In the 1980s, the success of the nuclear freeze movement and Reagan’s pivot to arms control had a lot to do with the Vatican campaigning for a nuclear freeze. The Pentagon fears the Pope’s moral authority, and that’s why it threatened the Church www.un-diplomatic.com/p/the-pope-a...

Bridge Colby knows the history here, he’s just on the wrong side of it. In the 1980s, the success of the nuclear freeze movement and Reagans’ pivot to arms control had a lot to do with the Vatican campaigning for a nuclear freeze. He fears the Pope’s moral authority

"The same ideological blind spot in Western analysis that accommodates a genocide in Gaza would accommodate either the US or Israel busting the nuclear taboo." @vanjackson.bsky.social is surely right about this, and also reminds us that luck saved us from nuclear war with North Korea in 2017-8.

We should be worried about either the US or Israel using nukes against Iran. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/fascist-nu...

By invading Iran, the US has committed a strategic blunder that costs lives and steals money from workers everywhere. But also, crucially, the US is in denial about having forced Iran into controlling the Strait of Hormuz—one of the capitalist world’s most important choke points

“MAGA as an ideology has no aspiration to being hegemonic and is not even a majoritarian project. But American exceptionalism and militarism are hegemonic in American life, and MAGA exploits the hell out of that.” open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

“The good guys are, in Gramsci’s language, fighting ‘wars of maneuver’ while losing ‘wars of position.’ In Fanon’s language, we’re dealing with the ‘events’ but not the ‘situation’...The world needs America to revive the antiwar movement” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/are-you-nu...

“The good guys are, in Gramsci’s language, fighting ‘wars of maneuver’ while losing ‘wars of position.’ In Fanon’s language, we’re dealing with the ‘events’ but not the ‘situation’...The world needs America to revive the antiwar movement” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/are-you-nu...

Trump advisers think the age of imperialism ended because of wokeness, not because 1) colonized peoples made colonialism untenable 2) technology made territorial empire unnecessary. They thought mere brutality and perceived genetic superiority would make wars against countries like Iran easy.

“If the language of opposition to one war is the language of much larger war preparations elsewhere, then we are lost. At minimum, it’s a sign of just how hegemonic militarism is in American life.” open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

The NZ Greens show up and show out every time the people get together. Where u at, Labour!? @nzgreensglobal.bsky.social

The Iran war is also a war on the working class, literally www.un-diplomatic.com/p/aoc-agains...

The Iran war is also a war on the working class, literally www.un-diplomatic.com/p/aoc-agains...

So awesome to have critically acclaimed actor Morgan Spector on the pod to talk Independence Day (1996)! www.youtube.com/shorts/BqUNO...

So awesome to have critically acclaimed actor Morgan Spector on the pod to talk Independence Day (1996)! www.youtube.com/shorts/BqUNO...

Some thoughts about a peace-activism event I spoke to last night www.un-diplomatic.com/p/what-makes...

Of all the wars America’s been fighting and funding in recent years, the Iran War is unique in its catastrophic potential for two reasons. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/what-makes...

Work in progress…

"Americans are paying a steep and growing price for Trump’s imperial misadventures. Americans always pay a price, even when their politicians encourage them to believe they’re offloading the cost of war onto foreign others (allies and enemies alike).” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/breaking-t...

"Americans are paying a steep and growing price for Trump’s imperial misadventures. Americans always pay a price, even when their politicians encourage them to believe they’re offloading the cost of war onto foreign others (allies and enemies alike).” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/breaking-t...

“the first rule of imperial warmaking: Never let voters connect the experience of pain at home to either wars done abroad or to the permanent war economy. This is Trump’s greatest f*ck up.” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/breaking-t...

Trump has broken the first rule of imperial warmaking: “Never let voters connect the experience of pain at home to either wars done abroad or to the permanent war economy.” open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

Trump has broken the first rule of imperial warmaking: “Never let voters connect the experience of pain at home to either wars done abroad or to the permanent war economy.” open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

“American empire was always predicated on the idea of violence over there to preserve what we’ve got going on over here...But the spatial fix is fake. The home front has never been immune to the consequences of the imperial form of warmaking” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/breaking-t...

This piece on Palantir death-tech and the kill chain is breathtakingly good www.theguardian.com/news/2026/ma...

