The “Out of the Twenty-Twenty-Fourno, Into the Fire” Edition

Rational Security

The Lawfare Institute

Foreignpolicy, Nationalsecurity, News, Government, Politics, Middleeast

4.8 • 2K Ratings

🗓️ 1 January 2025

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For the podcast’s annual end-of-year episode, Scott sat down with co-hosts emeritus Alan Rozenshtein and Quinta Jurecic to talk over listener-submitted topics and object lessons, including:

How will the collapse of the Assad regime impact the region? And can the United States help create a secular, democratic Syria?
How is the pending TikTok ban even enforceable (if it is)?
What national security story from 2024 deserved more attention?
Won’t the Fifth Circuit’s recent Tornado Cash opinion simply lead the Treasury Department to sanction the cryptocurrency Ethereum as a whole?
What are the most underrated threats to U.S. national security in the last half of this decade?
What will be the Trump administration’s first major national security misstep?
How worried should the United States be about the BRIC countries’ recent discussions of forming their own reserve currency?

For object lessons, Trevor recommended insightful indie video games for our three hosts based on their interests: “Bury Me, My Love” for Scott; “We. The Revolution” for Alan; and “Not for Broadcast” for Quinta. Thomas endorsed the podcast and associated media company “Popular Front” on uncovered conflict issues. Keith threw his support behind the podcast “It Did Happen Here” about Portland’s anti-racist skinhead movement. Connor recommended the books “The Queen of Cuba,” by Peter Lapp, and “The President’s Book of Secrets,” by Lawfare alum David Priess, as well as the docuseries “FBI True.” Keenan followed up with another book recommendation, Daniel Immewahr’s “How to Hide an Empire.” And Liz endorsed Gayle Tzemach Lemmon’s “Ashley’s War,” about women who deployed to Afghanistan as cultural support teams for special operations units.

And that’s it for 2024! But don’t worry, Rational Security and the whole Lawfare team will be back with you in the new year to help make sense of what’s to come in national security in 2025—now back at our old release day and time, at midday on Wednesdays (D.C.-time) every week!

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Transcript

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0:00.0	So, Scott, I know that you hate B-roll about the weather in Minnesota, but it's been such a long time since we've gotten together, just the kind of the three of us. And also, it snowed eight inches. It's snowed eight inches today. And so I'm just looking out on this beautiful winter wonderland. I got to bring out, as folks in the Lawfare Slack know, I got to
0:21.7	bring out for my youngest, his new koala onesie is warm onesie, so that's really nice. But yeah,
0:27.9	I'm living my best Minnesota life. I feel bad for you guys in D.C. because it's not warm,
0:33.1	but it's not snowing. It's just kind of gross. Here it's been like 38 and rainy, which is the worst option.
0:39.2	That is the worst option.
0:40.3	Which is what we call DC winter, sadly.
0:43.6	It is such a tease for my poor little son who is now old enough to understand what snow is and get so excited.
0:49.5	And it did like have flurries maybe two weeks ago, three weeks ago, like I think close to Thanksgiving.
0:54.7	It flurried for like a half minute. And he ran to the door so excited and looked like at the
0:59.2	window for a minute and then just like looked increasingly sad as he realized nothing was
1:03.3	accumulating and it's suddenly turned to rain. And I was like, I'm so sorry, buddy.
1:06.6	Has Reese ever gotten to like throw a snowball? I mean, that's like a real problem if you a sled. I pulled out a cookie sheet. And I was like, this is a terrible idea for a three-year-old. I'm not going to do this. Scott, you're the sled.
1:30.7	You just put him on your lap and you hurl yourself down somewhere in Rock Creek Park. And that's,
1:35.1	that's sledding. That was my general plan. But I did actually get him a sled this year. And it's like a big slide that an adult can ride on as well as a kid so I can ride with them for the next couple years. But I worry, I'm just going to be like a horrible tease
1:47.9	and that we're just never going to use it because it needs to know a lot to sled, particularly
1:52.7	for me, because I have a large person. Well, they let you bring the sled onto the airplane
1:57.6	when you travel to like veil. Like you like bring the sled on the airplane.
2:01.3	Like I need to.
2:02.4	I promise.
2:03.0	Because they have those long skinny ski bags.
2:05.3	I need a long flat sled bag.
2:07.3	That's what seems unfair that those don't exist.
	...

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