Stephen Kotkin & Orville Schell: What Drives Putin and Xi (Part Two) | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-07-13 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Stephen Kotkin and Orville Schell was originally published on July 13, 2023.Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin loom over geopolitics in a way that few leaders have in decades. Not even Mao and Stalin drove global events the way Xi and Putin do today. Who they are, how they view the world, and what they want are some of the most important and pressing questions in foreign policy and international affairs. Stephen Kotkin and Orville Schell are two of the best scholars to explore these issues. Kotkin is the author of seminal scholarship on Russia, the Soviet Union, and global history, including an acclaimed three-volume biography of Stalin. He is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society. He is the author of 15 books, ten of them about China. He is also a former professor and dean at the University of California, Berkeley, Graduate School of Journalism. In part two of our conversation, which we taped on June 16, we discussed how the leaders of China and Russia see the West and how that worldview is reshaping geopolitics.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Prigozhin’s Rebellion, Putin’s Fate, and Russia’s Future”: A Conversation With Stephen Kotkinforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/prigozhin-rebellion-putin-fate-russia-future-stephen-kotkin“Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics” by Stephen Kotkinforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/Og7QZKS1HyA“Life of the Party” by Orville Schellforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/E02DHSwP_x0“China’s Cover-Up” by Orville Schellforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/P5wVPtwKkLw
Richard Fontaine: The Fault Lines in U.S. Foreign Policy | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-08-15 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Richard Fontaine was originally published on August 10, 2023.There’s a near consensus today that U.S. foreign policy has entered a new era. But how to define and navigate this new era is much less clear. Richard Fontaine, the CEO of the Center for a New American Security, has held senior positions across the U.S. government—in the Senate, at the State Department and National Security Council, and as an adviser to John McCain, the Republican senator and presidential candidate. There are few people who can offer as informed and comprehensive a view of U.S. foreign policy, especially at a moment when the United States is rethinking its own strategic objectives and sometimes struggling to find new ways of pursuing them.We discuss the objectives behind the United States’ China policy, democratic backsliding in India, and a potential Republican foreign policy platform. Sources for the episode:“Election Interference Demands a Collective Defense” by Richard Fontaineforeignaffairs.com/united-states/election-interference-demands-collective-defense“The Myth of Neutrality” by Richard Fontaine foreignaffairs.com/china/myth-of-neutrality-choose-between-america-china“Washington’s Missing China Strategy” by Richard Fontaineforeignaffairs.com/articles/china/2022-01-14/washingtons-missing-china-strategy“The Case Against Foreign Policy Solutionism” by Richard Fontaineforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-02-08/case-against-foreign-policy-solutionism
NATO’s New Momentum | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-07-25 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Julianne Smith was originally published on June 9, 2022.In the fall of 2021, NATO was trying to find its way. The Biden administration was trying to reestablish U.S. commitment to the transatlantic alliance after President Donald Trump had left it on shaky ground. The chaotic withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan didn’t help. U.S. allies felt left in the dark, their concerns barely listened to. At the same time, Russian President Vladimir Putin was busy amassing troops on Ukraine’s border, causing neighboring countries—and NATO members—to begin to panic.It was against this backdrop that Ambassador Julianne Smith started her new job as the top U.S. diplomat to NATO in November 2021. She worked quickly to rebuild morale and to engage with her European counterparts to plan for a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. She brought years of experience in Washington to the position: during the Obama administration, she served as the acting national security adviser and the deputy national security adviser to Vice President Joe Biden. Before her post at the White House, she served for three years as the principal director for European and NATO policy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.We discuss how the U.S. government worked to build unity among its European allies in the face of Russian aggression, what it’s been like to be in NATO headquarters in Brussels during this pivotal moment in transatlantic history, and how the war in Ukraine is giving NATO a renewed sense of purpose.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“The Old World and the Middle Kingdom” by Julianne Smith and Torrey Tausigforeignaffairs.com/articles/china/2019-08-12/old-world-and-middle-kingdom“NATO in the Age of Trump” by Julianne Smith and Jim Townsendforeignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2018-07-09/nato-age-trumpNATO's “Strategic Concept 2010”https://www.nato.int/cps/en/natohq/topics_82705.htmRead More by Julianne Smithforeignaffairs.com/authors/julianne-smith
