Fault Lines Podcast – Episode 1

After three episodes as guests of the Lawfare Podcast, the National Security Institute at George Mason University is stepping out on its own!  Fault Lines will feature a regular cast of foreign policy experts: Jodi Herman, former Democratic Staff Director for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Jamil N. Jaffer, Founder and Executive Director of the National Security Institute and former Chief Counsel and Senior Advisor for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Dana Stroul, former senior professional staff member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee covering the Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey; and moderator Lester Munson, NSI Senior Fellow and former Staff Director of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University.This motley crew will examine national security and foreign policy issues with perspectives from across the political spectrum – finding points of agreement and – often – disagreement along the way.

In This Episode: 

“Whether you’re looking at Iran’s efforts to build a covert nuclear program, its use of proxies in Iraq to kill American troops back in 1983 – the bombing of the Marine Corps barracks that killed 241 Americans – they have not been shy about coming directly at their adversaries really almost never since the revolution,” says Fault Line‘s Jodi Herman.

This week, our experts delve into two hot spots.  First, in the Middle East, where Iran attacked Saudi oil facilities, they examine possible reactions from President Trump, who is now without former National Security Advisor John Bolton, as well as the American public’s limit regarding Iranian aggression.  They also argued over whether China, with an ongoing trade dispute with the US, upcoming elections in Taiwan, and continued global attention on China’s crackdown on Uighurs, tempers its response to near open revolt in Hong Kong, and whether Congress is going to do something in light of the Administration’s seeming disinterest.