Why the Afghan war has lasted so long; Rethinking 'militarized policing'

Published: Aug. 24, 2018, 2:26 p.m.

This week on the program: • It’s been a year since President Trump announced his administration’s Afghanistan strategy. We’ll talk to two experts — Graeme Smith of the International Crisis Group (1:39), and Professor Tanisha Fazal of the University of Minnesota (17:53) — about why the Afghan conflict has gone on for as long as it has, and how America has changed its understanding and experience of war and peace as a result. • Then (31:13) we’ll join Jonathan Mummolo of Princeton to take a look at the effect of passing U.S. military gear onto American police departments — 12 months after President Trump reopened the transfer of that equipment in a program that made headlines thanks to the Ferguson protests in August 2014. • Read Tanisha Fazal and Sarah Kreps on "Why Long Wars No Longer Generate a Backlash at Home" via Foreign Affairs at https://t.co/AA6AlgFL0z • Find Kreps's book, "Taxing Wars: The American Way of War Finance and the Decline of Democracy," at https://global.oup.com/academic/product/taxing-wars-9780190865306 • Find Jonathan Mummolo's study, "Militarization fails to enhance police safety or reduce crime but may harm police reputation," via PNAS at http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/08/14/1805161115 • Graeme Smith's latest report can be found at https://www.crisisgroup.org/asia/south-asia/afghanistan/298-building-afghanistans-fleeting-ceasefire • Wanna leave us a message? Call (757) 447-4596 and record your voicemail. You just might make it on the podcast. Thanks for listening!