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Laicie Heeley

Host

Things That Go Boom

Heeley is the founder and editor of the foreign policy magazine Inkstick and the CEO of Inkstick Media.

Heeley is the founder and editor of the foreign policy magazine Inkstick and the CEO of Inkstick Media. She is also a Fellow with The Stimson Center and a Partner with the Truman National Security Project. Heeley's work has appeared in well-known newspapers, journals, and periodicals including Foreign Policy and The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Associated Press, and she has appeared as an expert on CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News. Heeley is also the creator of the lifestyle brands Holson House and A Thousand Threads. Her successful dinner series Field + Foundry, a collaboration with the Microsoft search engine Bing, brought together influencers with a combined social media reach of over 1.6 million followers in an effort to build creative community in the policy-driven bubble of Washington, DC.

The World

Russia’s private army

Wagner Group

A clear chain of command that follows rules of war. These are fundamental principles in a modern military. But increasingly, traditional armies are getting competition for another kind of fighting force — mercenaries. 

US and Russian flags

Would China bring a new start to New START?

Nuclear
A boy walks near a Soviet-era apartment building, with a tank in the foreground

Is the US ready for the rising tide of mercenaries?

Military
Chinese and US flags flutter

Was the US sleeping through China’s rise?

Conflict & Justice
A view of a test missile launch with an American flag flying

‘World War C’: How did national security miss the coronavirus?

Military
A man holds Iranian and American currency

Things That Go Boom: Are sanctions on Iran spurring economic resilience?

Nuclear

Sanctions on Iran have squeezed the economy since the 1970s, and since US President Donald Trump pulled out of the nuclear deal, they have been ratcheting up. Some Iranians are ready to cut and run but others are waiting out the economic storm.

Several men in dark suits stand as others sit

Things That Go Boom: Is America’s foreign policy for sale?

Politics

Think tanks with nonprofit status aren’t required to say much of anything when it comes to the source of their funding — whether it be billionaires or foreign governments. That can become a problem when such organizations significantly influence foreign policy — such as the Iran nuclear deal — without disclosing to whom they are financially beholden.

Men and women sit around a negotiating table with flags in the background.

Things That Go Boom: In nuclear negotiations, diplomacy can be a slog

Nuclear

Diplomacy is often awkward, stymied by translators, late nights and unsecured yurt communication (yes, that really happened). But diplomacy can also stop a war, as years of secret and not-so-secret negotiations between the US and Iran proved when the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action was reached in 2015.

A sign reads: "It's 2 minutes to midnight"

‘Things That Go Boom:’ Nothing good happens after ‘nuclear midnight’

Nuclear

It’s been a year since the US pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal ad some experts warn that the threat of a worldwide meltdown is the worst its been since the darkest, most dangerous days of the Cold War.

The Kakadu National Park uranium mining area.

To make and maintain America’s nukes, some communities pay the price

Conflict

From Nevada to the Navajo Nation and on to the islands of the Pacific, certain communities have been asked to shoulder a disproportionate share of the cost to build and maintain nuclear weapons.