Every other week, Zack Cooper (AEI), Melanie Marlowe (CSIS), and Christopher Preble (Stimson), discuss some of the most challenging topics related to war, international relations, and strategy. The unique format focuses on a different article or report, with the three co-hosts calling out the high and low points and suggesting areas worthy of additional consideration. Now in its seventh year, the show has covered a very wide range of topics, from Transatlantic relations to the national security implications of a new space race, and from a possible U.S.-China war over Taiwan, to the wisdom or folly of industrial policy. Every episode also features an “airing of grievances” in the national security space, and attas (i.e. shout outs) worthy of acclaim.
The Net Assessment podcast launched in 2018 in the War on the Rocks network and transferred to the Stimson Center in 2025.