Chair of the Political Science Department, University of Notre Dame
Professor and Chair of Department of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame; author of Civilian Control of the Military: The Changing Security Environment
PROFILE
Michael Desch
Guest
FROM Michael Desch
To the Point
General McChrystal Is Relieved of Command General McChrystal is out as commander in Afghanistan , replaced by General David Petraeus, one of America's best-known military leaders. By trashing the President , McChrystal and his team spotlighted ongoing dispute over the War in Afghanistan. In the White House, in Congress and on the battlefield, one side supports a troop surge followed by economic development and government reform. Can Petraeus implement the President's strategy? What about those, including Vice President Biden, who warn against bogging down in an unwinnable war?
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To the Point
Who's to blame for the opioid crisis? Some of the lawyers who took on Big Tobacco are now going after Big Pharma. It’s all about the deadly epidemic of opioid use. Are the drug companies to blame? What about the users? Later, on today’s Talking Point: making sense of Britain’s upset election.
To the Point
What happens when America retreats from the world? Is President Trump taking his "America First" agenda to extremes, withdrawing the country from the international stage on trade and climate change, distancing America from its traditional allies across the Atlantic and even threatening to physically isolate the country through the building of a wall along its southern border? León Krauze guest hosts.
To the Point
Janesville and the American Dream Janesville, Wisconsin is the hometown of Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. But he couldn’t prevent the closing of the General Motors factory after 100 years. On this Memorial Day rebroadcast of To the Point, we hear what’s happened to what once was a model of American middle-class unity.
To the Point
Trump plays scolder-in-chief with NATO allies At the opening of NATO’s dramatic new headquarters in Brussels today, President Trump acknowledged that Article 5 — promising that “an attack on one nation is an attack on all” -- has only been invoked one time: in the aftermath of September 11. But the President failed to provide what 27 other Alliance members have been waiting for: a re-commitment by America’s new leader to Article 5. Instead, they got a scolding.