Rating the Top Threats to U.S. National Security

Chris, Melanie and Zack review the Council on Foreign Relations’
annual Preventive Priorities Survey, which asked foreign policy
experts to rank 30 current and possible future conflicts relative
to their likelihood and impact on U.S. national interests. The
leading threat, according to these experts, was of political
violence or domestic terrorism in the United States associated
with the 2024 presidential election. Other leading threats were
the possibility of a wider war in the Middle East arising out of
the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, and of continued
migration from Central America and Mexico. The three consider
these, as well as others that fell farther down the list, and
asked, how can these be prioritized? What is being done to stop
them? And what is the broader value in engaging in these ranking
exercises in the first place?


Grievances for the Biden administration’s short-sighted new
regulations on liquified natural gas, U.S. Middle East policy
(does it make sense to anyone?), and the way our broken politics
manages to infect even an all-American love story like Taylor
Swift and Travis Kelce. Can we just give it a rest?


Attaboys to Navy Comptroller and friend-of-War of the Rocks
Russell Rumbaugh, and Capt. Chris “Chowda” Hill, the commanding
officer of the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69), and to the show
for reaching 1 million downloads.


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