Security Dilemma

U.S. foreign policy for the future. Security Dilemma brings you conversations with the experts, policymakers, and thinkers charting new paths forward from the wreckage of recent decades and toward a national security and defense policy guided by prudence and restraint. Cohosts John Allen Gay and A.J. Manuzzi bring you the information you need to shape a wiser approach. Security Dilemma is a podcast of the John Quincy Adams Society, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing a new generation of foreign policy leaders.

Security Dilemma is a news podcast hosted by The John Quincy Adams Society, with 173 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

The John Quincy Adams Society hosts Security Dilemma, a news show with 173 episodes published.

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  Security Dilemma

  Kicking the Middle East Hornet's Nest with Daniel Zoughbie

  Sep 29, 202653 min

  On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , JQA's John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi are joined by Dr. Daniel Zoughbie to discuss U.S. Middle East policy and his book Kicking the Hornet's Nest: U.S. Foreign Policy in the Middle East from Truman to Trump . Dr. Zoughbie is a complex-systems scientist, a historian, and an expert on presidential decision-making. He is associate project scientist at the Institute of International Studies at UC Berkeley; a faculty affiliate of the UCSF/UCB Center for Global Health Delivery, Diplomacy, and Economics; and a faculty affiliate at the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge. He is also principal investigator of the Middle East and North Africa Diplomacy, Development, and Defense Initiative and author of Indecision Points: George W. Bush and the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict .

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  Security Dilemma

  The Early Unipolar Moment Roots of America’s Post-9/11 Foreign Policy with Emma Ashford

  Sep 8, 202646 min

  On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , Dr. Emma Ashford of the Stimson Center joined the show to discuss how the 9/11 terror attacks turbocharged the worst impulses of U.S. foreign policy, but that the shift towards interventionism was already well underway in the 1990s. Dr. Ashford is a Senior Fellow with the Reimagining US Grand Strategy program at the Stimson Center, where her work focuses on questions of grand strategy, international security, and the future of US foreign policy. She has expertise in the politics of Russia, Europe, and the Middle East. Ashford is also a columnist at Foreign Policy, and an adjunct assistant professor in the Security Studies Program at Georgetown University. Her new book, First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy for a Multipolar World (Yale University Press, 2025), argues that America must fundamentally reconceptualize its role in the world, from global hegemon to shared leadership, and proposes a set of pragmatic, realist principles for policymakers. Her first book, Oil, the State, and War: The Foreign Policies of Petrostates , was published by Georgetown University Press in 2022. Prior to joining the Stimson Center, Ashford was a senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s New American Engagement Initiative, which focused on challenging the prevailing assumptions governing US foreign policy. She has also been a research fellow in defense and foreign policy at the Cato Institute, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a nonresident fellow at the Modern War Institute at West Point. Reason article: https://reason.com/2026/08/29/9-11-turbocharged-american-interventionism/ Foreign Affairs: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/QX6fEgITZHc

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  Security Dilemma

  From FISA to Flock: Post-9/11 Surveillance in America with Abigail Hall

  Sep 1, 202654 min

  On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi spoke with Dr. Abigail Hall . Dr. Hall is a Professor of Economics at the University of Tampa and a Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute . She has co-authored several books including Tyranny Comes Home: The Domestic Fate of U.S. Militarism , Manufacturing Militarism: US Government Propaganda in the War on Terror , and How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Elite . In this episode, we discussed her recent piece on the post-9/11 growth of the surveillance state for Reason magazine.

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  Security Dilemma

  How to Deliver on NATO 3.0 with Miranda Priebe

  Aug 25, 202644 min

  On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi sat down with Dr. Miranda Priebe to discuss her new article in Orbis (https://orbisjournal.org/commentary/how-to-deliver-on-nato-3-0/) about the changes the Trump Administration needs to make if its NATO 3.0 burden-shifting initiative is to bear fruit. Dr. Priebe is the Director of the Center for Analysis of U.S. Grand Strategy and a Senior Political Scientist at RAND. Her work at RAND has focused on grand strategy, the future of the international order, the effects of U.S. forward presence, military doctrine, the history of U.S. military policy, distributed air operations, and multi-domain command and control. She is a life member of the Council on Foreign Relations .

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  Security Dilemma

  The Conservative Case Against the Interventionist Right with Luke Nicastro

  Aug 11, 202651 min

  On this week's episode of Security Dilemma , co-hosts John Gay and A.J. Manuzzi speak with Luke Nicastro of The American Conservative about foreign policy on the Hill, European security, the defense industrial base, and ending America's misadventures in Iran and Venezuela. Luke is a Senior Editor at TAC , but before joining the magazine, he spent nearly a decade working on defense and foreign policy in both government and industry, most recently as National Security Advisor to U.S. Senator Josh Hawley. He has also worked at the Congressional Research Service, the Department of the Navy, the National Defense University, and several defense contractors. Finally, Luke is an alumnus of the Society’s Strategic Leaders Fellowship . Listener Questions: We are opening up SD to listener-submitted questions! Submit questions you'd like to ask future guests ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠here⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Please specify the episode pertaining to the question in your response. Upcoming recordings include: How to Deliver on NATO 3.0 with Miranda Priebe

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