The “Adverse Possession” Edition
Rational Security
The Lawfare Institute
4.8 • 2K Ratings
🗓️ 10 December 2025
⏱️ 65 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, Scott sat down with Lawfare Managing Editor Tyler McBrien and Contributing Editor Alex Zerden to talk through a few of the week’s big national security news stories, including:
- “Finding the Road to Damascus.” Former dictator Bashar al-Assad fled Syria one year ago this week, bringing a precipitous end to the country’s more than decade-long civil war. In the year since, has the country been able to make progress toward the optimistic future many hoped would follow al-Assad’s ouster? And what obstacles still lie in its path?
- “Civilizational Self-Confidence Scheme.” The Trump administration has undergone the once-per-term statutorily-mandated ritual of releasing its National Security Strategy. It claims an intent to stay the course on many key bipartisan pillars of U.S. foreign policy, but mixes in heavy doses of isolationism, ethnonationalism, and criticism of Europe for losing its “civilizational self-confidence.” How seriously should we take this document? And what does it tell us about the likely trajectory of U.S. foreign policy?
- “A Dimon in the Rough?” JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon has announced a ten-year initiative to invest $1.5 trillion in U.S. companies critical to U.S. national security and economic resilience. Is this an attempt by Dimon to repair his sometimes frosty relationship with the Trump administration by complimenting its “America First” strategy? Or is it an initiative that more genuinely strikes at the intersection of market logic and U.S. national security?
In object lessons, Tyler is exploring the great heritage of American landmarks with “Lost in America: Photographing the Last Days of our Architectural Treasures” an archive of the Historic American Buildings Survey. Scott is embracing the holiday season the classic way—by settling in with delightfully cheesy films like A Merry Little Ex-Mas and Jingle Bell Heist on Netflix. And Alex is broadening the lens with “The World For Sale: Money, Power, and the Traders Who Barter the Earth's Resources,“ by Jack Farchy and Javier Blas, a deep dive into the global trade networks and power brokers who shape the flow of the planet’s resources.
Rational Security will be having its traditional end-of-year episode later this month, which will focus on listener-submitted topics and object lessons! If you have topics you want us to discuss and object lessons you want to share—whether serious or frivolous—be sure to send them to rationalsecurity@lawfaremedia.org by Dec. 17!
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey there, Ratsack listeners. Scott R. Anderson here with a quick public service announcement. |
| 0:05.2 | The month of December is here, and that means that we are in the countdown to our annual holiday episode where we talk about the topics and discuss the object lessons you share with us. |
| 0:14.0 | So if you have any topics you want to hear us dig into or any object lessons you want to share, whether from the serious to the frivolous, please send them along to us at Rational Security at Lawfaremedia.org. |
| 0:24.6 | Just send them by December 17, so they can be included in this year's episode. |
| 0:28.6 | Thanks so much. |
| 0:30.6 | Tyler, your background is so elegant and sophisticated, |
| 0:33.6 | appointed with all sorts of knowledgeable books and tasteful art. |
| 0:37.3 | Oh, really? I thought it was kind of drab in here. I don't know. Just kidding. You have a very nice office. It's very, it's optimized. There's a rug that really ties everything together. The rug is clutch. That is an actual Persian rug. I got off the internet for like 50 bucks a couple of years ago. I was very proud of it. I don't know if it's |
| 0:54.1 | actually Persian. According to the eBay, it's actually Persian. I don't really know. But I feel like it ties the room together, so to speak. You guys jump the gun. I had a big Lebowski tie-in for my comments. Now I can't do it because it seems tired that you already did the first reference in the first two minutes of the conversation. I can only hope that this rug ends better than that rug did, unfortunately. I don't know who I would go to replace that one. But I mean, Tyler, I guess, if you'd be on my rug. Yeah, fair enough. I'm thinking more of a parasite reference that I'm just going to stay here long enough and slowly push you out and just crawl under the table and stay and I won't notice. |
| 1:29.0 | Adverse possession. Yeah, not as great as, not as frequent as it used to be. |
| 1:37.3 | Hello, everyone and welcome back to Rational Security. I am your host, Scott R. Anderson. |
| 1:44.4 | thrilled to be back with you for the podcast where we invite you to join members of the |
| 1:48.3 | Lawfare team as we try to make sense of the week's big national security news stories. |
| 1:52.2 | I am thrilled to be joined by two, said colleagues. First, we have, of course, returning for |
| 1:57.1 | his umpteenth appearance. I don't really know at this point. We have lawfare managing editor Tyler McBrion squatting in my office using my elegantly appointed furnishings and electronic |
| 2:07.7 | devices to record in an optimum comfort while I am banished here to my freezing cold basement |
| 2:12.7 | at home with a sick kid. So Tyler, thank you for coming back on the podcast. I hope you enjoy the next hour more more than I do. Oh, I will. I'm in your office. What could be bad? Looks so comfy. I miss it. Honestly, I do. And thrilled to be joined as well for another repeat appearance here on Rational Security. We have Lawfare contributing editor and general sanctions and economic policy, Maven, Alex, thank you for coming back on the podcast. |
| 2:34.7 | It's been a while. |
| 2:51.3 | We're excited to have you back on. Yeah, thanks so much for the invite. Excited to be back. Well, we have a lot that is in the news this week. A couple of stories. We wanted to bump to the top, especially because we have Alex here to dig into some sanctions and economic policy angles and related stories to dig into. so let's go ahead and get started. |
| 2:51.3 | Our first topic for today is finding related stories to dig into. So let's go ahead and get started. |
| 2:55.3 | Our first topic for today is finding the road to Damascus. |
| 2:59.4 | Former dictator Bashar al-Assad fled Syria one year ago this week, |
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