The Josh Hammer Report

Josh Hammer

Newsweek Opinion Editor And Host,
"The Josh Hammer Show"

This week, my column discussed the recent nefarious spy balloon, sent courtesy of the Chinese Communist Party, that traversed the entire North American continent before it was finally shot down off the South Carolina coast. Right now, there are still many more questions than answers about that spy balloon, to say nothing of the multiple other recent aerial incursions from Alaska and the Yukon down to Lake Huron: Would the government have even apprised us of it had local denizens in Montana not noticed it?; Why did we wait to shoot it down until it had collected seemingly all the intelligence it had sought to collect?; Are these other, more recent balloons/UFOs ("UFO" is a technical term for an unidentified flying object, despite its typically more colorful connotations) related to the initial surveillance aircraft?; and so forth.

My column, however, focused more on reassessing U.S.-China relations in the aftermath of the spy balloon. Specifically, I argue that the twin doctrinal pillars that should guide U.S. policy vis-a-vis China, moving forward, are economic nationalism/"hawkishness" (i.e., strategic tariffs, reshoring supply chains, and industrial policy measures) and foreign policy realism/restraint (i.e., soberly recognizing that the unipolar geopolitical moment is over for America, and we are now back in an era of "great power competition").

On this week's podcast, I talked about the mysterious balloons/UFOs and a high-profile internal dispute that has burst out at Project Veritas before being joined by The Dhillon Law Group partner, podcaster, prolific tweeter, my fellow New York Young Republicans Club advisory board member, and general mensch extraordinaire Ron Coleman. Ron and I enjoyed a wide-ranging conversation about his law firm partner Harmeet Dhillon's recent unsuccessful run to supplant Ronna McDaniel at the Republican National Committee, the still-roiling debate in Israel surrounding the Benjamin Netanyahu-led government's proposed judicial reform package, the domestic prospects for national conservatism as a politically winning platform for the Right, and other fun and timely topics. Go ahead and listen on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

In terms of media appearances over the past week, I joined my friend Jesse Kelly for a two-part interview on The First, breaking down President Biden's lackluster State of the Union address and Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders' (R-AR) compelling response, appeared on the Glenn Greenwald's "System Update" show for a timely discussion about the future for national conservatism and national populism within the GOP, visited One America News to break down our balloon/UFO mysteries, joined the "Steak for Breakfast" podcast to discuss current happenings on the Right, and (as usual) co-hosted the Edmund Burke Foundation's most recent episode of the "NatCon Squad" podcast.

This past week, I was delighted to join this Jewish leader coalition letter to AT&T, opposing their decision to drop cable network Newsmax. Of the four speaking appearances in Illinois I had last week, at least one is now online: My constitutional law debate on my "common good originalism" thesis with my two-time former law professor, Will Baude, at my alma mater, the University of Chicago Law School.

In terms of upcoming speaking appearances, I will be debating—a bit more of an open discussion, in all likelihood—famed law professor and attorney (and Newsweek Opinion contributor) Alan Dershowitz in Miami Beach on February 28 on the topic of Israeli judicial reform. (In case you missed it, here was my recent column on the topic.) If you are a South Florida local, you can register for that event here; the event will also be live streamed on the website of the hosting synagogue. As a reminder, I will also be speaking at CPAC in Washington, D.C., on March 3. I will have multiple other speaking events in Texas later in March, which I will plug closer to that time.

Our highlighted right-leaning Newsweek op-eds this week include selections from John Yoo and Robert Delahunty, Attorney General Ken Paxton (R-TX), Barry Latzer, Paul du Quenoy, and Scott Morefield.

Thanks for subscribing! Please share the word about this newsletter throughout your social circles.

Spotlight

PETTY OFFICER 1ST CLASS TYLER THOMPSON/U.S. NAVY VIA GETTY IMAGES

Assessing U.S.-China Relations in the Aftermath of the Spy Balloon

The utterly humiliating saga of a high-altitude Chinese surveillance "balloon" successfully traversing the entire North American continent, only to be shot down off the South Carolina coast after completing its intelligence-gathering voyage, ought to serve as a wake-up call for America's decadent ruling class. Here at Newsweek, Paul du Quenoy sagely compared the affair to the young West German pilot Mathias Rust's successful 1987 landing of his small Cessna just outside Moscow's Red Square, a similarly "irreparable blight" wherein a "sclerotic empire's air defense systems stood powerless at the sight of an airborne foreign intruder."

That comparison is damning, but proper. True, a different and less senile commander-in-chief might have—and should have—responded in swifter and more decisive fashion, but the sheer fact of the matter is that America's geopolitical arch-foe felt emboldened to act as it did. The relevant question now presented to America's ruling class is whether it has the humility to soberly acknowledge the fallen state of U.S.-China relations and to chart a path forward that best secures the national interest of our ailing and war-weary republic.

As Sohrab Ahmari chronicled in his most recent column for The American Conservative, post-Cold War U.S. foreign policy vis-a-vis China has typically fallen into one of two categorical buckets: "integrationism" and "confrontationism." But as Ahmari notes, in "horseshoe theory" of politics fashion, these two schools of thought on U.S.-China relations actually share a great deal in common with one another. The reason for that is simple: The "let China join the World Trade Organization"-style economic integrationists and the "defend Taiwan at all costs"-style foreign policy confrontationists both share an underlying conceit that we still live in a unipolar global moment of American geopolitical, economic, military, and cultural hegemony.

Read The Full Column