Geopolitics and Empire is joined by Lee Slusher, who is an international strategic security expert with over 20 years of analytical and operational experience, supporting the U.S. intelligence community and special operations as well as the private sector. Welcome to geopolitics and empire, Lee.

Thank you. Happy to be here.

So you're starting to get popular Lee now on the podcast circuit, but you and I first talked

last year on my TNT radio program, I think, November 20, 2022.

And the link is in the description.

And again, I highly recommend people go back and listen to our first conversation.

And you gave us a bit of your background there. And so, again, I'm going to include your links

and everything and people can listen to your explanation previously. And I sort of want to get,

you know, suffice to say you've got an extensive background

in the military industrial complex. And so I wanted to get your big picture take on the changing

world order. I often examine the status of the Western Empire or Western World Order,

aka Pax Americana, to sort of size up how it's doing its health.

Then I tend to look at the rest of the world, you know, bricks plus the multipolar world.

And then I look at things like wars and military conflict, globalism, elites, and technocracy.

But maybe to start, you know, to get your assessment of the state of things in the U.S. EU NATO sphere.

There's economic problems, you know, the debt ceiling, dollar inflation, hyperinflation.

There's the threat of vulcanization of the U.S. that's being talked about. And I think some

conservatives are even falling for this idea, you know, Christian nationalism,

a national divorce. And for me, I think it's always an elite tactic to balkanize and divide

nations and powers. And we're even getting a little banana republic with the establishment going

after Donald Trump with this senseless lawfare while corrupt

officials like the Bidens seem to have immunity. So maybe to start with your thoughts on the overall

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