Assassination and US Foreign Policy Since 1945
On this episode of American Prestige, Luca Trenta on US policy on assassinations as a foreign policy tool.

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On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek are pleased to welcome back to the podcast Luca Trenta, associate professor in International Relations at Swansea University and author of The President’s Kill List. The group discusses assassinations and international law, when and how assassination became a tool for US foreign policy, the difficulties in accessing declassified documents about this topic, the unsuccessful attempts on the life of Fidel Castro and successful operations against the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Patrice Lumumba, the intelligence community using assassination as a “low level” (i.e. not nuclear) form of retaliation in the Cold War, the contemporary justifications for assassinations as “self defense”, the notion of “imminence”, and more.
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The President’s Kill List: Assassination and US Foreign Policy since 1945.
(Luca Trenta)On this episode of American Prestige, we are pleased to welcome back to the podcast Luca Trenta, associate professor in International Relations at Swansea University and author of The President’s Kill List. The group discusses assassinations and international law, when and how assassination became a tool for US foreign policy, the difficulties in accessing declassified documents about this topic, the unsuccessful attempts on the life of Fidel Castro and successful operations against the likes of Osama Bin Laden and Patrice Lumumba, the intelligence community using assassination as a “low level” (i.e., not nuclear) form of retaliation in the Cold War, the contemporary justifications for assassinations as “self-defense,” the notion of “imminence,” and more.

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.
The AP UFC dome is regrettably being held up by Producer Jake’s HOA. In this week’s news: an update on the U.S.-Iran talks and U.S. airstrikes near Bandar Abbas (1:11); Trump demands new Abraham Accords signatures and threatens Oman over Strait of Hormuz fees (4:46); Israel escalates attacks and pushes displacement further north in Lebanon (11:39); Israel kills Hamas commander Mohammed Odeh (14:38); Gaza’s Board of Peace lacks pledged funds (15:31); Trump pauses a Taiwan arms sale due to the Iran war depleting stockpiles (16:43); the RSF prepares an offensive in North Darfur, plus Sudan’s military prepares an offensive in Blue Nile (18:37); U.S. airstrikes kill civilians in Somalia (20:28); Russia threatens new strikes on Kyiv (22:03); Bolivia faces a protest crackdown (24:18 ); Tulsi Gabbard resigns as director of national intelligence (26:12); and Derek speaks to Anthea Gordon, GiveDirectly’s country director for the Democratic Republic of Congo, about the Ebola outbreak in eastern Congo and the challenges complicating the response (28:56).
Help Ebola-affected families in the DRC.
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