June 18, 2025 • 11 mins
Dr. James Robbins has an impressive resume, he serves at Dean of Academics at the Institute for Politics. He is an expert in terrorism, national security strategy, political theroy, and military history. It was a great ten-minutes.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:05):
If I passed the hour.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It is show fifty three to ninety nine of The
Morning Show with Preston's Cock. Good morning friends, I'm Preston.
He is Jose. It's great to be with you. Were
I to read his entire resume, we'd be here for
ten minutes and we take up all of our time,
so I'm simply going to boil it down. He's an
expert in terrorism, national security strategy, political theory, and military history.
(00:27):
He's dean of Academics for the Institute for World Politics,
and he's our guest doctor James Robbins.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Good morning, sir. How are you welcome?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hey, good morning, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm terrific. Let me put you in a room.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You are sitting with the President of the United States,
Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State. You are discussing the
US role in what's taking place between Iran and Israel.
What are the first words you're sharing.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Well, I think the first words are we need to
counter proliferate, you know something. We're sitting in a situation room,
some kind of Pentagonese like that, but basically getting down
to making sure that Iran has no capacity to build
a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
There is apparently a bit of a divide inside the administration.
You've read the comments of Tulsa Gabbard. What are your
thoughts when you hear her say they can't they're not
producing a nuclear weapon. Yeah, they have the components, but
they're not producing one.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Well, it really gets down to what are the components?
How did they get the components and why do they
have the components? I mean they say, if the intelligence
community assesses that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon,
but they have the components, well, having the components is
just as good. It's it's just as threatening to us
if they're putting the jigsaw puzzle together or not. Why
(01:55):
would they have them? Why do they have these underground
facilities like at four to zero where they're enriching uranium
beyond anything that anyone would ever need except for some
kind of military application. So I think that there may
be some like technical issues inside the intelligence community or
the IAEA where they come to a conclusion and cyc.
(02:17):
Well they're not building a weapon, but they're building the
capacity to build a weapon, so it's just as bad.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Did the actions of Israel surprise you in any way,
shape or form.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Well, it's always surprising when a country just goes for it.
But I think since October seventh, there have been a
lot of surprises. You know, the attack by Hamas, the
Operation grim Beeper, you know that the Israel pursued against Uspoula,
the fall of Syria, I mean, the Assad regime in
(02:52):
Syria that have been there since the nineteen seventies. Who
thought that was going to happen? And there you go.
So there have been a lot of surprises happening, and
this is just the next one. Of course, this is
the biggest one because Iran is the head of the octopus.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I doctor Robbins, I have long talked on this program
about a couple of things that I think are realities.
One is, fundamentally, you can't allow a nation, even though
it is just Hyperbolean talk. The fact is Iran is
mentioned for years it's desire to eliminate the existence of Israel,
(03:29):
that is in and of itself to me grounds for
this type of conduct by Israel and to whatever extent
the US gets involved. The second, though, is the importance
of understanding the extremist view of the Qur'an and in
that islamis that adhere to every single word Muhammad wrote,
believe that lying whenever is necessary is an absolute acceptable
(03:53):
way to negotiate. And isn't that, in fact the reality
we're living with right now?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, yeah, I think that's definitely the reality. When we're
talking about Iran. They have no problem lying to us
and taking advantage of us or doing anything that they
want with us. They have agenda. It's to have a
regional hegemony and then to export their Shia revolution to
other countries. But they've really been on the ropes recently.
(04:21):
All of their proxies are either gone or they're severely
severely frayed, whether it's Hamas or the Huthis or Hbala
or the Asad regime in Syria which has gone. I mean,
the Iranians have suffered huge setbacks over the last eighteen
months or so, and this is the next logical step.
(04:43):
I mean Prime Minister Netanyahu really you really have to
respect the fact that he decided just to go for it,
because one by one he was taking out these challenges
and now this is the final one.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Joining us.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Doctor James Robbins Institute for World Politics, this is his world.
He's an expert in these subjects. He's a prolific writer,
author and right now maybe leading the resume moving forward.
Guest on The Morning Show with Preston Scott, what do.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
You think.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
That's a great honor?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You said to your publicist, who what? Huh? Hey?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
What is the line here? We've got members of Congress saying, look,
the president can't just declare war. We can't be having that.
What is the line? What should the US militarily be
postured to do, and what line should be established unless
we're attacked?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, number one, we've been in conflict with Iran for
a long time. I mean, this is this isn't like
some new thing the going all the way back to
the Hostage crisis, the Carter administration. You know Hesbala blowing
up our marines in Beirut, that was an Iranian operation,
Kobar Towers, the Operation Praying Mantis with Ronald Reagan, which
(06:12):
is a huge military operation against Iran, and then all
the things during the Iraq War where the Iranians were
supplying weapons to the people who were killing us, and
you know, on and on. You can just find many examples.
