Think Tank Legitimacy Crisis | Red Scare 6.0 | Nuclear Disarmament Dismay | Rubio’s Cuba Witch Hunt | Democrat Iran-War Kayfabe

Think tanks and the foreign policy establishment are in crisis and dangerously out of touch with reality—Emma Ashford reports on the Aspen Security Forum.

How the ruling class reproduces itself by co-opting young policy-school graduates into believing they’re not actually workers.

The Trump administration is trying to manufacture a new anti-communist red scare, enlisting the national security state into a counter-revolutionary political project.

Marco Rubio is obsessed with making Cuba an enemy.

How Democrats gave up the only leverage they had to stop the Iran War.

And the dismal state of the nuclear disarmament movement in 2026—why preventing nuclear war and nuclear proliferation requires reconnecting nuclear issues to conventional militarism.

Catch the episode wherever you get podcasts, or watch on YouTube.

---

Hey, friend! You might have noticed that I’m offering more of Un-Diplomatic without the paywall; I’m trying to keep as much as possible public. But to do that requires your help because Un-Diplomatic is entirely reader-supported. As we experiment with keeping our content paywall-free, please consider the less than $2 per week it takes to keep this critical analysis going.

---