Departures Podcast with Anand Giridharadas, author of ‘The Persuaders: At the Front Lines of the Fight for Hearts, Minds, and Democracy’

By Editor | Published: November 10, 2022

Every day in the media we are told that the United States is irreparably polarized. That lines have been drawn, political opinions have been weaponized into tribal identities, and that apart from an ever-slimming section of undecideds, we are locked into this dreadful stalemate. That’s why it’s so refreshing to read a more optimistic take […]

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Departures Podcast with Michael Cox, author of ‘Agonies of Empire: American Power from Clinton to Biden ‘

By Editor | Published: October 6, 2022

The sharpening polarization taking place in the United States over the past several election cycles has gradually calcified the nation’s institutions into obstructionist forces which are impeding Washington’s ability to project its influence abroad. Now, many are asking, is the United States really the “indispensable” power it perceives itself to be, or are we witnessing […]

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Departures Podcast with Brendan Simms and Charlie Laderman, authors of ‘Hitler’s American Gamble’

By Editor | Published: February 22, 2022

During one specific week in December in 1941, a series of events and calculations led to Adolf Hitler’s disastrous decision to declare war on the United States, putting the conflict on the eventual path toward the outcome we now regard with familiarity. The sequence of events leading from the bombing of Pearl Harbor by Japan […]

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Departures Podcast with Jon Grinspan, author of ‘The Age of Acrimony: How Americans Fought to Fix Their Democracy, 1865-1915’

By Editor | Published: February 9, 2022

“100 billion people have lived on planet earth since our species evolved, and for all our archives, all our libraries, and all our museums, we have only the tiniest little sliver of any record of who these people were and what their lives were like,” says Jon Grinspan in his conversation with Robert Amsterdam. “So […]

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Departures Podcast with Seth Jones, author of ‘Three Dangerous Men: Russia, China, Iran and the Rise of Irregular Warfare’

By Editor | Published: January 14, 2022

Forget tanks, missiles, and soldiers. The forms of warfare predominantly being used against the United States today are much more often unconventional and irregular, such as large-scale offensive cyber actions, disinformation campaigns, spying, economic subversion, and smaller armed conflicts via proxies.  This is a deeply worrying trend, argues Seth Jones, author of the terrific book […]

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Second Open Letter to Chief Sloly of the Ottawa Police Services Regarding Volgemut Case

By Editor | Published: December 14, 2021

Yesterday, on Monday, December 14, a letter was sent from lawyers Brian Greenspan of Greenspan Humphrey Weinstein LLP and Robert Amsterdam of Amsterdam & Partners to Chief Peter Sloly of the Ottawa Police Services regarding his department’s refusal to fulfill an arrest warrant ordered by the Superior Court of Justice that would have protected their […]

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Lawyers for Parent of Abducted Girl in Volgemut Case Say Ottawa Police ‘Failed’ to Protect Child and Ignored Court Orders in Case Involving Parental Rights of Russian Citizen

By Editor | Published: October 4, 2021

The following press release was distributed to media outlets today. To download a copy of the letter sent by Amsterdam & Partners LLP to the Ottawa police, click here. On September 28, 2021 the law firm of Amsterdam & Partners LLP issued a letter to Chief Peter Sloly of the Ottawa Police Services alleging that […]

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Departures Podcast with Will Grant

By Editor | Published: May 17, 2021

From the first election of Hugo Chavez in Venezuela in 1998 to the death of Fidel Castro in Cuba in 2016, Latin America experienced a vast “pink tide” of left-leaning leaders often described as populist. And while it would be a mistake to consider all these diverse personalities and governments under a single banner, it […]

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Departures Podcast with Zephyr Teachout

By Editor | Published: January 7, 2021

After the siege of the Capitol, we talk about some other pressing threats against American democracy.

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Departures Podcast with Stephen Wertheim

By Editor | Published: December 23, 2020

The United States is a country that spent most of its history avoiding interventions, avoiding entanglement in great power politics, content to be isolated looking after their own affairs. Then suddenly, in just the past 75 years, it has become the world’s preeminent armed power in a position of global leadership. How did such a […]

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