So this isn't like some war that came out of nowhere.
If we're involved in it, where do you draw the line.
I think that if the United States is engaging in
(06:35):
airstrikes and short term military operations things like that, then
you're not really going to have to get Congress involved
in this kind of thing. The president has the ability
as commander in chief to respond to contingencies like this,
and that's what he's doing. I think if the war
really got involved, or if you're talking about ground troops,
(06:55):
which were definitely not talking about in this case, then
you might want to get Congress involved. But the people
who say the president doesn't have the power to do this,
they should go back and study the constitution better.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Early on, when Israel took its first actions in this
latest I guess I don't know what you'd call a
conflict that's lasted generations. Obviously, it was clear to me
that Israel was in essence taking the high ground by
removing any ability for them to shoot service to air missiles,
(07:27):
knock down radar installations, and so forth. We now hear
claims of complete air supremacy over Iranian airspace. Is that
how you read the situation? And is that in fact
the smartest first move?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Oh? Yeah, that's definitely the kind of thing that the
United States. Does you go in there, You make sure
they don't have air assets going to come after you.
First thing you do is take out the air defenses
and their early warning radar things of that nature so
they can't even see you. Take out their aircraft on
the ground, preferably so that they can't come up and
(08:02):
shoot you down. And then as their air defenses pop up,
you know, the ones that you haven't already eliminated, you
try to get them. We have seen Israel suffering from
the surface to surface missile launches that have been hitting
Tel Aviv and Haifa in other cities. Although Israel's intercepting
a lot of those, but some still get through, and
(08:23):
it's very disturbing to see the damage that's happening in Israel.
I mean, that could be the United States, but I
think Israel's doing all the right things right now, and
they just have to keep degrading and tridding the missile
capability of Iran and then see what happens. I mean,
I think really the endgame is a popular uprising in
(08:44):
Iran that takes down the regime, because until that regime
is out, we're still going to have the same threat.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's interesting because that points to one of the other
big differences here. Israel targeting military targets strategic targets, Iran
just blasting away hitting any civilian target they possibly can.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, exactly, and as it always has been, because Iran's
sort of leading practical move is terrorism. Right, They've always
attacked civilian targets and just try to create mayhem, whether
they're doing it with missiles, whether they're doing it with
car bombs or whatever. The Israelis have very strict rules
of engagement. They're not going to go into some place
(09:29):
and just take out civilians. If the terrorists and bad
guys are hiding in their hospitals and things like we
saw in Gaza, then there may be some what they
call collateral damage of innocent people getting in the crossfire.
But Israel is extremely conscientious about trying not to have
(09:50):
that happen, telling people to evacuate, for example, if they're
going to attack a building or an area, and they
really trying to minimize that, unlike our enemies who want
to maximize that. That's their whole game is to maximize
killing anyone they can.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You mentioned the Iranian people need to rise up and
overthrow the leadership of the country, which obviously is the
iatola the quote supreme leader. What's your hunch on that
versus him slipping on a bar of soap, if you
know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, well, I mean either way of course. The United States.
You know, I don't think that we want to create
a martyr, right The President said, you know, we know
where he's hiding. We're not going to kill him yet.
I thought that was interesting. You really have to take
the President literally if he says something like that, because
it means that maybe we would. But I think it
(10:39):
just from a standpoint of stability and long term viability,
it would be really good if the Iranian people themselves
rose up and took care of the job so that
no one's blaming outsiders anything like that. Just hey, people,
freedom is there for you. Why don't you take it?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Doctor Robins, thanks for the time today. Look forward to
having you back sometime as the news unfolds, and I'm
sure it will.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Thank you very much, Oh my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Thank you, Doctor James Robbins with US Institute for World Politics.
I'm going to take a second here. Listen to this PhD.
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, taught National Defense, taught
at the National Defense University, Marine Corps University. Senior editorial
writer for foreign affairs for the Washington Times. To work
(11:29):
has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review. Special
Assistant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In
two thousand and seven, awarded Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award. And I'm just that's just
a handful of things on the man's resume. Yeah, eighteen
(11:49):
past the hour
If I passed the hour.
Speaker 2 (00:06):
It is show fifty three to ninety nine of The
Morning Show with Preston's Cock. Good morning friends, I'm Preston.
He is Jose. It's great to be with you. Were
I to read his entire resume, we'd be here for
ten minutes and we take up all of our time,
so I'm simply going to boil it down. He's an
expert in terrorism, national security strategy, political theory, and military history.
