Rational Security 2.0: The ‘Hockey With Guns’ Edition

This week, Alan, Quinta and Scott were joined by Canadian national security expert, Stephanie Carvin! They talked through some of the week's biggest national security news, both in the U.S. and in our neighbor to the north, including:

• “Assault on the Capital, Eh? Hold My Labatt Blue.” For the past two weeks, our neighbors to the north have suffered through their own insurrectionary moment, as thousands of protesters have descended on Canadian cities to protest vaccination policies, leading the capital city of Ottawa to declare a state of emergency. What does this mean for Canada moving forward? And what lessons might it be able to learn from the U.S.’s January 6th experience (and vice versa)?
• “Just Be Glad Someone Unplugged the Shredder.” The Washington Post released a deep dive this week on the consequences of former President Trump’s habitual tearing up of official records that are supposed to be protected by federal laws, revealing that White House staff spent countless hours piecing some records back together while others are permanently lost. What is the real cost of Trump’s actions here and what can we do to prevent other presidents from doing the same in the future?  
• “The Biggest Beijing Slapback Since Misty Met Dubya.” The Beijing Olympics got off to a controversial start this week, as China selected an athlete from its persecuted Uyghur minority to light the Olympic torch–a choice quickly contextualized by NBC commentators, who correctly noted that the U.S. government has labeled what China is doing to its Uyghur population as a genocide. What does this incident tell us about NBC’s approach to covering this most complicated of Olympics–and the media’s engagement with China more broadly? And will it change China’s calculus in trying to host the games?

For object lessons, Alan recommended Leslie Jones's commentary on mogul skiing (while Scott also urged listeners to check her tasteful critique of occasional Lawfare contributor Prof. Bec Ingber's home office). Quinta urged readers to check out the new separate feed Lawfare is standing up for her other podcast series, Arbiters of Truth. Scott threw down the glove over NYC Mayor Eric Adams's effort to steal his bit by turning a press conference into a vegetarian cooking show, and upped the ante by offering not one but two of his vegetarian chili recipes for listeners to try. And Stephanie recommended Jessica Davis's new book, “Illicit Money: Financing Terrorism in the 21st Century,” which tracks the money behind violent extremism (and will be the subject of a forthcoming Lawfare review).