Van Jackson
@vanjackson.bsky.social
The class politics of geopolitics. Newsletter, http://Un-Diplomatic.com. Co-host, https://www.BangBangPod.com; https://www.undiplomaticpodcast.com. 🇺🇸🇵🇭🇳🇿. https://www.vanjackson.org
Don’t tell me how impressive AI is: It says Stephen Walt’s wife is John Mearsheimer, whom it says is both Jewish and not-Jewish
November 26, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Don’t tell me how impressive AI is: It says Stephen Walt’s wife is John Mearsheimer, whom it says is both Jewish and not-Jewish
The Pentagon’s new "two-war construct” is going to be WWIII-prepping for China ("great-power competition”) and a large-scale occupation for Latin America. This would make the trillion-dollar budget permanent, and provide a new impetus for horizonless increases in military spending
As rumors of a U.S. war on Venezuela swirl, military documents show plans to feed a buildup of troops in the region for years.
U.S. Military Documents Indicate Plans to Keep Troops in Caribbean Through 2028
As rumors of a U.S. war on Venezuela swirl, military documents show plans to feed a buildup of troops in the region for years.
interc.pt
November 25, 2025 at 9:11 PM
The Pentagon’s new "two-war construct” is going to be WWIII-prepping for China ("great-power competition”) and a large-scale occupation for Latin America. This would make the trillion-dollar budget permanent, and provide a new impetus for horizonless increases in military spending
“Theories and policies on ‘how to live with the bomb’ and how to operate military economies are a blueprint for economic decline, as well as an invitation for political authoritarianism”
November 25, 2025 at 1:07 AM
“Theories and policies on ‘how to live with the bomb’ and how to operate military economies are a blueprint for economic decline, as well as an invitation for political authoritarianism”
Reposted by Van Jackson
“If we’re trying to maintain primacy by invading countries that pose no threat to us, then we’re clearly on the decline,” Senior Non-Resident Fellow @vanjackson.bsky.social told @polgreen.bsky.social, reflecting on the legacy of U.S. military adventurism
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...
Opinion | The Thucydides Trap Is Coming for America
www.nytimes.com
November 24, 2025 at 5:42 PM
“If we’re trying to maintain primacy by invading countries that pose no threat to us, then we’re clearly on the decline,” Senior Non-Resident Fellow @vanjackson.bsky.social told @polgreen.bsky.social, reflecting on the legacy of U.S. military adventurism
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/21/o...
Reposted by Van Jackson
“If you have to coerce, bomb, and invade countries in order preserve the international order of your choosing, then you aren’t really hegemonic. You’re just an asshole.” link below
November 23, 2025 at 8:05 PM
“If you have to coerce, bomb, and invade countries in order preserve the international order of your choosing, then you aren’t really hegemonic. You’re just an asshole.” link below
“If you have to coerce, bomb, and invade countries in order preserve the international order of your choosing, then you aren’t really hegemonic. You’re just an asshole.” link below
November 23, 2025 at 8:05 PM
“If you have to coerce, bomb, and invade countries in order preserve the international order of your choosing, then you aren’t really hegemonic. You’re just an asshole.” link below
And here’s the piece that Tooze quotes: www.un-diplomatic.com/p/epstein-ge...
November 21, 2025 at 9:32 PM
And here’s the piece that Tooze quotes: www.un-diplomatic.com/p/epstein-ge...
Got shouted out by Tooze!!!!
November 21, 2025 at 6:13 PM
Got shouted out by Tooze!!!!
Incredible story tying together China’s export of surplus labor, Chinese econ hegemony in Asia, and Indonesia’s strategy to control its resource extraction. Serious labor exploitation made worse by DOGE cuts to Dept of labor funding in Indonesia restofworld.org/2025/chinese...
The Chinese migrant workers powering the deadly EV nickel boom
30,000 Chinese workers travel thousands of miles to remote islands in Eastern Indonesia to process nickel — and put their lives at risk on the frontier of the green energy transition.
restofworld.org
November 21, 2025 at 6:02 AM
Incredible story tying together China’s export of surplus labor, Chinese econ hegemony in Asia, and Indonesia’s strategy to control its resource extraction. Serious labor exploitation made worse by DOGE cuts to Dept of labor funding in Indonesia restofworld.org/2025/chinese...
🚨New episode drop!🚨
--Bret Stephens wants to do an Iraq war in Venezuela.
--Palantir Democrats.
-G-7's imperialist multilateralism.
--Rubio designates Antifa a foreign terrorist organization. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/palantir-d...
--Bret Stephens wants to do an Iraq war in Venezuela.
--Palantir Democrats.
-G-7's imperialist multilateralism.
