The Un-Diplomatic Podcast

Silicon Valley Turns Anti-China. Why Steven Pinker Doesn't Get the Causes of War. Pompeo Won't Survive Impeachment. Making Enemies of Friends. | Ep. 13

Episode Summary

Silicon Valley might be turning against China. Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and needs to take a security studies course. There are no more US officials with gravitas. Trump's 5-dimensional chess is going to end with a Kurdish-Iranian alliance. Career advice for an aspiring China hand. And will Van Jackson ever move back to Washington?

Episode Notes

Silicon Valley might be turning against China. Steven Pinker is wrong about violence and needs to take a security studies course. There are no more US officials with gravitas. Trump's 5-dimensional chess is going to end with a Kurdish-Iranian alliance. Career advice for an aspiring China hand.  And will Van Jackson ever move back to Washington?  

Van's Predictions:

Will Pompeo survive until 2020? No

Will China sacrifice Carrie Lam by 2020? Yes

Will Giuliani be arrested by the end of 2019? No

Will China and the US sign a grand bargain deal by the end of 2020? No

Will US troops withdraw from Syria by 2020? No

Shelly Banjo's Bloomberg tweet thread: https://twitter.com/sbanjo/status/1184070619693907968

Michael Weiss tweet thread: https://twitter.com/michaeldweiss/status/1184139398507585536?s=20

Tanisha Fazal and Paul Poast Foreign Affairs article: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2019-10-15/war-not-over

Music: "Van is Meta" by Tre' Hester