History As It Happens

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A decade before the state of Israel was born, a revolt rocked the British mandate of Palestine. It was an uprising of Arab peasants directed at their colonial overlords, Zionist immigrants, and Arab elites. The Great Revolt of 1936-1939 nearly succeeded before it was crushed by overwhelming force, a setback from which the Palestinian national movement never truly recovered. When you listen to this episode, you'll hear its echoes in today's crisis.
Our guest is Ted Swedenburg, professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Arkansas and author of Memories of Revolt: The 1936–1939 Rebellion and the Palestinian National Past.

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The United States' failure to defeat Iran in an unprovoked, undeclared war is fueling the notion that the U.S. is in decline. Its security commitments cover the globe. The annual defense budget is approaching $1 trillion. But the Pentagon can neither defend its Persian Gulf bases from low-cost drone attacks nor reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Forty years ago, a Yale historian named Paul Kennedy argued in a best-selling book that the U.S., like all great powers, could not avoid relative decline, especially if it failed to square means and ends. In those days, the national debt was $3 trillion. Today, it's soaring toward $40 trillion. Our guest is one of Paul Kennedy's old students, historian Jeremi Suri.
Jeremi Suri teaches history at the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin. He writes the Democracy of Hope newsletter and co-hosts This is Democracy podcast.
Further reading:
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers by Paul Kennedy

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Shortly after taking office in 1969, President Richard Nixon believed he might intimidate, through military threats, the Soviet Union and North Vietnam into making concessions at the peace table. In Nixon's words, it was "Madman theory." It didn't work. Today, President Trump has tried to bluster and bluff his way to victory over Iran, even threatening to wipe out Iranian civilization. Now the president hopes a naval blockade will force Tehran into surrendering the Strait of Hormuz and its nuclear ambitions. Historian Carolyn Eisenberg is our guest.
Historian Carolyn Eisenberg teaches at Hofstra University. She is an expert on the Vietnam War and the author of Fire and Rain: Nixon, Kissinger, and the Wars in Southeast Asia.

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In late April 1986, what should have been a routine test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in northeastern Ukraine turned into an epic disaster, the largest ever accidental release of deadly radiation. It contaminated the earth, exposed the rot in the Soviet system, and changed the course of history. To this day, Chernobyl is not only a place on a map. It's a symbol of death, destruction, and the terrible legacy of the USSR. Mariana Budjeryn is our guest.
Mariana Budjeryn is a senior researcher with the Center for Nuclear Security Policy at MIT's Security Studies Program. She is the author of Inheriting the Bomb: The Collapse of the USSR and the Nuclear Disarmament of Ukraine.
Further listening:
When Ukraine Had Nukes w/ Mariana Budjeryn

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When he took power 25 years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to turn his country into a Great Power again, after it had endured a decade of poverty and humiliation following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Russia is on the sidelines as wars and blockades in the Greater Middle East roil the global order. Yes, Russia has reportedly assisted Iran with satellite targeting intelligence, and its economy may benefit from the bump in oil prices. But Moscow is in no position to provide robust military assistance to its "strategic partner" Iran, and none of its representatives have been invited to the peace talks in Islamabad. Historian Sergey Radchenko explains why Russian influence is essentially irrelevant in a region where it once exerted an important presence.
Sergey Radchenko teaches history at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power.
Further reading:
Putin's Persian Problem by Sergey Radchenko (Foreign Policy)