When you publish a politics-focused newsletter six times a week, news often causes the best laid plans to go up in smoke. In my case, that often means sliding back quality Q&As that have more staying power than coverage of breaking developments.
Such was the case with an interview we recently conducted with old friend of the newsletter Daniel Drezner, who in addition to being a distinguished professor of international politics at Tufts University is also an insightful commentator on international relations and what President Trump is doing to poison them.
So today, as a bonus for paid subscribers, I am publishing a transcript of that conversation, which delves into Trump’s self-destructive foreign policy and the efforts Canada and Europe are making to distance themselves from an America they rightfully regard as dangerously erratic.
“There was the whole Greenland mess, including the Danes having to mine runways and the French sending special forces to defend Greenland against America,” Drezner told us. “For all of his bluster, that was the moment when they really realized there was no real constraint on what Trump might do. And lastly, the war in Iran caused them to doubt US policy competence.”
Q&As of this sort are the only articles I ever paywall — all of our in-depth explanatory journalism is completely free for everyone. But it takes financial resources to make that coverage happen. And so as we gear up for a two-month sprint to November in a media ecosystem where trusted independent coverage is more vital than ever, I’m asking you to considering becoming a paid subscriber if you aren’t one already.
Supporting our work financially makes it possible for me to offer almost all of our work free of charge, and signing up is the best way to show how much you value Public Notice.
Without further ado, here’s our interview with Drezner.
