Bungacast

/550/ The New Dollar Imperialism ft. Costas Lapavitsas

On world money and war.

Costas Lapavitsas, professor of economics at SOAS, London, talks to George and Alex about financialisation, arrested development, and the Strait of Hormuz.

• What is the state-led stabilisation of finance capital?

• How does today's imperialism differ from prior versions – even if they also inhibited development outside the core?

• What is the "liquidity tribute" that developing countries must pay?

• How is the war on Iran a perfect case of dollar imperialism: "the dollar and the F35"?

• Why is the talk of "colonialism" today a distraction?

London event: History's Back, Baby!

Links:

• A Topography of the New Dollar Imperialism, Costas Lapavitsas, NLR

• Trump’s Chaotic Imperialism: Economic Warfare, Geopolitical Truculence and Domestic Authoritarianism, Costas Lapavitsas, Socialist Register

• For forthcoming Monthly Review article, see here

• /139/ Dollar Empire ft. Yakov Feygin & Dominik Leusder

• /142/ Dollar Empire (2) ft. Daniel Bessner

/544/ Iran War: Rogue State USA ft. Arash Azizi

On the brave new world we have entered.

Historian Arash Azizi is back on the pod, talking to Alex H and Lee Jones about the ongoing war. We try to draw out some firm consequences, beyond the immediate situtation.

• Why did Trump go to war?

• Is this Netanyahu's war? And will he continue it regardless of the US?

• Will the Islamic Republic become more conservative now? 

• What has the war revealed about asymmetric warfare? About US vulnerability?

• What is the state of the Hormuz weapon now?

For more like this, join us at patreon.com/bungacast

Links:

Arash Azizi:

• Reasons to be Hopeful in Iran, Arash Azizi, The Atlantic

• /24/ #IranProtest ft. Arash Azizi

• /150/ Shadow Commander ft. Arash Azizi

• /444/ Opportunism & Revenge in the Middle East ft. Karl Sharro & Arash Azizi

Analyses:

• How Trump Took the U.S. to War With Iran, Jonathan Swan and Maggie Haberman, NY Times

• Netanyahu’s Iran War Is Also the War of Global Neocon Elites, Nimrod Flaschenberg, Jacobin

• Trump's War, Daniel Luban Dissent Magazine

• The world energy shock is coming, Isabella Weber and Gregor Semieniuk, New Statesman

• One battle after another: Netanyahu’s new security doctrine, FT 

• /532/ Is This a Paleocon Foreign Policy? ft. JF Drolet

• Atlas Shrugged: Decoding Trump's National Security Strategy, Lee Jones, American Affairs

/534/ Is There a Doctrine Called Donroe? ft. Juan David Rojas

On Trump and Rubio, Venezuela and Cuba.

Writer Juan David Rojas talks to Alex and Lee about the abduction of Maduro, what next for Venezuela, and Trump's "hemispheric" foreign policy.

• What is the Trump administration's policy toward Latin America?

• Is the attack on Venezuela a war for oil? Or a war vs 'narcoterrorism'?

• What are the internal divisions in Venezuela, and could it fall into civil war?

• What are the armed groups in the country?

• Who's calling the shots in Washington: neocons or paleocons?

• Is the US open-border policy for Cubans going to cause a rift within the Trump admin?

For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

Links:

• How Maduro Sealed His Own Fate, Juan David Rojas, Compact

• Atlas Shrugged: Decoding Trump’s National Security Strategy, Lee Jones, American Affairs

• From Rogue State to Failed State?: The Perils of Intervention in Venezuela, Juan David Rojas, American Affairs

• Trump’s Venezuela Actions Are About More Than Oil, Matt Huber, Jacobin

 

/532/ Is This a Paleocon Foreign Policy? ft. JF Drolet

On Trump & radical right ideology.

Jean-François Drolet, a leading researcher into the 'World of the Right', talks to Alex and Lee about Donald Trump's coveting of Greenland, and puts the move into its ideological context.

• What is the paleoconservative worldview, how is it different from the neoconservative one, and which is more influential in the Trump regime?

• How does paleoconservatism translate into actual foreign policy? What's in Trump's new National Security Strategy?

• Are we back to a 19th century-style 'spheres of influence' arrangement?

• Does the radical right's foreign policy lead back to a populist kind of isolationism – or to a 'civilisational nationalism'?

