After the fall of the Soviet Union, scholar (and former Army linguist) Monica Duffy Toft noticed something odd: the number of U.S. interventions overseas seemed to go up, not down, after the Cold War was supposedly over. Today, she is fully embroiled in a project that is collecting data on all of those interventions, their toll on the American taxpayer, and on peace across the globe, and is coming up with some disturbing conclusions about the nature of American exceptionalism and the military-industrial complex. In the first segment, Kelley and Dan talk about Nancy Pelosi's big trip to Taiwan this week and why Washington today appears to be completely inept at foreign policy and realpolitik.
More from Monica Duffy Toft:
America’s modern addiction to the big stick — Responsible Statecraft, 6/21/22
What the United States needs to own in Russia’s war on Ukraine, Responsible Statecraft, 5/16/22
A militarized America is not my America: A conversation with Monica Duffy Toft