Podcast / American Prestige / Dec 16, 2025

Trump’s National Security Strategy

On this episode of American Prestige: Julia Gledhill and Van Jackson on the Trump administration’s National Security Strategy.

The Nation Podcasts
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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.

Trump’s National Security Strategy w/ Julia Gledhill and Van Jackson | American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Danny and Derek welcome to the show Julia Gledhill and Van Jackson, co-hosts of the Un-Diplomatic podcast, to talk about the Trump administration’s newly released National Security Strategy. They discuss how the document leans on civilizational framing, portrays competition as existential conflict, omits diplomacy and institutions in favor of coercion and deal-making, and deemphasizes democracy promotion. They also touch on the strategy’s treatment of Europe and Latin America, its assumptions about American power, and what the new NSS suggests about the direction of U.S. foreign policy.

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Donald Trump speaks during a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation in the Oval Office on December 15, 2025.

Donald Trump speaks during a Mexican Border Defense Medal presentation in the Oval Office on December 15, 2025.

(Andrew Caballero-Reynolds /AFP via Getty Images)

Danny and Derek welcome to the show Julia Gledhill and Van Jackson, cohosts of the Un-Diplomatic podcast, to talk about the Trump administration’s newly released National Security Strategy. They discuss how the document leans on civilizational framing, portrays competition as existential conflict, omits diplomacy and institutions in favor of coercion and deal-making, and deemphasizes democracy promotion. They also touch on the strategy’s treatment of Europe and Latin America, its assumptions about American power, and what the new NSS suggests about the direction of US foreign policy.

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The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

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.

Cold War Liberal Empire w/ Daniel Bessner and Michael Brenes I American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Derek speaks with Danny and Mike Brenes about Cold War liberalism, its shaping of the American empire, and more from their new co-edited volume. They discuss the meaning of “Cold War liberalism,” the book’s essays, the relationship between liberalism and mass democracy, emergency politics, the continuity between New Deal liberalism and Cold War liberalism, military Keynesianism, US empire, neoconservatism, Joe Biden, and the persistence of Cold War liberal ideas in long after the end of the Cold War itself.

Buy the volume Cold War Liberalism: Power in a Time of Emergency and use discount code BESSNER26 

Don’t forget to download our Marx Prestige miniseries. Final episode out today!

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Derek Davison

Derek Davison is a writer and analyst specializing in international affairs and US foreign policy. He is the publisher of the Foreign Exchanges newsletter, cohost of the American Prestige podcast, and former editor of LobeLog.

Daniel Bessner

Daniel Bessner is an historian of US foreign relations, and cohost of American Prestige, a podcast on international affairs.

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