Coffee & Conflict

Today on Coffee & Conflict, Joshua Huminski is joined by Anna Arutunyan, author of Rebel Russia: Dissent and Protest from the Tsars to Navalny, to explore Russian history through the lens of rebellion and dissent. Arutunyan traces the recurring dance between rebels and rulers—from the Tsars to the Soviet era to the present—and explains why uprisings so often appear to fail, yet still leave lasting marks on the Russian state. Drawing on centuries of history and her own experience reporting on Russia’s descent into authoritarianism, she examines whether dissent is a crisis-driven phenomenon or a persistent undercurrent, and how individual leaders and entrenched systems together shape Russia’s cycles of repression and reform.

Are Russia’s authoritarian patterns driven more by personalities at the top or by the structures of the state itself? What moral, spiritual, or communal threads connect dissidents across eras—and why do certain opposition figures or movements periodically emerge that seem to cut across Russian society rather than remain siloed? And looking ahead, if Russia’s history is defined by cycles of rebellion and repression, what might come after Putin—and what conditions would shape whatever comes next?

You can learn more about Rebel Russia, and purchase a copy of the book, here: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=rebel-russia-dissent-and-protest-from-the-tsars-to-navalny--9781509552290.

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@joshuachuminski

@scrawnya

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*Note: This episode was recorded on December 8, 2025

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Season 2 Episode 5 - How the United States Would Fight China: The Risks of Pursuing a Rapid Victory with Franz-Stefan Gady

Today on Coffee & Conflict, Joshua Huminski is joined by Franz-Stefan Gady, author of How the United States Would Fight China: The Risks of Pursuing a Rapid Victory, to examine how Washington imagines a future conflict with the People’s Republic of China—and why those assumptions may be dangerously flawed. Gady breaks down the core features of the American way of war, from reliance on information superiority and air dominance to expectations of a short, decisive campaign, and explains why those advantages can no longer be taken for granted. Drawing on U.S. doctrine, force structure, and PLA adaptation over the past three decades, he argues that a conflict over Taiwan is far more likely to resemble a protracted, multi-domain war of attrition.

How has the PLA learned from decades of observing American military overmatch, from Iraq to Ukraine? Does the United States clearly understand PRC redlines—and do Chinese leaders understand ours? And is the U.S. military, its industrial base, and its political system prepared to generate and sustain the mass required for a long war with China?

You can learn more about How the United States Would Fight China, and purchase a copy of the book, here: https://global.oup.com/academic/product/how-the-united-states-would-fight-china-9780197838303.

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@joshuachuminski

@HoansSolo

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*Note: This episode was recorded on December 4, 2025

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Today on Coffee & Conflict, Joshua Huminski is joined by Emma Ashford, author of First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World, to unpack what it means for the United States to operate in an international system it no longer dominates alone. Ashford traces how post–Cold War triumphalism gave way to today’s multipolar reality, explains when the U.S. unipolar moment truly began to fade, and lays out her case for a more pragmatic grand strategy rooted in what she calls “realist internationalism.” The conversation explores how this framework differs from both traditional realism and liberal internationalism, and what it would ask Washington to prioritize—and reconsider—as global power continues to diffuse.

What would realist internationalism look like in practice for U.S. policymakers? Can the United States pursue a narrower, interest-based foreign policy while maintaining an open economic strategy with allies and partners? And as Washington adjusts to a world among equals, how should it engage Europe and rising second-tier powers like India, Turkey, and Germany?

You can learn more about First Among Equals, and purchase a copy of the book, here: https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300279542/first-among-equals/.

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@joshuachuminski

@EmmaMAshford

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*Note: This episode was recorded November 18, 2025

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Starting off the year with a nuclear bang, Joshua Huminski is joined by Ankit Panda, author of The New Nuclear Age: At the Precipice of Armageddon, to unpack why nuclear weapons are once again at the center of global statecraft—and why today’s risks don’t map neatly onto the Cold War playbook. Panda explains what defines this new nuclear age, how a more crowded and technologically complex nuclear landscape is reshaping deterrence, and why the erosion of arms control has left the world with fewer guardrails at exactly the wrong time.

Can Washington, Moscow, and Beijing realistically sit down to discuss arms control in a nuclear “trilemma”? Is the United States being forced to relearn deterrence lessons that atrophied after decades of strategic focus elsewhere? How is Europe grappling with nuclear threats from Russia while navigating uncertainty around long-term U.S. guarantees? And looking ahead, how does this nuclear age end—and what might a fourth nuclear age look like?

You can learn more about The New Nuclear Age, and purchase a copy of the book, here: https://www.politybooks.com/bookdetail?book_slug=the-new-nuclear-age-at-the-precipice-of-armageddon--9781509557462.

Check out today’s experts on Twitter:

@joshuachuminski

@nktpnd

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Season 2 Episode 2 - Homo Criminalis: How Crime Organises the World with Mark Galeotti

Today on Coffee & Conflict, Joshua Huminski is joined by Mark Galeotti, author of Homo Criminalis: How Crime Organises the World, to examine how organised crime shapes, and is shaped by, the modern state. Galeotti unpacks what “organised crime” actually is, why the boundary between the “upper world” and “underworld” is often thinner than we think, and how criminal networks adapt faster than governments to new technologies, new markets, and new enforcement tactics.

At what point does organised crime become so entrenched that the state has no choice but to confront it, or quietly accommodate it? How should law enforcement balance today’s threats with tomorrow’s high-tech criminal landscape? And should organised crime be treated as a core national security issue alongside defense and foreign policy, and if we did, how would it change the way we make policy?

You can learn more about Homo Criminalis: How Crime Organises the World, and purchase a copy of the book, here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/445951/homo-criminalis-by-galeotti-mark/9781529148220.

Check out today’s experts on Twitter:

@joshuachuminski

@MarkGaleotti

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We are also on YouTube, and watch today's episode here: https://youtu.be/JMPZDUk6VLo
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