The World’s First Energy Crisis | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-07-25 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Jason Bordoff and Meghan O'Sullivan was originally published on June 23, 2022.The global energy market is in a state of upheaval. The war in Ukraine and the resulting sanctions against Russian oil and gas have forced the West, especially Europe, to quickly find new energy sources to keep the lights on and the cars running this summer. In the United States, rising gas prices are pushing President Joe Biden to make a controversial trip to Saudi Arabia to encourage the oil-rich state to increase production. This scramble for quick-fix energy solutions comes as the world is trying to kick its addiction to fossil fuels and reduce the effects of climate change. How will these short-term needs affect the urgent but longer-term transition to clean energy? And could today’s energy market turbulence be a harbinger of challenges to come as the global energy system is remade? Jason Bordoff is the co-founding dean of the Columbia Climate School and the founding director of the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. During the Obama administration, he served as senior director for energy and climate change on the National Security Council. Meghan O’Sullivan is a professor of international affairs at the Harvard Kennedy School and the author of Windfall: How the New Energy Abundance Upends Global Politics and Strengthens America’s Power. During the George W. Bush administration, she was deputy national security adviser for Iraq and Afghanistan. Together, they bring years of experience—both inside and outside of government—to the debates around energy, climate, economics, and geopolitics. We discuss how the war in Ukraine continues to affect the global energy market, Biden’s upcoming trip to Saudi Arabia, how governments can meet their energy security needs without decelerating the green transition, and why changes in the global energy system will continue to disrupt geopolitics.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“The New Energy Order” by Jason Bordoff and Meghan O’Sullivanforeignaffairs.com/articles/energy/2022-06-07/markets-new-energy-order“Green Upheaval” by Jason Bordoff and Meghan O’Sullivanforeignaffairs.com/articles/world/2021-11-30/geopolitics-energy-green-upheaval
How Does the War in Ukraine End? | A Discussion with Fiona Hill, Samuel Charap & Andriy Zagorodnyuk Foreign Affairs 2023-07-19 | Almost since the moment Russia launched its war in Ukraine in February 2022, the world has wondered: How does this end? For the first few weeks, it appeared that Russia might succeed with its initial war aims and take Kyiv and install a government friendly to Moscow. Such a scenario is now off the table, thanks to Russian President Vladimir Putin’s faulty assumptions, the courage of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and the Ukrainian people, and the Russian military’s unimpressive performance on the battlefield. But as Ukraine continues its counteroffensive, it remains unclear how the fighting will stop and when each country’s leader will be willing to negotiate. Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and authors Samuel Charap, Fiona Hill, and Andriy Zagorodnyuk mark the launch of the July/August issue with a discussion of possible endgames in Ukraine. This conversation originally aired on July 17, 2023. Additional Resources:"An Unwinnable War" by Samuel Charapforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/unwinnable-war-washington-endgame"The Kremlin's Grand Delusions" by Fiona Hill and Angela Stentforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/kremlins-grand-delusions"To Protect Europe, Let Ukraine Join NATO—Right Now" by Andriy Zagorodnyukforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/protect-europe-let-ukraine-join-nato-right-nowTo listen to and participate in Foreign Affairs events live, subscribe to Foreign Affairs All Access:foreignaffairs.com/subscribe
Stephen Kotkin & Orville Schell: What Drives Putin and Xi (Part One) | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-06-30 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Stephen Kotkin and Orville Schell was originally published on June 30, 2023.Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin loom over geopolitics in a way that few leaders have in decades. Not even Mao and Stalin drove global events the way Xi and Putin do today. Who they are, how they view the world, and what they want are some of the most important and pressing questions in foreign policy and international affairs. Stephen Kotkin and Orville Schell are two of the best scholars to explore these issues. Kotkin is the author of seminal scholarship on Russia, the Soviet Union, and global history, including an acclaimed three-volume biography of Stalin. He is a senior fellow at Stanford University’s Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the Kleinheinz Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. Schell is the Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations at the Asia Society. He is the author of 15 books, ten of them about China. He is also