James Pogue describes his experience in Africa with Chris Mott and Ashley, including his experience getting detained in the Central African Republic, the role of empire and the United States in a deglobalizing world, and what this means for preparing for the future. James Pogue:  I’m a Contributing Editor at Harper’s, and write about national politics for Vanity Fair. I’ve written for The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, and the London Review of Books, among many others. I was a 2022 Alicia Patterson Fellow, and have received support from from the Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting. I live in Los Angeles, where I help run a native plant nursery. My first book is called Chosen Country: A Rebellion in the West. I have appeared on Real Time With Bill Maher, All In With Chris Hayes, NPR’s Today Explained, and many other TV and radio shows or podcasts. Dr. Chris Mott is an international relations scholar focused on historical geopolitics, grand strategy, and the intersection of defensive realism and conceptions of sovereignty in an era of increasing multi-polarity. He holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the University of St Andrews, an MA in International Relations from London Metropolitan University, and a BA in History from Rutgers University. He has published a book, “The Formless Empire: A Short History of Diplomacy and Warfare in Central Asia,” on the rise of indigenous forms of geopolitical strategy on the Eurasian steppe, as well as numerous peer-reviewed and general audience articles on foreign policy and historical topics in a variety of places. Dr. Mott is currently a fellow at Defense Priorities in Washington DC and a former researcher and desk officer at the U.S. Department of State. Chris writes at https://geotrickster.com