Eric and Eliot talk about what is perhaps the most complex and dangerous moment in national security since the end of World War II. They discuss the explosion of vile anti-semitism globally and particularly on U.S. university campuses and the failures of higher education that this reveals. They discuss the Israeli operations in Gaza, the likely course of the war there and the prospects for escalation. They note the linkages between the war in Gaza and the ongoing war in Ukraine and make a sober and sobering assessment of the successes and failures of the Ukrainian counter-offensive, the lingering questions about U.S. supply of weapons to the Ukrainians, the need for the U.S. to be the arsenal of democracy, the investments that will take and the worrisome developments in Congress as the people's representatives deliberate on the supplemental aid package proposed by the Biden Administration. https://www.wsj.com/articles/prepare-for-an-iranian-escalation-gaza-israel-23cdc9af https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/10/decolonization-narrative-dangerous-and-false/675799/ https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/robert-gates-america-china-russia-dysfunctional-superpower https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/11/strategy-not-tactics-israel-hamas-war/675863/ https://www.wsj.com/articles/anti-semitism-poisons-america-israel-jews-domestic-politics-violence-6a83136b https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2023/10/20/remarks-by-president-biden-on-the-unites-states-response-to-hamass-terrorist-attacks-against-israel-and-russias-ongoing-brutal-war-against-ukraine/ Shield of the Republic is a Bulwark podcast co-sponsored by the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia.