Fareed Zakaria on U.S. Isolationism and Opposition to Immigration (The Washington Post, December 19, 2025)
Columnist Fareed Zakaria assesses the Trump administration's 2025 National Security Strategy and draws parallels between it and American opposition to immigration in the 1920s and American isolationism in the 1930s in his Washington Post column of December 19, 2025. If you have access to The Washington Post's content, you can read his column here.
We discuss these themes in our "America First" series. We discuss American anti-immigration policies in the 1920s in Episode 102 and isolationism in the 1930s in Episode 105 and Episode 106.
Host, Producer
Mike Mendenhall holds a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service from the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University (1981) and an M.A. in International Affairs from the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) at The Johns Hopkins University (1983). His studies at both institutions focused on history and strategic studies. (They also made him take economics.)
In 2024, Mike retired after a career of over 40 years at the Office of Naval Intelligence. His work there included merchant marine intelligence, naval strategy and doctrine, and wargaming and wargame scenario design. He spent over 30 years of his career on projective intelligence regarding future warfare issues, assessing possible scenarios for armed conflict and trends in future foreign military forces and capabilities. He also created presentations and classes to help his colleagues develop and improve their own projective abilities.
Mike enjoys history — particularly military history and natural history — and is interested in government, civics, and historical wargaming. He has been a Wikipedia content contributor since 2008. He grew up in Honolulu, where he graduated from Punahou School (1977). He has spent his adult life in the Washington, D.C., area, where he roots for — and often suffers with — the Washington Nationals, the Washington Commanders, and Georgetown Hoyas men's basketball.
Reflections on a year of making the Podcast