(00:27):
He's dean of Academics for the Institute for World Politics,
and he's our guest doctor James Robbins.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
Good morning, sir. How are you welcome?
Speaker 3 (00:37):
Hey, good morning, how are you?
Speaker 1 (00:38):
I'm terrific. Let me put you in a room.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
You are sitting with the President of the United States,
Secretary of Defense, Secretary of State. You are discussing the
US role in what's taking place between Iran and Israel.
What are the first words you're sharing.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
Well, I think the first words are we need to
counter proliferate, you know something. We're sitting in a situation room,
some kind of Pentagonese like that, but basically getting down
to making sure that Iran has no capacity to build
a nuclear weapon.
Speaker 2 (01:13):
There is apparently a bit of a divide inside the administration.
You've read the comments of Tulsa Gabbard. What are your
thoughts when you hear her say they can't they're not
producing a nuclear weapon. Yeah, they have the components, but
they're not producing one.
Speaker 3 (01:32):
Well, it really gets down to what are the components?
How did they get the components and why do they
have the components? I mean they say, if the intelligence
community assesses that Iran is not building a nuclear weapon,
but they have the components, well, having the components is
just as good. It's it's just as threatening to us
if they're putting the jigsaw puzzle together or not. Why
(01:55):
would they have them? Why do they have these underground
facilities like at four to zero where they're enriching uranium
beyond anything that anyone would ever need except for some
kind of military application. So I think that there may
be some like technical issues inside the intelligence community or
the IAEA where they come to a conclusion and cyc.
(02:17):
Well they're not building a weapon, but they're building the
capacity to build a weapon, so it's just as bad.
Speaker 2 (02:24):
Did the actions of Israel surprise you in any way,
shape or form.
Speaker 3 (02:30):
Well, it's always surprising when a country just goes for it.
But I think since October seventh, there have been a
lot of surprises. You know, the attack by Hamas, the
Operation grim Beeper, you know that the Israel pursued against Uspoula,
the fall of Syria, I mean, the Assad regime in
(02:52):
Syria that have been there since the nineteen seventies. Who
thought that was going to happen? And there you go.
So there have been a lot of surprises happening, and
this is just the next one. Of course, this is
the biggest one because Iran is the head of the octopus.
Speaker 2 (03:08):
I doctor Robbins, I have long talked on this program
about a couple of things that I think are realities.
One is, fundamentally, you can't allow a nation, even though
it is just Hyperbolean talk. The fact is Iran is
mentioned for years it's desire to eliminate the existence of Israel,
(03:29):
that is in and of itself to me grounds for
this type of conduct by Israel and to whatever extent
the US gets involved. The second, though, is the importance
of understanding the extremist view of the Qur'an and in
that islamis that adhere to every single word Muhammad wrote,
believe that lying whenever is necessary is an absolute acceptable
(03:53):
way to negotiate. And isn't that, in fact the reality
we're living with right now?
Speaker 3 (03:59):
Well, yeah, I think that's definitely the reality. When we're
talking about Iran. They have no problem lying to us
and taking advantage of us or doing anything that they
want with us. They have agenda. It's to have a
regional hegemony and then to export their Shia revolution to
other countries. But they've really been on the ropes recently.
(04:21):
All of their proxies are either gone or they're severely
severely frayed, whether it's Hamas or the Huthis or Hbala
or the Asad regime in Syria which has gone. I mean,
the Iranians have suffered huge setbacks over the last eighteen
months or so, and this is the next logical step.
(04:43):
I mean Prime Minister Netanyahu really you really have to
respect the fact that he decided just to go for it,
because one by one he was taking out these challenges
and now this is the final one.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
Joining us.
Speaker 2 (05:02):
Doctor James Robbins Institute for World Politics, this is his world.
He's an expert in these subjects. He's a prolific writer,
author and right now maybe leading the resume moving forward.
Guest on The Morning Show with Preston Scott, what do.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
You think.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
That's a great honor?
Speaker 1 (05:22):
You said to your publicist, who what? Huh? Hey?
Speaker 2 (05:28):
What is the line here? We've got members of Congress saying, look,
the president can't just declare war. We can't be having that.
What is the line? What should the US militarily be
postured to do, and what line should be established unless
we're attacked?
Speaker 3 (05:48):
Well, number one, we've been in conflict with Iran for
a long time. I mean, this is this isn't like
some new thing the going all the way back to
the Hostage crisis, the Carter administration. You know Hesbala blowing
up our marines in Beirut, that was an Iranian operation,
Kobar Towers, the Operation Praying Mantis with Ronald Reagan, which
(06:12):
is a huge military operation against Iran, and then all
the things during the Iraq War where the Iranians were
supplying weapons to the people who were killing us, and
you know, on and on. You can just find many examples.