a former professor and dean at the University of California, Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. In part one of our conversation, we discuss the early lives of Putin and Xi and how history has shaped their worldviews.Part two of this interview can be found here:youtu.be/RrQoNQ1Y6fUSOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Prigozhin’s Rebellion, Putin’s Fate, and Russia’s Future”: A Conversation With Stephen Kotkinforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/prigozhin-rebellion-putin-fate-russia-future-stephen-kotkin“Russia’s Perpetual Geopolitics” by Stephen Kotkinforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/Og7QZKS1HyA“Life of the Party” by Orville Schellforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/E02DHSwP_x0“China’s Cover-Up” by Orville Schellforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/P5wVPtwKkLw
The Sources of Russian Misconduct: A Diplomat Defects From the Kremlin | Foreign Affairs Magazine Foreign Affairs 2023-06-26 | Each Sunday this summer, we’re sharing an essay from the archives that provides a rare first-person account of history as it unfolded. This week, we’ve selected a 2022 essay by Boris Bondarev, who became the first Russian diplomat to publicly resign over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.Writing just months after his resignation, Bondarev recounts waking up on February 24, 2022, seeing the news reports that the Russian air force was bombing Ukraine, and telling his wife: “That is the beginning of the end.” For him, “the invasion of Ukraine made it impossible to deny just how brutal and repressive Russia had become.”But Bondarev had been grappling with the Kremlin’s mounting repression, corruption, and belligerence for 20 years, ever since he first joined the foreign ministry in 2002. He describes his initial disbelief—and then acceptance—upon hearing that Russia was responsible for the near-fatal poisoning of the former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in 2018: “Many Russians still deny that Moscow was responsible. I know it can be hard to process that your country is run by criminals who will kill for revenge.” Even when Putin seemed to be preparing to invade Ukraine, Bondarev still didn’t believe that Russia’s leader would launch a full-fledged war. Bondarev’s time in the Russian government had taught him that Moscow did not have the military capability to overrun Ukraine: “Putin, I figured, must have known this, too—despite all the yes men who shielded him from the truth.” But Putin’s announcement of his “special military operation” in Ukraine made Bondarev’s decision to leave “ethically straightforward.” A few weeks later, he handed in his resignation. “At last, I was no longer complicit in a system that believed it had a divine right to subjugate its neighbor.This audio version of the article is made available here as a courtesy to our YouTube audience."The Sources of Russian Misconduct" by Boris Bondarevforeignaffairs.com/russian-federation/sources-russia-misconduct-boris-bondarevTo receive Summer Reads in your inbox, please Subscribe hereforeignaffairs.com/subscribe
Margaret MacMillan: What Can History Tell Us About Ukraine’s Future? | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-06-21 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Margaret MacMillan was originally published on June 15, 2023.Ukraine’s counteroffensive is shaping up to be the biggest military operation in Europe since World War II. As Kyiv works to push back Russian troops, there is a lot of focus on how modern technology including drones and satellite Internet terminals is being deployed. But these new advanced systems aside, the battlefield scenes from Ukraine’s frontlines look like they could be from the western front in 1916. For the historian Margaret MacMillan, the resonance of World War I goes well beyond the images coming out of Ukraine. As she writes in a new essay for Foreign Affairs, the experience of that earlier great war in Europe “should remind us of the dreadful costs of a prolonged and bitter armed conflict.”We discuss how leaders decide to stop fighting, the usefulness of historical analogies, and how the end of one war can lay the groundwork for the next. SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“How Wars Don’t End” by Margaret MacMillanforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/tJmZK7yEdUY“Leadership at War” by Margaret MacMillanforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/SCQpUYfrcJU“Which Past Is Prologue?” by Margaret MacMillanforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-08-11/history-which-past-prologue“Warnings From Versailles” by Margaret MacMillanforeignaffairs.com/articles/europe/2019-01-08/warnings-versailles
