Author and China expert N.S. Lyons will join the US State Department in a senior policy role “to support the reformulation of America’s international strategy”.

Writing on his popular Substack “The Upheaval”, which has over 50,000 subscribers, the geopolitics analyst — whose real name is Nathan Levine — said in a note that he believes the coming years “are the last remaining opportunity to save the American nation and the Western world from impending disaster and a totalitarian future”. He added: “This is a moment that calls for action and serious participation, not just endless critique and debate.”

The appointment comes in the wake of escalation in the Middle East after Israel hit Iran’s nuclear sites and killed several of its military leaders last week, including Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, and Gen. Hossein Salami, the head of the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard. The countries have traded blows in the days since, and strikes on both Tel Aviv and Tehran have resulted in hundreds of civilian casualties. On Sunday, three US officials told CBS that President Donald Trump rejected an Israeli plan to kill Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Levine’s appointment to the State Department thus comes at a crucial time for the future of US foreign policy.

Back in February, he spoke to UnHerd’s Freddie Sayers about Trump’s re-election and what it meant for American and global politics. “He [Trump] is full of a brashness that simply does not care about any of the niceties of the long twentieth century: the bureaucracy, the safetyism, the politeness, the aversion to conflict, the aversion to political contention on serious issues,” Levine said. “And so I see him as this figure of a new spirit of the world, sort of a reversion to not quite the 19th century but a pre-20th century way of doing business, like Andrew Jackson or Teddy Roosevelt.”

Since returning to office, Trump’s foreign policy has been widely judged as more expansionist than in his first term, with the President repeatedly saying he has plans to annex Canada, Greenland and the Panama Canal.

The President has also upended global trade with his “Liberation Day” tariffs, many of which targeted China as America’s most significant industrial rival. After months of increasing tension, the two countries signed a deal to allow Chinese students to continue studying in the US, while Beijing will supply magnets and rare earth metals to the US. Last month, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that Beijing is “credibly preparing to potentially use military force to alter the balance of power” globally. Levine has written extensively on China and the ways in which America can compete with its rival in an era of great power politics.

Domestically, Trump has sought to disrupt and drastically rearrange the federal government to deliver his agenda. While Tesla owner Elon Musk has since stepped down from his advisory role leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), the administration is still targeting what he sees as excess bureaucracy. In March, he signed an Executive Order demanding the reduction of DC’s bureaucracy. Earlier this month, the Labor Department reported that the federal government had cut 59,000 jobs since January, while last week it was reported that the State Department would lay off up to 1,600 US-based foreign service and civil service staff.

In February, Levine wrote: “Like many, I’ve been blown away by the speed and scope of the blitzkrieg that Trump and his team have unleashed on the permanent managerial state in Washington.” In a 2023 essay, “The China Convergence”, the analyst criticized what he called “progressive managerialism”. In the West, he claimed that this instinct has “softly strangled democracy to death over a century of manipulation, hollowed it out, and now wears its skin”. He added: “Managerialism has today conquered the world so thoroughly that to most of us it may seem like the only possible universe.”

In his recent announcement, Levine also confirmed that he has a book deal with Basic Books and that his Substack would be on pause indefinitely. “At this point I really consider my vocation to be as a writer (and certainly not as a bureaucratic insider),” he wrote. “On the other hand, I’ve honestly grown a bit fatigued by the perpetual churn of online discourse, especially on the political right.” Further explaining his decision, he argued: “We won’t get another chance at meaningful reform before it’s too late.”

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Max Mitchell is UnHerd’s Assistant Editor, Newsroom.

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