So this isn't like some war that came out of nowhere.
If we're involved in it, where do you draw the line.
I think that if the United States is engaging in
(06:35):
airstrikes and short term military operations things like that, then
you're not really going to have to get Congress involved
in this kind of thing. The president has the ability
as commander in chief to respond to contingencies like this,
and that's what he's doing. I think if the war
really got involved, or if you're talking about ground troops,
(06:55):
which were definitely not talking about in this case, then
you might want to get Congress involved. But the people
who say the president doesn't have the power to do this,
they should go back and study the constitution better.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Early on, when Israel took its first actions in this
latest I guess I don't know what you'd call a
conflict that's lasted generations. Obviously, it was clear to me
that Israel was in essence taking the high ground by
removing any ability for them to shoot service to air missiles,
(07:27):
knock down radar installations, and so forth. We now hear
claims of complete air supremacy over Iranian airspace. Is that
how you read the situation? And is that in fact
the smartest first move?
Speaker 3 (07:41):
Oh? Yeah, that's definitely the kind of thing that the
United States. Does you go in there, You make sure
they don't have air assets going to come after you.
First thing you do is take out the air defenses
and their early warning radar things of that nature so
they can't even see you. Take out their aircraft on
the ground, preferably so that they can't come up and
(08:02):
shoot you down. And then as their air defenses pop up,
you know, the ones that you haven't already eliminated, you
try to get them. We have seen Israel suffering from
the surface to surface missile launches that have been hitting
Tel Aviv and Haifa in other cities. Although Israel's intercepting
a lot of those, but some still get through, and
(08:23):
it's very disturbing to see the damage that's happening in Israel.
I mean, that could be the United States, but I
think Israel's doing all the right things right now, and
they just have to keep degrading and tridding the missile
capability of Iran and then see what happens. I mean,
I think really the endgame is a popular uprising in
(08:44):
Iran that takes down the regime, because until that regime
is out, we're still going to have the same threat.
Speaker 2 (08:52):
It's interesting because that points to one of the other
big differences here. Israel targeting military targets strategic targets, Iran
just blasting away hitting any civilian target they possibly can.
Speaker 3 (09:07):
Yeah, exactly, and as it always has been, because Iran's
sort of leading practical move is terrorism. Right, They've always
attacked civilian targets and just try to create mayhem, whether
they're doing it with missiles, whether they're doing it with
car bombs or whatever. The Israelis have very strict rules
of engagement. They're not going to go into some place
(09:29):
and just take out civilians. If the terrorists and bad
guys are hiding in their hospitals and things like we
saw in Gaza, then there may be some what they
call collateral damage of innocent people getting in the crossfire.
But Israel is extremely conscientious about trying not to have
(09:50):
that happen, telling people to evacuate, for example, if they're
going to attack a building or an area, and they
really trying to minimize that, unlike our enemies who want
to maximize that. That's their whole game is to maximize
killing anyone they can.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
You mentioned the Iranian people need to rise up and
overthrow the leadership of the country, which obviously is the
iatola the quote supreme leader. What's your hunch on that
versus him slipping on a bar of soap, if you
know what I mean?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Yeah, well, I mean either way of course. The United States.
You know, I don't think that we want to create
a martyr, right The President said, you know, we know
where he's hiding. We're not going to kill him yet.
I thought that was interesting. You really have to take
the President literally if he says something like that, because
it means that maybe we would. But I think it
(10:39):
just from a standpoint of stability and long term viability,
it would be really good if the Iranian people themselves
rose up and took care of the job so that
no one's blaming outsiders anything like that. Just hey, people,
freedom is there for you. Why don't you take it?
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Doctor Robins, thanks for the time today. Look forward to
having you back sometime as the news unfolds, and I'm
sure it will.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
Thank you very much, Oh my pleasure.
Speaker 2 (11:05):
Thank you, Doctor James Robbins with US Institute for World Politics.
I'm going to take a second here. Listen to this PhD.
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, taught National Defense, taught
at the National Defense University, Marine Corps University. Senior editorial
writer for foreign affairs for the Washington Times. To work
(11:29):
has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, National Review. Special
Assistant to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. In
two thousand and seven, awarded Chairman of the Joint Chiefs
Joint Meritorious Civilian Service Award. And I'm just that's just
a handful of things on the man's resume. Yeah, eighteen
(11:49):
past the hour
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