In this special bonus episode, the Net Assessment crew – Chris, Melanie, and Zack - looks back on the highs (and lows) of 2025, and makes a few predictions for 2026. Thanks all around to our listeners, the Stimson Center, and University FM for their fantastic production.

Show Links:

Hadeel al-Salchi, "Search for Body of Last Hostage Held by Hamas in Gaza is Delayed Due to Bad Weather," NPR, December 16, 2025.
"Armitage's Story," Last Days in Vietnam, PBS.
Justin Bronk, "America's Drone Delusion," Foreign Affairs, December 15, 2025.
Christopher Clary, "Four Days in May: The India-Pakistan Crisis of 2025," Stimson Center May 28, 2025.
Zack Cooper, "Trump's Strategic Choice: Prioritization or Retrenchment," The American Enterprise, March 5, 2025.
The Daily, "Were the Covid Lockdowns Worth It?", March 20, 2025.
Aude Darnal and Christopher Preble, "Conventional Wisdom: The War on Terror Is Over," in "Testing Assumptions About US Foreign Policy in 2025," Stimson Center, February 14, 2025.
Jeffrey Friedman, "The World Is More Uncertain Than You Think: Assessing and Combating Overconfidence Among 2,000 National Security Officials," Texas National Security Review (Vol 8, Iss 4, Fall 2025, 34-48), https://doi.org/10.1353/tns.00011.
Jonathan Guyer, "Donald Trump's Cowboy Diplomacy," The New York Times, December 15, 2025.
"In Pursuit of Peace: The Life and Legacy of Barry Blechman," Stimson Center, September 29, 2025.
Jennifer Lind and Daryl G. Press, "Strategies of Prioritization: American Foreign Policy After Primacy," Foreign Affairs, July/August 2025.
Aaron Maclean, "A Warning to the Young: Just Say No to AI," Engelsberg Ideas, July 9, 2025.
Michael Nienaber, "Germany Powers Ahead With Record Push for Military Buildup," Bloomberg, December 17, 2025.
Persuasion, "Frances Lee and Stephen Macedo on Why Institutions Failed During Covid," May 17, 2025.
Christopher Preble, X, 1:55 am, October 18,2025.
"Prediction Is Hard, Especially about Confidence Levels," Net Assessment, October 2, 2025.
Joanna Stern, "We Let AI Run Our Office Vending Machine. It Lost Hundreds of Dollars," Wall Street Journal, December 18, 2025.
"Sweden Plans Largest Military Buildup Since the Cold War Amid Russia Threat and Uncertain US-EU Ties," AP, March 26, 2025.
"What's the Plan for AI?", Net Assessment, August 7, 2025.
Nancy A. Youssef, "So This Is What 'America First' Looks Like," The Atlantic, December 11, 2025.

Farewell 2025, Hello 2026

Net Assessment