• Will Trump solidify the transatlantic alliance, or generate a rift?

Links:

• /461/ Welcome to the World of the Right ft. Michael C. Williams

• World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and World Order (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2024).

• International Relations and the Geopolitics of the European New Right, European Journal of International Relations, JF Drolet

• From Critique to Reaction: The New Right, Critical Theory and International Relations, Journal of International Political Theory, JF Drolet & Michael C. Williams

• Trump’s 2025 National Security Strategy: Goodbye, Liberal International Order; Hello, Radical Right, Lee Jones, American Affairs (forthcoming

 

/515/ State Capitalism Is Now ft. Ilias Alami

On the weakness of state and capital – and their fusion.

Ilias Alami joins Alex and Lee to talk about his essential co-authored book, The Spectre of State Capitalism.

• Why is state capitalism not just a China story, but is global?

• What does the rise of state capitalism tell us about the health of contemporary capitalism?

• How did globalisation and stagnation combine to give birth to it?

• Is this an extension of neoliberalism or something new and different?

• Does this represent a 're-politicisation' of the economy – and does it open up more hopeful political futures?

Links:

• The Spectre of State Capitalism, Ilias Alami & Adam D Dixon, Oxford UP [OPEN ACCESS]

 

/503/ Effervescent Decadence in the Third Modernity

On the end of the end of history and what comes next.

Phil is back on the pod, talking with George and Alex about the big themes of the podcast. In particular, we look at a recent essay in Foreign Policy by historian Christopher Clarke called "The End of Modernity".

• To what extent was the 1989 moment as significant in Beijing as Berlin?

• Is Trump actually Stalin (but in a good way)?

• Is Russia the revisionist power? And if so, in what regard and what are the consequences?

• Who says the choice is between "liberal democracy" and "authoritarian populism"?

Then, we take your questions and comments from the past month.

For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast

Links:

• The End of Modernity, Christopher Clarke, Foreign Policy

• The End of the End of History: Politics in the Twenty-First Century, Bungacast, Zer0 Books

• Into the Abyss, Ed McNally, Tribune

/496/ Insane-Washing the War (Which Did Not Take Place)

On the war on Iran that wasn't (yet).

Alex and George review the past month in the world and on Bungacast:

• The crazy will-they-won't-they of a potential US war on Iran

• The ex post facto justifications on all sides

• Where does "sanewashing" come from

• Ways to understand and not understand US political polarisation

And we deal with your questions and comments from the past month:

• Woke Dungeons and Dragons

• Being Safe versus Feeling Safe

• More on victimhood, authenticity and the PMC

[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

Links:

• Trump’s Tariff Gamble and the Decay of the Neoliberal Order, Lee Jones, American Affairs

• Sanewashing, and how Defund The Police stopped meaning Defund The Police, Inverse Florida, Substack

• Did Iran win the 12-day war?, Sohrab Ahmari, UnHerd 

• A Comprehensive History of Woke D&D, Mark of the Weather-Sun, Substack

/494/ National Democracy or Globalist War ft. Wolfgang Streeck

On the dual crisis of the world.

Wolfgang Streeck, renowned economic sociologist, is back on to talk to us about the crisis of capitalist growth and of democracy. We focus on the solutions proposed in his brilliant new book, Taking Back Control? States and State Systems After Globalism.

Then, Lee and Alex discuss three key themes emerging from the interview: federalism and small states; the national interest; and the redefinition of democracy.

[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

With Streeck we discuss:

• Why is the revival of nation-state democracy "possible, although not very probable"?

• Have Europe’s right-wing populists given up on restoring governance to the national level?

• Why are Europe's globalists turning towards a militarised bloc with securitised external economic relations?

• Why haven’t left-wing populists been able to exploit the "dual crisis"?

• How has democracy been redefined to mean a set of discursive and moral principles rather than power struggle?

• Can we have an orderly de-globalisation?

Links:

• Taking Back Control?: States and State Systems After Globalism, Wolfgang Streeck, Verso

• Notes on the political economy of war, Wolfgang Streeck, Review of Keynesian Economics

• /218/ Stability Über Alles ft. Wolfgang Streeck & /219/ Stability Über Alles pt. 2 ft. Wolfgang Streeck

• /160/ Enemies of the People (Large & Very Small) ft. Wolfgang Streeck

• /170/ Reading Club: Streeck's Critical Encounters

/479/ El Tarifazo: Trump's Tariff Thwack ft. Lee Jones

On Trump's 'liberation day' tariffs and the end of globalisation.

