In the midst of ongoing debate regarding the military service record of Democratic party vice presidential candidate Tim Walz, Providence's Marc LiVecche spoke with Marine Corps veterans Mac Owens and Keith Pavlischek to clarify the real issues. Focusing on the charge that Walz placed his own interests over his duty to his men by retiring rather than deploying to Iraq, this conversation attempts to avoid partisan bickering in order to discuss the effect of Walz's decision on unit morale, cohesion, mission effectiveness, loyalty, and, ultimately, honor. Notes: "Tim Walz's Military Service Contr ..read more

Marc LiVecche hosts COL Keith Pavlischek, USMC (RET), long-time Providence contributor for a long-form discussion about the Israel-Hamas War. Points of focus include getting the meaning of proportionality right, the criticality of making basic distinctions between good and evil, right and wrong, causal and moral responsibility, and much else. Among the highlights is their imagined scenario in which they are talking with an honest college student who wants to know how the goal of eliminating Hamas–and the known if undesired cost in innocent lives that will go along with that–is compatible with ..read more

Rebecca Munson—department chair for government and public policy at Liberty University’s Helms School of Government—talks with Mark Melton about how the United States has combatted human trafficking globally. She explains how big of a problem human trafficking is and assesses America’s role in combatting this crime while comparing it to the European approach. Munson then compares and contrasts the crisis in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, and Mexico and discusses how foreign governments often choose to combat human trafficking only after the US threatens sanctions. Traditionally, this issue ..read more

Olivia Enos of the Heritage Foundation speaks with Mark Melton about how the Chinese government has been snuffing out liberty in Hong Kong. She discusses the recent arrests of Cardinal Zen and pro-democracy advocates and explains what they mean for religious liberty in the city-state. She also analyzes the Vatican’s deal with the Chinese Communist Party and warns the Catholic Church against improving relations with the Beijing regime. Enos wrote an article for Providence making the case that the United States government should give Hong Kong refugees “Priority-2 Status,” so she explains what t ..read more

In this extended version of our regular, public Foreign Policy ProvCast, Ted Moorman speaks in more detail about kleptocracy and America's role in perpetuating foreign corruption ..read more

Marc LiVecche speaks with Bing West about the Vietnam War, civil-military relations, and much else in this extended version of the public podcast that is available only to Providence subscribers ..read more

Welcome to our very first subscriber-only podcast from Providence! I am Mark Melton, the journal’s deputy editor. These podcasts are part of our new, exclusive online content that subscribers can receive along with subscriber-only videos, complete PDF copies of current and past print edition issues, a discussion forum, and more. This first episode is an extended conversation with Matt Gobush, who spoke with us last year about his trip to and research on Latvia, and specifically Russian speakers there. In our normal podcast, the Foreign Policy ProvCast, we released part of this conversation, bu ..read more

In this episode, Mark Melton speaks with Paul Miller about what may happen in Ukraine now that the Battle of Kyiv appears to be over and the war is moving into a new, probably longer phase. In addition to discussing the current situation in the country, Miller covers what Russia’s relations with the United States may look like in the medium to long term, what the war should teach us about US-China relations, the possibility that Russia may recover and rearm from this war, how a new cold war is forming, and lessons from the old Cold War for today ..read more

In this episode, Mark Melton speaks with Lieutenant Colonel Tyson K. Wetzel (US Air Force) about how the United States can help Ukraine fight Russia effectively without NATO and Russia getting into a war. Wetzel helped conduct a survey and write a report for the Atlantic Council that created a “strategic risk calculator.” The survey asked foreign policy experts to consider various ways NATO allies could help Ukraine and ranked both how effective that assistance would be and how much it risked escalation. Wetzel covers the findings of that survey and lists some of the different weapons the US c ..read more

In this wide-ranging and impassioned conversation about the war in Ukraine, Providence editors Marc LiVecche and Rebeccah Heinrichs, also of the Hudson Institute, discuss the latest developments, the intersection of just war reasoning and the facts on the ground, future options against Putin, how best to assist President Zelensky and his brave compatriots, and the delicate but critical question of regaining escalatory dominance against the Russian regime ..read more