In this first episode, Institute for the Study of States of Exception (ISSE) founder Ed Bogan and co-founder Matt Calvin introduce the Institute, the concept of states of exception, and why it matters now. Drawing on Ed’s 24-year CIA career and firsthand exposure to governments under stress, they explore how emergency powers can become a fast track to autocracy, whether through leaders who refuse to relinquish crisis authority or those who invoke it under false pretenses. From South Korea’s short-lived martial law declaration to Erdogan’s sweeping post-coup consolidation in Turkey, the episode grounds the concept in cases that illustrate both how guardrails can hold and how quickly they can erode.
But the deeper argument Ed leaves listeners with is subtler: the real danger isn’t just the moment of declaration. It’s how exceptionality gets baked into a system over time, quietly reshaping governance long after the emergency has passed. Hungary, where 12 years of structural change meant a historic election result was only barely enough to reverse course, is the closing case in point. Matt and Ed also walk through ISSE’s three program lines, academic, legal, and global analytics, and the multidisciplinary community of scholars, policy practitioners, and concerned citizens the Institute is building around this issue.
