“An Imperial Decline Story” episode artwork

EPISODE · Jun 28, 2026 · 11 MIN

“An Imperial Decline Story”

from The Beinart Notebook · host Peter Beinart

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit peterbeinart.substack.comOur guests are Aslı Bâli, professor international law at Yale, and Trita Parsi, executive vice president of the Quincy Institute. These two are near the top of the list of people I’d want to advise the next Democratic president. They care deeply about the United States, but see past the exceptionalism that prevents so many in Washington from understanding American foreign policy’s actual impact on the world.In a perfect illustration of the insanity of contemporary Washington, Trita—whose predictions about this criminal and catastrophic war in Iran have been proven entirely correct—is being threatened with deportation. We talk about why this war happened, how it has changed the Middle East, and whether Washington will ever learn.Topics include:How Trump, and America, got to this point How the far right and far left have intersected on IsraelStopping Israel’s aggression in Lebanon and the region generallyTrump’s repression of his criticsTrita’s appearance on Tucker Carlson

Episode metadata supplied by the publisher feed · Published Jun 28, 2026

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