Stop, Look, and Listen #53
A round-up of what I have been reading and listening to this past month, on the Global War on Terror; Trump and the international order; the remaking of the right; and football governance.
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This post is part of the newsletter’s ‘Stop, Look, and Listen’ series, a digest of articles and podcasts that I’ve found engaging and insightful over the past month. I also keep an ongoing record of what I’m reading and listening to on the Notes section of this site.
The Global War on Terror
Presented by Helena Merriman, Series 1 of BBC Radio 4’s The History Bureau programme revisited the September 1999 Russian apartment bombings – then officially attributed to Chechen militants, amid allegations of FSB involvement – and their role in consolidating then new Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s hold on power.
Gregk Foley welcomed Spencer Ackerman onto the Blood Work podcast to explore the long legacy of the Global War on Terror in enabling US citizens to be stripped of their rights and renditioned to sites outside of American territory and conventional legal jurisdiction, and the complicity of the media in facilitating this state of affairs.
On parts 1 and 2 of this episode of the This Day podcast, Jody Avirgan, Nicole Hemmer, and Kellie Carter Jackson revisited George W. Bush’s 2002 naming of Iraq, Iran, and North Korea as an ‘Axis of Evil’, the neoconservative basis of this idea, and why the ‘Global War on Terror’ supplanted it as US foreign policy’s dominant framing.
Martin D. Brown wrote for his On This and That, and the Other newsletter about the suspension of morals and vast loss of life that the Global War on Terror comprised, and how its receding from public memory is illustrated by its omission from explanations of the rise of Donald Trump and the pathway to Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Camilo Montoya-Galvez joined Tristan Redmond and Asma Khalid on the BBC World Service’s The Global Story to discuss US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, its establishment as part of post-9/11 security policy, and the drastic expansion of its detention and expulsion programme since Trump’s second inauguration.
Donald Trump and the international order
Costas Douzinas argued in Critical Legal Theory that the US’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, like Israel’s assault on Gaza and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, illustrates the limitations of international law given its lack of binding force, and the ability of powerful states to either disregard or weaponize it.
David Adler and Matt Kirkegaard joined Matthew Sitman and Sam Adler-Bell on the Know Your Enemy podcast to situate the Trump administration’s hemispheric adventurism in its historical context, and consider the competing forces of insular nativism and interventionist neoconservatism that drive its incoherencies.
Writing for his Mainly Macro blog, Simon Wren-Lewis reflected upon Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January speech at Davos, and what it heralded about how liberal democratic ‘middle powers’ might collaborate on a more ad hoc basis in response to a more antagonistic US’s worsening reliability as an ally.
On CBC’s Front Burner programme, Jayme Poisson and guests Jason Markusoff and Patrick Lennox discussed the Albertan separatist movement’s links with the Trump administration, in relation to the latter’s ambitions for hemispheric dominance, and the possibility of disinformation bolstering support in the province for independence.
Vincent Bevins wrote for the North-South Notes newsletter about how the US’s deposal of Maduro fit into a longer history of it instigating coups against unfavoured Latin American governments, but also into the Trump administration’s wider efforts to dismantle the very global international system that has buttressed US hegemony.
The remaking of the right
On the BBC World Service’s The Global Story programme, Jake Kwon joined Tristan Redmond and Asma Khalid to explain the right-wing movement that has mobilised in South Korea behind impeached ex-President Yoon Suk Yeol, directly influenced by the late US right-wing activist Charlie Kirk and his Turning Point organisation.
Disha Karnad Jarni interviewed Quinn Slobodian on the Journal of Historical Ideas’ In Theory podcast about his book, Hayek’s Bastards: The Neoliberal Roots of the Populist Right, and the ways in which neoliberalism’s shift from antihegemonic to hegemonic ideology in the late twentieth century saw it take far more explicitly reactionary forms.
In this article for the New Statesman, John Merrick explored British billionaire James Goldsmith’s trajectory from notorious international asset stripper and antisocialist to staunch opponent of global free trade and mass migration after the end of the Cold War, culminating in his formation of the anti-EU Referendum Party in the mid-1990s.
Chris Dillow wrote for his newsletter about the hollowing out of an increasingly illiberal British centre-right, in a context where liberal capitalism is no longer delivering the economic growth necessary for the Conservatives to reproduce their electoral base, but reviving it means challenging vested interests in their coalition.
On the BBC World Service’s The Documentary programme, Nick Thorpe profiled Péter Magyar and his trajectory from member of Hungary’s governing right-wing Fidesz party to rallying opposition to the authoritarian rule of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán behind his own Tisza Party, ahead of Hungary’s forthcoming national elections.
Football governance
On parts 1, 2, 3, and 4 of this miniseries for the It Was What It Was podcast, Rob Draper and Jonathan Wilson examined the rise of the North American Soccer League from the 1960s, its attraction of high-profile franchise owners and veteran star players, and the failure to build solid foundations that led to its collapse in the 1980s.
Francesco Belcastro and Guy Burton welcomed Rafaelle Nicholson onto the FootPol podcast to reflect on the Football Association’s takeover of English women’s football during the 1990s, the resulting marginalisation of women from administrative roles, and parallels with other sports merged under male-dominated governing bodies.
Following Liam Rosenior’s departure from Racing Club Strasbourg to coach ‘sister club’ Chelsea, James Horncastle, Miguel Delaney, and Rory Smith discussed their parent company BlueCo, on this episode of the Libero podcast, the varying models and motives for multi-club ownership, and the ethical and sporting challenges they raise.
Keith Rathbone interviewed Luiz Guilherme Burlamaqui on the New Books Network podcast about his book The Making of a Global FIFA: Cold War Politics and the Rise of João Havelange to the FIFA Presidency, 1950-1974, and how Havelange’s repeated claims to have had a transformative tenure masked major continuities from his predecessors.
For his Sports Politika newsletter, Karim Zidan situated threats to boycott the forthcoming 2026 World Cup within the longer history of often failed boycotts of sporting megaevents, arguing that such initiatives are likely to prove ineffective or even counterproductive without accompanying economic and diplomatic sanctions.
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