--Rubio designates Antifa a foreign terrorist organization. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/palantir-d...
Palantir Democrats | Bret Stephens' Case for Iraq-ing Venezuela | G-7 Imperialist Multilateralism | Real War on Fake Antifa | Ep. 272
Just dropped a new episode of the pod with co-host Julia Gledhill, covering a range of national security and political issues from a critical perspective:
www.un-diplomatic.com
November 20, 2025 at 5:58 PM
🚨New episode drop!🚨
--Bret Stephens wants to do an Iraq war in Venezuela.
--Palantir Democrats.
-G-7's imperialist multilateralism.
--Rubio designates Antifa a foreign terrorist organization. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/palantir-d...
--Bret Stephens wants to do an Iraq war in Venezuela.
--Palantir Democrats.
-G-7's imperialist multilateralism.
--Rubio designates Antifa a foreign terrorist organization. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/palantir-d...
Ken Burns just dropped an all timer: “Democratic socialists don’t kill Jews, national socialists kill Jews!”
November 18, 2025 at 11:06 PM
Ken Burns just dropped an all timer: “Democratic socialists don’t kill Jews, national socialists kill Jews!”
Reposted by Van Jackson
“MAGA’s policy agenda is the reactionary technocrat’s attempt at slavishly trying to impose coherence on the whims of a mad king who does not feel beholden to the form or content that the new technocrats treat as religion.” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/washington...
Washington’s Elbridge Colby Problem is Elbridge Colby’s Washington Problem
Hey, there!
www.un-diplomatic.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:30 PM
“MAGA’s policy agenda is the reactionary technocrat’s attempt at slavishly trying to impose coherence on the whims of a mad king who does not feel beholden to the form or content that the new technocrats treat as religion.” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/washington...
“MAGA’s policy agenda is the reactionary technocrat’s attempt at slavishly trying to impose coherence on the whims of a mad king who does not feel beholden to the form or content that the new technocrats treat as religion.” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/washington...
Washington’s Elbridge Colby Problem is Elbridge Colby’s Washington Problem
Hey, there!
www.un-diplomatic.com
November 18, 2025 at 5:30 PM
“MAGA’s policy agenda is the reactionary technocrat’s attempt at slavishly trying to impose coherence on the whims of a mad king who does not feel beholden to the form or content that the new technocrats treat as religion.” www.un-diplomatic.com/p/washington...
Reposted by Van Jackson
The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer | Jeffrey Epstein and the American Empire w/ Van Jackson on Podbean www.podbean.com/ea/dir-p8ehn...
Jeffrey Epstein and the American Empire w/ Van Jackson
The scandal around Jeffrey Epstein, who trafficked and abused children and died in a prison cellin 2019, has never gone away. It continues to explode now that House Democrats havereleased thousands of...
www.podbean.com
November 17, 2025 at 4:13 PM
The Time of Monsters with Jeet Heer | Jeffrey Epstein and the American Empire w/ Van Jackson on Podbean www.podbean.com/ea/dir-p8ehn...
I think living in a Palantir surveillance state will necessarily mean a revival of physical media, esp radical zines and flyers. Could not be happier about that
Hey, friends in NYC! Come hang out with a buncha cool comics creators and fold zines and make posters to push back against ICE! A @handsoffnyc.bsky.social and @bkindivisible.bsky.social event at @anyonecomics.bsky.social in Brooklyn! It's gonna be a blast!
www.mobilize.us/indivisiblen...
www.mobilize.us/indivisiblen...
Hands Off NYC Zine and Poster Fun in Brooklyn with local comics creators! · Indivisible Brooklyn
Join New York comic creators to fold zines and make posters to push back against ICE in our city! Stay to fold and color a while or just swing by to pick up zines and posters to distribute in your nei...
www.mobilize.us
November 15, 2025 at 10:37 PM
I think living in a Palantir surveillance state will necessarily mean a revival of physical media, esp radical zines and flyers. Could not be happier about that
Was supposed to do the Christmas card photo today but got a black eye in training
November 15, 2025 at 10:34 PM
Was supposed to do the Christmas card photo today but got a black eye in training
Reposted by Van Jackson
It seems obvious now that Yanis Varoufakis’s conversation with Larry Summers in his memoir was really about whether Yanis could be trusted with an invite to Jeffrey Epstein’s pedo island
November 13, 2025 at 5:58 PM
It seems obvious now that Yanis Varoufakis’s conversation with Larry Summers in his memoir was really about whether Yanis could be trusted with an invite to Jeffrey Epstein’s pedo island
It seems obvious now that Yanis Varoufakis’s conversation with Larry Summers in his memoir was really about whether Yanis could be trusted with an invite to Jeffrey Epstein’s pedo island
November 13, 2025 at 5:58 PM
It seems obvious now that Yanis Varoufakis’s conversation with Larry Summers in his memoir was really about whether Yanis could be trusted with an invite to Jeffrey Epstein’s pedo island
Reposted by Van Jackson
@vanjackson.bsky.social has the single best analysis of the Epstein story I have read, precisely because he reads Epstein through the lens of the geopolitics of American empire. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/epstein-ge...
