Like most presidents, Barack Obama took office with minimal foreign-policy experience—and, notes James Mann, author of The Obamians, it showed. But a philosophy did underlie White House policy: a return to foreign policy realism in the mold of George H. W. Bush and Brent Scowcroft. To some extent, the White House has been faithful to this approach, but tumult in the Middle East has required more “idealism” than expected. James Mann gives us a concise summation of his findings in Zócalo’s 3-Minute Drill.

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Is there nothing we’re willing to do for ourselves anymore-cook our meals, raise our kids, clean our homes? Why are we so desperate to offload everything? Arlie Russell Hochschild, author of The Outsourced Self: Intimate Life in Market Times, thinks we’re losing something important, and she makes her case-personally, not via an assistant-to Zócalo editor T.A. Frank in three minutes or less.

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When President Obama decided to order a troop surge in Afghanistan, he set off a war within the war. Infighting, corruption, and incompetence stymied even the most seasoned bureaucrats and soldiers. What have we learned? What’s going on now? Washington Post reporter Rajiv Chandrasekaran, author of Little America: The War Within the War for Afghanistan, fields a flurry of brisk questions from Editor T.A. Frank in The 3-Minute Drill.

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Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, the United States has done a lot to weaken Al Qaeda. But a boatload of mistakes were also made along the way, and there’s plenty left to worry about. That’s the opinion of Seth G. Jones, author of Hunting in the Shadows: The Pursuit of al Qa’ida since 9/11, an account of the past decade of U.S. efforts to eradicate Al Qaeda and its affiliates. Jones drops by Zócalo to undergo a grueling interrogation by Editor T.A. Frank in The 3-Minute Drill.

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How incompetent and unjust can criminal justice get? Pretty incompetent and unjust, says Raymond Bonner, author of Anatomy of Injustice: A Murder Case Gone Wrong, the story of Edward Lee Elmore, a man who was recently released after three decades wrongly spent on death row in South Carolina. Bonner stopped by Zócalo to undergo The 3-Minute Drill by Editor T.A. Frank.

Buy the Book: Skylight Books, Powell’s, Amazon.

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Did President Obama bungle his response to the 2008 financial crisis? That’s the claim of Thomas Frank, who says that the moment that should have buried Wall Street and Republicans in populist anger instead wound up strengthening Wall Street and Republicans-thanks to populist anger. In conjunction with the release of his book Pity the Billionaire: The Hard-Times Swindle and the Unlikely Comeback of the Right (Metropolitan Books), Thomas Frank dropped by Zócalo to undergo the 3-Minute Drill by Zócalo Editor T.A. Frank. The exchange was beyond frank.

Buy the book: Skylight Books, Powell’s, Amazon.

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