The President’s Inbox

This episode unpacks Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth's purge of senior military leaders and what it means for civilian control, retention, and the armed forces.

 

Host:

James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR

 

Guest:

Charles Bolden, retired Marine Corps major general and former NASA administrator

 

Michael E. Smith, retired rear admiral and president and founder of National Security Leaders for America

 

We Discuss:

Whether Secretary Hegseth's removal of roughly two dozen senior officers marks a break with earlier approaches to turnover in the senior military ranks.

How the military screens and grooms officers for flag rank over decades, and Bolden’s warning that “cutting off the head of the snake” does generational damage.

What blocked or delayed promotions for more than eighty flag officers—more than half of them women or Black—signal about the politicization of a traditionally nonpartisan institution.

Whether a secretary of defense can lawfully overrule or reshape a promotion board, and what civilian control of the military actually means.

Whether there is merit to the claim that the United States has too many flag officers, and how Hegseth's proposed 20 percent cut differs from past drawdowns.

What Bolden’s personal experience navigating discrimination in his path to the Naval Academy says about what an inclusive service should look like. 

Why retention and recruiting may suffer for years, and whether the damage to the officer corps can be undone.

What advice two retired flag officers would give young people weighing military service, and where they still find reasons for confidence in the service.

 

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/a-general-and-an-admiral-discuss-the-pentagon-purge

 

Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.

This episode unpacks unsettling parallels between today’s increasingly multipolar world and geopolitical conditions on the eve of World War I, and reviews lessons from history about the cost of great-power war.

 

Host:

James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR

 

Guest:

Odd Arne Westad, the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs, Yale University

 

We Discuss:

Why Odd Arne Westad believes that the geopolitical dynamics of 2026 more closely resemble those of 1912 and 1913 than those of 1939 or the Cold War era.

How an era of collapsing globalization, rising nationalism, and newly powerful states echoes the conditions in the decades before World War I.

How policymakers can learn from history without ransacking it for convenient analogies.

Why Europe stumbled into war in 1914 despite deep economic integration.

What Christopher Clark’s Sleepwalkers and Norman Angell’s The Great Illusion can still teach about miscalculation.

Why nuclear weapons and economic interdependence may be weaker restraints on war than we assume.

The similarities between Belgium in WWI and Taiwan today as geopolitical flashpoints, and what Westad learned on a recent trip to Beijing.

The three steps Westad would take to keep today’s great powers from sleepwalking into catastrophe.

 

Mentioned on the Episode:

Norman Angell, The Great Illusion, Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co.

Odd Arne Westad, The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings from History, Allen Lane

Odd Arne Westad, “Trump, Xi, and the Specter of 1914,” Foreign Affairs

 

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/is-2026-the-new-1914

 

Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.

This episode surveys the foreign policy stakes of the 2026 U.S. midterm elections, from the Iran war and gas prices to tariffs, Ukraine, and Israel.

 

Host:

James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR

 

Guests:

Hannah Hartig, Senior Researcher, Pew Research Center

Jessica Huseman, Editorial Director, Votebeat

 

We Discuss:

Why the national mood is “sour” heading into the midterms, and how the economy and cost of living dominate voters’ concerns.

How to be a smarter consumer of polling data. 

Whether foreign interference in the vote count is a real risk, and why Huseman doesn’t worry about tabulation being hacked.

How high gas and diesel prices are voters’ primary concern related to the Iran war, and whether they blame Trump for the spike.

Why foreign policy has become a more important issue for Democratic voters since 2022 and 2024, though it still ranks behind other concerns. 

How tariffs are landing in highly partisan, region-specific ways, from the Midwest to the northern border states facing Canadian tariffs.

Where Ukraine and a widening generational divide over Israel fit in, and whether either issue actually moves votes on Election Day.

 

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/foreign-policy-and-the-2026-midterms

 

Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.

This episode unpacks America’s strategic stalemate with Iran, Trump’s post-midterm options, and how Tehran and the Gulf see the war.

 

Host:

James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR

 

Guests:

Cole Bucy, former CIA analyst; former director for Iran at the National Security Council

 

Nate Swanson, director of the Iran Strategy Project, Atlantic Council

 

We Discuss:

Why the United States has been strategically stuck in the Iran war for months with three bad options: escalate, negotiate, or hold the line.

How the U.S. blockade and sanctions have squeezed Iran without cracking the regime.

Why no Iranian elite or military defections have appeared and what that says about the regime’s staying power.

Whether and how President Trump will “take the gloves off” after the midterms, with options including decapitation strikes and the “mother of all bombs.”

How Tehran reads American politics, and whether the midterms are truly the pivot point each side assumes they are.

Why China is the hole in the sanctions “siege,” and how Beijing is exposing the limits of Washington’s power. 

What Bucy and Swanson would advise the White House to do now, and why the Gulf may hold the key to regional security. 

 

Mentioned on the Episode:

Cole Bucy and Nate Swanson, “Trump Unleashed,” Foreign Policy

 

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/the-iran-war-and-the-midterms

 

Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.

This episode unpacks the ongoing threat of influence and interference operations posed by Russia, China, and Iran as the 2026 U.S. midterm elections approach.

Host:

James M. Lindsay, Mary and David Boies Distinguished Senior Fellow in U.S. Foreign Policy, CFR

 

Guest:

Jessica Brandt, Senior Fellow for Technology and National Security, CFR, and former director of the Foreign Malign Influence Center at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence

 

We Discuss:

The difference between foreign “influence” operations and “interference” operations, and why the distinction matters.

How Russia, China, and Iran run influence campaigns, from troll farms to the corruption of influential Americans. 

Why the intelligence community assesses that no foreign adversary could alter a U.S. vote count “at scale” without detection.

What the Tenet Media case revealed about Russia’s ability to covertly fund American influencers.

What President Donald Trump has claimed about Chinese interference in 2020 and what the evidence actually shows.

How the federal government’s influence-defense apparatus has been scaled back or stood down after being built up through 2024.

Why America’s decentralized, paper-backed election system is itself a source of security.

Whether AI and “influence-for-hire” firms are about to turbocharge the threat ahead of the 2026 and 2028 elections.

 

Mentioned on the Episode:

“Executive Order 13848: Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election,” The White House

“Two RT Employees Indicted for Covertly Funding and Directing U.S. Company That Published Thousands of Videos in Furtherance of Russian Interests,” U.S. Department of Justice

 

For an episode transcript and show notes, visit The President’s Inbox at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/presidents-inbox/will-there-be-meddling-in-the-midterms

 

Opinions expressed on The President’s Inbox are solely those of the host or guests, not of CFR, which takes no institutional positions on matters of policy.