[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

Contributing editor Lee Jones talks to Alex about the tariffs, as they try to reconstruct the Trump admin's thinking, and consider avenues and consequences.

• Why is this a retro-80s moment, and how much does China take the role that Japan used to in Trump's thinking?

• How much strategy is there to this? Is it possible to disentangle the competing logics?

• Is this a return to the 19th century: small state, no income tax, high tariff walls?

• How credible an attempt at reindustrialising the US is this?

• Is Trump trying to weaken the dollar? What store to put in the Mar-a-Lago accord?

• Do Europeans kick the can down the road and hope for the best?

• Is this a global restructuring or just a reset in terms more favourable to the US? The end of neoliberalism or a new iteration on it?

Links:

• Will anybody buy a ‘Mar-a-Lago accord’?, FT

• A User’s Guide to Restructuring the Global Trading System, Stephen Miran, Hudson Bay Capital 

• Is Trump 2 the End of ‘Neoliberal Order Breakdown Syndrome’?, Lee Jones, TNS 

• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent Breaks Down Trump's Tariff Plan and Its Impact on the Middle Class, Tucker Carlson, YouTube

• Back to the ’80s?, Andrew Liu, n+1

• MAGA and the Fragmentation of Europe, Tim Pendry, Substack

/477/ Talking Turkey in the Group Chat ft. Djene Bajalan

On Erdogan's World and the revolt against it.

[For the full episode, subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

Historian Djene Bajalan joins George and Alex to review the past month – ceasefires in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, winning and losing US patronage, Trump's inconsistent strategy and leaks, and the gold rush. We then turn to a country exemplary of the contradictions of the end of the End of History: Türkiye. And finish by answering your questions and comments on internationalism, free speech, Die Linke, anti-immigration, and domination.

• What's driving the protests and how do they compare to past revolts against Erdogan?   

• What is the meaning of charges – corruption & terrorism – against Istanbul mayor and potential opposition leader İmamoğlu?

• Who is the opposition?

• What has sustained Erdogan's rule – repression, conservatism, modernisation, growth?

• Why is Erdogan one of the winners of the past 20 years, and how is he a world-historic figure? 

Links:

• Erdoğan's new world order, Lily Lynch, UnHerd

• /339/ Erdogone? People vs Nation in Turkey ft. Alp Kayserilioglu

• Kultur Kampf TR, Selim Koru, Substack

/472/ Munich, MAGA, Musk, Malema ft. Will Shoki / Ryan Zickgraf

On Trumpworld: Vance in Munich; Musk in South Africa.

[This contains only the interview on South Africa – for the full episode subscribe at patreon.com/bungacast]

Alex, George and Ryan Zickgraf round up events in Germany: first the elections, then US Vice-President JD Vance's speech to the Munich Security Conference where he called out Western elites' hypocrisy on liberalism and democracy.

Then Alex speaks to Will Shoki, editor at Africa Is A Country, about what Musk wants from South Africa, why the global radical right has fixated on land reform in South Africa, and what is really at stake for South Africans.

We round out by taking your questions and comments – and by welcoming in carnival by discussing drinking & socialising, and its anti-social enemies.

Running Order

• 00:03:10 – German elections

• 00:08:20 – Vance's Munich speech

• 00:26:00 – Will Shoki on South African politics

• 01:04:55 – Musk and the global radical right

• 01:13:20 – Letters to the Editors

• 01:23:10 – Carnival and social drinking

Links:

• Trump’s Tool: The Limits of Bannon’s Postmodern Nationalism, Alex Gourevitch, The Northern Star

• Make Afrikaners great again! National populism, democracy and the new white minority politics in post- apartheid South Africa, Danelle van Zyl-Hermann, Ethnic and Racial Studies 

• Why Trump loves corrupt Democrats, Ryan Zickgraf, UnHerd

• The Case for Social Drinking, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin

• The Hangover and Life as a Commodity, George Hoare, Damage

• Segregation Is Still Alive in Mardi Gras’s Birthplace, Ryan Zickgraf, Jacobin

/470/ Political Reaction to System Failure ft. Tim Pendry

On the world under Trump, and British responses. 

