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There is a growing disconnect between the foreign policy objectives of the United States and the resources it devotes to national security. However, inertia has hampered meaningful policy change in recent years. Chris and Melanie discuss a recent article from Christopher Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim in Foreign Affairs that analyzes the challenges of overcoming status quo bias. Chris commends Taiwan for purchasing new missiles for defense purposes and Melanie praises Australia for adapting to the new missile age.

Episode Reading

• Pat Conroy, Address to the National Press Club, October 30, 2024.
• Peter Dean and Alice Nason, “Missile Ambitions are the Key to Our Future Defence,” Australian Financial Review, October 30, 2024.
• Philip H. Gordon, “Trump’s Sudden and Dangerous Troop Withdrawal from Germany,” Council of Foreign Relations, June 8, 2020.
• Stuart Lau, “US Envoy to NATO Questions EU’s ‘Buy Local’ Strategy on Weapons,” Politico, October 22, 2024.
• Nevada Joan Lee, EU Defense: This Time Might Be Different, Stimson Center, October 23, 2024.
• Christopher S. Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim, “America’s Foreign Policy Inertia,” Foreign Affairs, October 14, 2024,
• Christopher S. Chivvis, Jennifer Kavanagh, Sahil Lauji, Adele Malle, Sam Orloff, Stephen Wertheim, and Reid Wilcox, “Strategic Change in U.S. Foreign Policy,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2024.
• Kim Tong-Hyung, Hyung-Jin Kim, and Mari Yamaguchi, “North Korea fires a barrage of ballistic missiles toward the sea ahead of US election,” Associated Press, November 4, 2024.
• “Joint ODNI, FBI, and CISA Statement,” Office of the Director of National Intelligence, Release 29-24, November 4, 2024.
• Josh Rogin, “Americans, your calls and texts can be monitored by Chinese spies,” Washington Post, November 2, 2024.
• Inder Singh Bisht, “Taiwan Moves to Buy 1,000 Attack Drones From US,” The Defense Post, November 1, 2024.

Image: The White House via Wikimedia Commons