beaches Clean with the Surfrider Foundation
This summer, millions of Americans will head to the beach to beat the heat. But how clean is the water they're swimming in? At many beaches, especially on the East Coast, water quality is rarely tested for bacteria,…
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NATO’s “Brain-Dead” Summit
“I think what happened here is Europeans made a lot of commitments that they don’t have any intention of fulfilling—at least in the near term—and this is all about appeasing President Trump to keep him engaged with the…
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Did U.S. Strikes Prevent an Iranian Bomb—or Provoke One?
“The word ‘obliteration’ is being used a lot…I think there’s a little more nuance to it.” Intelligence assessments from the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran, and the United States have provided competing…
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Is Ideology Blinding Iran to Reality?
“They didn’t understand the essence of Israel, and they are now dead.” Are Iran and regional terrorist groups like Hamas and Hezbollah considering the reality of Israel’s military posture and motivations? Iran may have…
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Emergency Podcast: How Degraded is Iran’s Nuclear and Missile Program?
CSIS Missile Threat Program director Tom Karako joins the podcast to assess conflicting reports about the degradation of Iran’s nuclear and missile program and how soon Iran may be able to rebuild.
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12-Day War: Now What?
CSIS’s Jon Alterman, a longtime Middle East scholar and geopolitical expert, joins the podcast to discuss potential outcomes from Israel and Iran’s 12-day war and shaky ceasefire. Key question: Does the conflict and…
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Emergency Podcast: Iran Strikes Back
CSIS Middle East Program Director Mona Yacoubian joins the podcast to discuss Monday’s strike by Iran on Al Udeid Air Base, the largest American military installation in the Middle East and the broader strategic…
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Google's Gopi Kallayil on the AI Revolution
In this cross over episode, Mariana and Andrew are joined by Gopi Kallayil, Google’s Chief Business Strategist for AI, to explore what he calls “the most profound technology ever created by human beings.” Gopi shares…
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How Might Iran Conflict End?
CSIS’s Norm Roule, a former senior U.S. intelligence officer for the Middle East joins the podcast to discuss how conflict with Iran might end, what regime change could look like, the wider implications for the United…
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Israel’s Strategic Objectives and the Future of Warfare
CSIS’s Eliot A. Cohen, former dean of Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and former councilor to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joins the podcast to discuss Israel’s strategic…
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Israel-Iran: Is Time Running Out?
"This is easily once of the biggest ballistic missile and ballistic missile defense engagements in history, and it is truly momentous in terms of the overall context and the overall posture that Israel is taking."…
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Emergency Podcast: Israeli Strike on Iran
CSIS’ Seth Jones, Emily Harding and Ben Jensen join the podcast to discuss Israel’s strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, leadership and other targets.
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Can We Share Spectrum?
"The spectrum is a scarce national resource...it is absolutely a defense priority." Much of the spectrum has been auctioned off for commercial use, sparking a fierce debate on Capitol Hill: How can we balance spectrum…
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What is the End Point of U.S.-China Competition?
“I do believe we’re in a strategic competition. I believe it’s fine to describe it that way analytically. But if it’s a competition that is purely strategic, what’s the goal? What’s the endpoint?” U.S. strategic…
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Russia’s Battlefield Woes
“The stark reality is that the Russians really aren’t doing well on the battlefield, and their economy is also in pretty tough shape.” CSIS experts examined several indicators of Russia’s battlefield performance and…
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The Golden Dome and the New Missile Age
“Back in 2015, about $12.8 billion, or about 7.6 percent of DOD’s modernization, went to missile defense of some kind. Today it’s up to $25.5 billion, and 8.2 percent of DOD’s modernization budget.” As hypersonic…
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Trump’s Middle East Minerals Deal
“The Gulf is an absolutely critical player in critical minerals, because they’re all working on their goal of diversifying away from a reliance on oil…Each of these countries has adopted critical minerals as a central…
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Emergency Podcast: U.S.-China Tariff Pause
“The economic costs were beginning to become much more obvious—not just in terms of the market volatility, but potential shortages, inflation, the rare earths restrictions that the Chinese imposed. Those were going to…
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Analyzing Missile Attacks in Ukraine
“Modern war is almost a new missile age.” Missiles have played a crucial role in the Russia-Ukraine war, with Russia beginning to send mass missile salvos at command and control nodes, political centers, and even…
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Trump and the Australian Elections
CSIS’s Charles Edel joins the podcast to discuss the Australian elections and what it means for the Trump administration and the United States.
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A Drone and Ground View From Ukraine
CSIS’ Emily Harding joins the podcast to discuss observations from her recent visit to Ukraine including drone warfare, the state of the battlefield, U.S. and European support as well as the mining deal forged by…
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Debt Matters
CSIS’s Phil Luck joins the podcast to discuss the U.S. national debt, why it matters and what the Trump administration and Congress can do to address it.
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Trump’s Panama Canal Policy
CSIS’s Ryan Berg joins the podcast to discuss the U.S. strategic interests in the Panama Canal, competition with China and potential outcomes.
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Can Policy Win the AI Race?