ROFL

Did Iran fire MRBMs at Diego Garcia or not!?!?!?!?!??! I Don’t think anyone is in position to be making claims like the WSJ is here

“Trump is mobilizing a large military force for something in the Middle East—but TBD whether it’s the futile hunt for WMD, the seizure of Kharg Island that would make US Marines cannon fodder, or some kind of Iraq-style quagmire.” open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

“We exist in a highly degraded information environment. Good analysis has always been rare, but so too, now, are good facts. And that trend redounds to the benefit of tyrants.” open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

PS: Obligatory link to @vanjackson.bsky.social 's

“we’re going to be living in a public narrative that the war in Iran is somehow ‘over' while it very much continues. Other than nuclear annihilation, I can’t think of anything worse than having a war proceed while the world remains aloof to the fact of it” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/epistemic-...

“We exist in a highly degraded information environment. Good analysis has always been rare, but so too, now, are good facts. And that trend redounds to the benefit of tyrants.” open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

Psyched to have Morgan Spector—star of The Gilded Age and The Plot Against America—on The Bang-Bang Podcast! Morgan is a real anti-imperialist, and we get him on wax covering every issue on table right now in foreign policy and Democratic Party politics www.bangbangpod.com/p/the-anti-i...

Psyched to have Morgan Spector—star of The Gilded Age and The Plot Against America—on The Bang-Bang Podcast! Morgan is a real anti-imperialist, and we get him on wax covering every issue on table right now in foreign policy and Democratic Party politics www.bangbangpod.com/p/the-anti-i...

This was masterfully subtle. I doubt Hegseth even realizes he’s being setup as the fall guy

“enlisted folks are already disproportionately dying, as they do in every war. It’s the officer class who increasingly believes the warmongering crap…A revolt from below would look like fragging, desertions, lower morale and combat effectiveness” open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

If the US insists on its own global primacy in a multipolar world, the result is reckless wars of choice that the US will almost certainly lose. open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

@vanjackson.bsky.social and @mikeblack114.bsky.social both making what I think is a correct point today about the spread of conventional weapons with precision and long range to even 'second-tier' adversaries. We're a long way from 1991.

If the US insists on its own global primacy in a multipolar world, the result is reckless wars of choice that the US will almost certainly lose. open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

The Iran war is becoming a global financial crisis. Great convo in this week’s episode open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

The Iran war is becoming a global financial crisis. Great convo in this week’s episode open.substack.com/pub/undiplom...

In 1999, Mos Def rapped, “$69 billion in the last 20 years, spent on national defense but folks still live in fear.” Imagine how he'd have to rewrite those bars now

“the prospect of a military coup or resistance movement always depended on the officer corps. A revolt from below, by contrast, would look more like the GI resistance movement to Vietnam—fragging, desertions, lower morale and combat effectiveness” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/dont-count...

Just finished a 2-hour recording with Morgan Spector, star of The Gilded Age and The Plot Against America. I’ve worked for 5 secretaries of defense. I’ve been in the situation room with Obama. He’s smarter (and obviously better) on policy than any of them. Kind of wild

“the prospect of a military coup or resistance movement always depended on the officer corps. A revolt from below, by contrast, would look more like the GI resistance movement to Vietnam—fragging, desertions, lower morale and combat effectiveness” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/dont-count...

If you’ve reached the point that you’re counting on an undemocratic institution of violence to somehow displace or disempower your democratically elected leader, you’re already lost. Anti-democratic means rarely suits democratic ends. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/dont-count...

Reminder to avoid the Thiel distraction. A point we’ve been hitting on tour is the temptation to apply intellectual history methods to a regime of accumulation (digital capitalism) is misguided. You won’t understand the Tech Right by reading books (they don’t read). Look at how they run their firms.

What a group of military officers told me about Iran: “Trump has a grand strategy and all of this is targeted at China” 🙃

When Trump first came to power, it was the enlisted ranks that were most red-pilled...But as we enter another illegal war, it’s the enlisted folks who are already doing most of the dying, as in every war. And it’s the officer class that’s gone MAGA now www.un-diplomatic.com/p/dont-count...

When Trump first came to power, it was the enlisted ranks that were most red-pilled...But as we enter another illegal war, it’s the enlisted folks who are already doing most of the dying, as in every war. And it’s the officer class that’s gone MAGA now www.un-diplomatic.com/p/dont-count...