Tim Pendry, author of the Unstable Times substack, as well as an international affairs consultant, talks to Alex H and Lee Jones about the world under Trump II, the massive shifts underway, and his own policy work with the Workers Party of Britain.

• How has intra-bourgeois struggle shaped the past decades in politics?

• What is "American imperial nationalism (MAGA)" plus a "real-estate negotiation style"?

• Who are the winners & losers of a "rational" return to classical great-power, sphere-of-influence politics?

• Why are the UK's tensions and problems an extreme version of what may soon apply to any ostensible American ally?

• What is the Workers Party of Britain's pitch and strategy?

• Are the bulk of British people really "left on economics, right on culture", and how does the WPB try to appeal to workers?

• What are the practical challenges of building and organising a new party?

Links:

• Manifesto – Britain Deserves Better, Workers Party of Britain

• The Foundations of the Liberal Polycrisis, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry

• Taking Trump Seriously, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry

• Trumpism and Geo-Politics, Unstable Times, Tim Pendry

/467/ Mosques & Malls & Nation-States ft. Djene Bajalan

On Syria, the fall of Assad, and nationalism in the Middle-East.

[Patreon Exclusive]

Historian Djene Bajalan talks to Alex about a major rearrangement in the Levant. We discuss:

• Who are Syria's new rulers HTS, and what is their vision – if any?

• Did geopolitics really determine the fall of Assad and the Ba'ath Party?

• How HTS's victory is so profoundly different from Islamism in Iran 1979

• Why 2025 finally closes the book on the Arab Spring – and on secular Arab nationalism

• Were the Kurds wrong to rely on US protection?

And in the full episode we continue by discussing...

• Is Turkey the big winner of the decade?

• What the Left gets wrong on nationalism

• Civic versus ethnic nationalism, revisited

• What was democratic, liberal and revolutionary about nationalism – and whether it can be again

• How conservatives recuperate left-wing ideas, which were always conservative from the start

Links:

• Djene's writing at Jacobin

• /95/ The Fall of Rojava? ft. Dani Ellis / Alexander Norton

/466/ Regime Change in the West?

On disinformation, NATO vs Russia, terrorism + more.

[Full episode for subscribers only. Go to patreon.com/bungacast]

We look back at a turbulent last month or so with the help of guest and "disinformation bot" Tara McCormack. We put it all in the context of Trump's return, post-neoliberalism and deglobalisation.

• 00:13:52 – Jacob Siegel  talks to Alex about Meta's policy U-turn on censorship and what it means for the public-private partnership on digital surveillance.

• 00:50:11 – How will European powers react to the US's relative withdrawal of its protection? Will France, Britain and Germany double-down on the Ukraine war?

• 01:06:21 – Why is Luigi Mangione not understood as 'terrorism' while the Magdeburg Christmas market attack is? What drives terrorism and is that even the right term to understand explosive anomie?

•  01:15:24 – Letters to the Editors: on the global radical right, and Trump's foreign policy

Links:

• /369/ Information-War and War-Politics ft. Jacob Siegel

• /34/ War Propaganda ft. Tara McCormack

• To the Finland Station, Branko Milanovic, Substack

• Trumpism & Geopolitics, Tim Pendry, Substack

• Class Patricide, Dustin Guastella, Damage

/461/ Welcome to the World of the Right ft. Michael C. Williams

On radical conservatism and global order.

Professor Michael C. Williams talks to George and Alex about his co-authored World of the Right and how the radical right has gone global. We discuss:

• Does academia takes the Right as seriously as it should?

• What's the difference between the radical right and the far right, the new right, national conservatives, or fascists?

• How is the right 'global' – not just through international conferences but by being "co-constituted by its relation to the global"?

• Why is the radical right focused on the global liberal managerial elite? What does it get right and what does it get wrong about this stratum?

• How did the radical right come to take Gramsci seriously?

• Is the radical right just parasitic on the breakdown of liberal universalism?

• What does this analysis of the radical right say about the Left – is it the force that protects the status quo of the liberal international order?

Links:

• World of the Right: Radical Conservatism and Global Order, Michael C. Williams et al., Cambridge UP

• /351/ Eating the Left’s Lunch? ft. Cecilia Lero & Tamás Gerőcs

• /129/ The Right Is Weak ft. Corey Robin