"There's some real concern that if U.S. companies back away from selling in China, Chinese companies like Huawei could become dominant in this space and outsell us all over the world, which then hurts our…
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China Weathers the Storm of U.S. Tariffs
“This is not good for China’s economy, but they have staying power, and I don’t see them backing down.” While the pandemic years were tough on China’s economy, the country has recently recovered financially, recording…
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Auto Tariffs Threaten to Drive Up Prices
"The President's 'Liberation Day' really shakes the foundation of the current system in the auto industry...if these tariffs stay on for any length of time, they could lead to a fundamental reordering of the U.S.…
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China’s Halt of Critical Minerals
CSIS’s Gracelin Baskaran joins the podcast to discuss China’s halt of critical minerals to the United States. In addition to consumer products, the Pentagon and defense contractors are heavily reliant on magnets and…
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Rep. Bryan Steil on STABLE Act
“We are in the Golden Age of digital assets.” More Americans than ever are investing in cryptocurrencies and digital assets, keeping the United States dominant in blockchain technologies. However, given market…
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Liberation Day Fallout and What Comes Next
In this special crossover episode with CSIS podcast, The Trade Guys, Bill Reinsch and Scott Miller unpack the latest news about the impacts of the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariffs and how markets, trading…
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Mark Penn Polls and the Future of News
Stagwell CEO and longtime pollster/strategist talks about his latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll findings plus a discussion about the future of news.
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South Korea’s Quiet Crisis and Trade with the U.S.
CSIS’ Victor Cha joins the podcast to discuss South Korea’s “Quiet Crisis” of leadership and the vacuum in wake of President Yoon’s impeachment, plus, the impact of President Trump’s tariffs while the ROK seeks to…
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Reciprocal Tariff Reactions
In this special crossover episode with CSIS podcast, The Trade Guys, Bill Reinsch and Andrew give their first takes on the April 2 tariff announcements from the White House.
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Brief: Trump's Tariff Plan
CSIS’s Navin Girishankar joins the podcast to discuss the new world order President Trump has created with his latest tariff announcement.
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Drones and AI on the Ukrainian Battlefield
"Ukraine is sort of a laboratory for what the future of warfare across the planet could look like." The war in Ukraine has caused rapid military innovation since Russia's invasion over three years ago, from…
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Brief: What to Expect from Tariffs
In this special episode of The Truth of the Matter, Andrew is joined by CSIS's Philip Luck, director of the CSIS Economics Program and Scholl Chair in International Business, to discuss the new tariffs set to take…
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China Cracks Down on Journalism
“If you’re a reporter in Beijing right now, you have to assume that the Chinese government knows every source you’re meeting with, that they know every interview you’re going to do.” When Jane Perlez worked as the New…
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Hidden Depths: Water as a Resource and a Weapon
Water is essential to global society, for everything from drinking and growing food to producing energy and cultural practices. 40 percent of the world’s workforce works in sectors that rely on water, and water counts…
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Russia's Shadow War Against the West
Russia poses several types of threats to Western powers. In the conventional sphere, the invasion of Ukraine is a direct threat to European countries. But below the threshold of conventional war, Russia's military…
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Trump’s Muscular Middle East Policy
Former CIA Middle East expert Norman Roule joins the podcast to discuss President Trump’s muscular approach to the Houthis in Yemen and Hamas in Gaza.
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Securing Full Stack U.S. Leadership in AI
“While AI is digital in nature, the binding constraint is physical.” While many think of the race for AI dominance as who can develop the best model, that’s only one piece of the puzzle. Frontier models, data centers,…
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Measles Outbreak Implications
The United States is experiencing the worst measles outbreak in 30 years and the highest rate of contraction in the past six years after nearly eradicating the disease. Cases have surged in communities with low…
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European Divorce
Following meetings with European diplomats in Brussels and Paris, CSIS’s Max Bergmann joins the podcast to discuss a possible United States divorce from our allies in Europe. As geopolitical tensions rise and…
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Intelligence and Subversion in Ukraine
CSIS’s Seth Jones, director of the CSIS Defense and Security Department, joins the podcast to discuss the impact of stopping U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine, whether European countries can fill the gap, and how…
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Stepping Up on Spectrum
Matthew Pearl, director of the CSIS Strategic Technologies Program, joins the podcast to discuss all things spectrum, including his recent testimony before the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on…
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Transatlantic Tensions at the Munich Security Conference
CSIS’s Steve Morrison and Caitlin Welsh join the podcast to discuss the fallout from Vice President JD Vance's controversial speech at the Munich Security Conference. European leaders, particularly in Germany, were…
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Ukraine Minerals Deal Explained
CSIS’s Gracelin Baskaran, Director of the Critical Minerals and Security Program, joins the podcast to break down the recent U.S.-Ukraine minerals deal and its implications for global resource security. They discuss…
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Protecting the Backbone of the Internet
CSIS’s Erin Murphy, deputy director of the CSIS Chair on India and Emerging Asia Economics, joins the podcast to discuss why subsea cables are so important to global security, the global actors most likely to sabotage…
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Tumultuous Times in Europe
CSIS’s Max Bergmann, director of the CSIS Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program, joins the podcast to discuss the current state of European security, the potential for a U.S.-Europe tech war, how Ukraine negotiations…
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Responding to the LA Wildfires
Ann Lee, co-founder and CEO of Community Organized Relief Effort (CORE Response), joins the podcast to discuss California’s risk of wildfires, CORE’s work to support those impacted by the fires, and how we can learn…
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