Venezuela Oil Deal, A Depleted Military, and the CIA Warns Moscow

About this episode

This week’s World Review features Nahal Toosi, Alex Ward, and Shashank Joshi who join Ivo Daalder to unpack the Venezuela oil deal, the military’s growing readiness problems, and John Ratcliffe’s unusual trip to Moscow. The conversation moves from resource politics and democratic risk in Latin America to the long tail of overextended deployments in the Middle East, then to the strategic signaling around Russia, NATO, and Ukraine. The through line is simple: America is still powerful, but its leverage is getting harder to sustain.