Epstein Geopolitics
Un-Diplomatic is entirely reader-supported.
www.un-diplomatic.com
November 12, 2025 at 2:13 PM
@vanjackson.bsky.social has the single best analysis of the Epstein story I have read, precisely because he reads Epstein through the lens of the geopolitics of American empire. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/epstein-ge...
What’s not so obvious is how much Jeffrey Epstein mattered as a causal force in all the geopolitical machinations he was part of. Was he a grifter arbitraging world events, profiteering off oppression? Or was he setting world events in motion? www.un-diplomatic.com/p/epstein-ge...
Epstein Geopolitics
Un-Diplomatic is entirely reader-supported.
www.un-diplomatic.com
November 11, 2025 at 6:02 PM
What’s not so obvious is how much Jeffrey Epstein mattered as a causal force in all the geopolitical machinations he was part of. Was he a grifter arbitraging world events, profiteering off oppression? Or was he setting world events in motion? www.un-diplomatic.com/p/epstein-ge...
“Jeffrey Epstein was one of the world’s preeminent geopoliticians (not a compliment)...He was about oppression-profiteering and consolidating state control of societies...American hegemony imposed a kind of imperialist peace that people like him cashed in on”
November 11, 2025 at 5:50 PM
“Jeffrey Epstein was one of the world’s preeminent geopoliticians (not a compliment)...He was about oppression-profiteering and consolidating state control of societies...American hegemony imposed a kind of imperialist peace that people like him cashed in on”
Old dog figuring out new leg-breaking tricks
November 8, 2025 at 10:37 PM
Old dog figuring out new leg-breaking tricks
--Gen Z's gambling problem is about capitalism.
--Who’s afraid of Zohran?
--An economic depression is already hiding in plain sight.
--Why Trump's war on Venezuela is expanding.
--Trump’s trip across Asia as a symptom of hegemonic decline. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/bombing-la...
--Who’s afraid of Zohran?
--An economic depression is already hiding in plain sight.
--Why Trump's war on Venezuela is expanding.
--Trump’s trip across Asia as a symptom of hegemonic decline. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/bombing-la...
Bombing Latin America | Economic Depression Hiding in Plain Sight | Who’s Afraid of Zohran | Trump Embarrasses Asia | Ep. 270
Just dropped a new episode of the pod, covering a range of national security and political issues from a critical perspective:
www.un-diplomatic.com
November 7, 2025 at 6:03 PM
--Gen Z's gambling problem is about capitalism.
--Who’s afraid of Zohran?
--An economic depression is already hiding in plain sight.
--Why Trump's war on Venezuela is expanding.
--Trump’s trip across Asia as a symptom of hegemonic decline. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/bombing-la...
--Who’s afraid of Zohran?
--An economic depression is already hiding in plain sight.
--Why Trump's war on Venezuela is expanding.
--Trump’s trip across Asia as a symptom of hegemonic decline. www.un-diplomatic.com/p/bombing-la...
Reposted by Van Jackson
"Jurors found Sean Dunn not guilty of one misdemeanor assault charge on Thursday in federal court in D.C."
I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win.
www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/d...
I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win.
www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/d...
DC ‘sandwich guy' found not guilty of assault after throwing sub at federal agent
A man charged with assault for throwing a sandwich at a federal agent calls it an act of protest. Prosecutors are trying to prove that it was a federal crime. Jurors heard attorneys’ opening statement...
www.nbcwashington.com
November 6, 2025 at 7:51 PM
"Jurors found Sean Dunn not guilty of one misdemeanor assault charge on Thursday in federal court in D.C."
I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win.
www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/d...
I do not regret to inform you that we are going to win.
www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/d...
“Everyone’s a communist now. Everyone’s an enemy of the state. Everyone’s deserving of no mercy from this Cobra-Kai regime...Their list of crimes is by now so long that they can’t afford to let go of power, even though their policies are about as popular as episiotomies.”👇
November 5, 2025 at 8:24 PM
“Everyone’s a communist now. Everyone’s an enemy of the state. Everyone’s deserving of no mercy from this Cobra-Kai regime...Their list of crimes is by now so long that they can’t afford to let go of power, even though their policies are about as popular as episiotomies.”👇