Where's Russia?
History As It Happens
for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Thursday, April 23. When he took power 25 years ago, Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to turn his country into a Great Power again, after it had endured a decade of poverty and humiliation following the collapse of the Soviet Union. But Russia is on the sidelines as wars and blockades in the Greater Middle East roil the global order. Yes, Russia has reportedly assisted Iran with satellite targeting intelligence, and its economy may benefit from the bump in oil prices. But...
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What is Greater Israel?
History As It Happens
for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Monday, April 20. With Gaza destroyed and Jewish settlers rampaging the West Bank, and with the IDF occupying parts of southern Lebanon and Syria, talk of achieving "Greater Israel" is now commonplace among influential political and media figures in Israel, as well as the settlers who have their eyes set on annexing Palestinian territory. What does this Old Testament idea mean? And what current forces — religious, nationalist, and others — are driving it? Political scientist...
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Giulio Douhet's Kind of War
History As It Happens
for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! subscribers got this episode (with no ads!) on Thursday, April 16. There was an old idea behind President Trump's threats to annihilate Iran's bridges, power plants, and other civilian infrastructure. It's called strategic bombing, and it was devised more than a century ago by an Italian air power theorist with a French-sounding name. Giulio Douhet said air power should be used to destroy the enemy's capacity to make war while terrorizing its citizens to crush their will to persevere. In this episode, historian David M....
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Bonus Ep! Goodbye, Orbán
History As It Happens
to listen to the entire 20-minute episode (or preview 5 minutes). After 16 years in power, the self-described illiberal democrat Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz political party were trounced in Hungary's national elections. Critics of Orbán's authoritarian style had long become concerned that he had so tilted the electoral system in Fidesz's favor that he might never be beaten. So, what happened to MAGA darling Viktor Orbán? Political scientist Veronica Anghel of the European University Institute is our guest.
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American Suez
History As It Happens
for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Great Britain, France, and Israel's secret plan in 1956 to invade Egypt, regain control of the Suez Canal, and force the nationalist strongman Gamal Nasser from power ended in strategic disaster. The Eisenhower administration angrily opposed the surprise attack and pressured the aggressors to withdraw, ensuring Egypt would maintain control of the vital waterway. Today, as the U.S. fights a war of choice against Iran with no easy way to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, some believe the United States is experiencing its own 'Suez moment,'...
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Martyrs and Survivors: The Iran-Iraq War
History As It Happens
Keep the narrative flow going in 2026. for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Over eight long years in the 1980s, Iraq and Iran pulverized each other in an unwinnable, pointless war that nonetheless began as an existential threat to the new revolutionary government in Tehran. In the crucible of war, the Islamic Republic cemented hardline clerical rule, crushed dissent, forged an identity, demonstrated its resilience, ensured the country's independence, and created a powerful national narrative to challenge hostile "imperialists" in the West and East. In this...
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Bonus Ep! Antony Beevor's 'Rasputin'
History As It Happens
to listen to the entire 38-minute episode (or preview 10 minutes). Can a Siberian peasant influence the course of history? In the case of Grigori Rasputin, the answer was yes. A wanderer, mystic, and spiritual healer, Rasputin was also corrupt and lecherous — and his meddling in the affairs of state helped bring down the Tsarist autocracy in the crucible of war and revolution. In this episode, Antony Beevor, the renowned military historian, talks about his new biography, '.' Further reading: by Antony Beevor
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The Limits of Power
History As It Happens
Keep the narrative flow going in 2026. for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! Wars in Eastern Europe and the Greater Middle East are killing and displacing societies and roiling the global economy. There is no end in sight: despite possessing powerful military arsenals and cutting-edge tech, warring states are unable to achieve decisive victories in modern warfare. In this episode, historian Michael Kimmage, the director of the Kennan Institute, defines the limits of power and how the failure to grasp these limits threatens further disorder. Recommended reading: by Michael...
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Israel Annexes the West Bank
History As It Happens
for early access, ad-free listening, and bonus content! With the Greater Middle East on fire from Gaza to Iran, bureaucratic and administrative changes taking place inside Israel may be easy to overlook. The right-wing coalition of Benjamin Netanyahu and the country's security establishment are annexing the West Bank. Even before the Six-Day War in 1967, the West Bank, often called Judea and Samaria, had been eyed by Jewish settlers, some of whom believe their holy books sanction the taking of Palestinian territory. In this episode, Dahlia Scheindlin and Yael Berda delve into the historical...
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Bonus Ep! Kharg Island, Carter, Khomeini, and 'Eagle Claw'
History As It Happens
to listen to the entire 22-minute episode (or preview 7 minutes). President Donald Trump is not the first president to consider seizing Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf. Forty-six years ago, Jimmy Carter and his national security team mulled deploying troops to take the oil-critical island to compel Iran's revolutionary government to free more than 50 Americans held hostage at the U.S. embassy in Tehran. Today, the idea behind any such attack would be to force open the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran closed to most tanker traffic after the U.S. and Israel started bombing on Feb. 28. In this...
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The Trump administration's National Security Strategy calls for "flexible realism" in foreign policy, a supposed departure from the military adventurism that led to disasters in the Greater Middle East. Realism prioritizes national interests rather than ideology or high principles, such as democracy and human rights. Is Donald Trump a realist? What are the historical origins of realism? What are its opposites? In this episode, scholars Linda Kinstler and Stephen Wertheim break it down.
Linda Kinstler is a contributing writer for New York Times Magazine and a junior fellow at the Harvard Society of Fellows.
Stephen Wertheim is a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Recommended reading:
The Theory That Gives Trump a Blank Check For Aggression by Linda Kinstler (New York Times)