Why Is Rwanda’s Leader Sowing Chaos in Congo? The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-06-02 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Michela Wrong was originally published on June 1, 2022.After the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, Paul Kagame was widely seen as a hero—a rebel leader who came to the rescue of his people and helped stop the killing. Over the last 30 years, the Rwandan president has cultivated this vision of himself, and the West has been eager to believe it. But for Michela Wrong, a journalist who has covered Africa for decades, cracks in this story became too big to ignore. In her most recent book, Do Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad, she investigates the 2014 political murder of a former Rwandan spy chief who fled the country after a falling out with Kagame. Her reporting uncovered the true nature of Kagame’s regime, painting a picture of a dictator who will stop at nothing to silence his critics. Now, in a piece for Foreign Affairs, Wrong reports on Kagame’s meddling in eastern Congo and how his support for the M23 rebel group is risking a broader regional conflict.We discuss her reporting on Kagame, how Rwanda is working to destabilize central Africa today, and why the West is doing so little to stop it.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Kagame’s Revenge” by Michela Wrongforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/W4EYPqFxTzUDo Not Disturb: The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad by Michela Wronghachettebookgroup.com/titles/michela-wrong/do-not-disturb/9781610398435/?lens=publicaffairs
How Does China Want the War in Ukraine to End? | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-05-18 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Bonny Lin and Alexander Gabuev was originally published on May 18, 2023.This week, a top Chinese envoy is traveling across Europe, making stops in Ukraine and Russia. Beijing says that the purpose of the trip is to discuss a “political settlement” to the war. But this diplomatic push raises bigger questions not just about China’s attempt to position itself as a peacemaker but also about the growing closeness of Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.Bonny Lin is a fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. She previously served in the Pentagon, including as country director for China. Alexander Gabuev is the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, based in Berlin, where he moved after leaving Moscow at the start of the war. We discuss the relationship between Putin and Xi, how China has responded to the war in Ukraine, and whether China might provide Russia with lethal aid.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“What’s Really Going on Between Russia and China” by Alexander Gabuevforeignaffairs.com/united-states/whats-really-going-between-russia-and-china“China’s New Vassal” by Alexander Gabuevforeignaffairs.com/china/chinas-new-vassal“Can China Thread the Needle on Ukraine?” by Bonny Linforeignaffairs.com/china/can-china-thread-needle-ukraine“China’s Ukraine Crisis” by Jude Blanchette and Bonny Linforeignaffairs.com/articles/china/2022-02-21/chinas-ukraine-crisis“Beyond Ukraine’s Offensive” by Michael Kofman and Robert Leeforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/russia-war-beyond-ukraines-offensive
The West Versus the Rest | The Nonaligned World Issue Launch Event Foreign Affairs 2023-05-04 | Russia’s war in Ukraine has drawn Western allies closer together, but it has not unified the world’s democracies in the way U.S. President Joe Biden might have hoped for when the war began last February. Instead, the last year has highlighted just how differently much of the rest of the world sees not only the war but also the broader global landscape. In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, policymakers and scholars from Africa, Latin America, and South and Southeast Asia explore the dangers, as well as the new opportunities, that the war and the broader return of great-power conflict present for their countries and regions.Foreign Affairs invites you to watch Executive Editor Justin Vogt and authors Tim Murithi, Nirupama Rao, and Matias Spektor as they mark the launch of the May/June issue, The Nonaligned World. This conversation originally aired on May 4, 2023.Additional Resources:"Order of Oppression" by Tim Murithiforeignaffairs.com/africa/global-south-un-order-oppression"The Upside of Rivalry" by Nirupama Raoforeignaffairs.com/india/modi-new-delhi-upside-rivalry"In Defense of the Fence Sitters" by Matias Spektorforeignaffairs.com/world/global-south-defense-fence-sitters
General Mark Milley: How to Avoid a Great-Power War | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-05-03 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, The Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with General Mark Milley was originally published on May 2, 2023.As the Biden administration continues to provide massive amounts of military and economic support to Ukraine, it also has its eyes on China. What will it take to deter Beijing from attempting to seize Taiwan someday? What is the best strategy to avoid a great-power conflict? How can the United States maintain its technological edge on the battlefield? These are the questions that occupy the Pentagon’s leadership, including U.S. Army General Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Before becoming chairman, the president’s top military adviser, he served as chief of staff of the U.S. Army. He has deployed all over the world, including multiple tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. We discuss the battlefield dynamics in Ukraine, how concern over escalation has shaped Western support for Kyiv, and how the United States can avoid a great-power war in the future. SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE:“What’s Really Going on Between Russia and China” by Alexander Gabuevforeignaffairs.com/united-states/whats-really-going-between-russia-and-china“How China Could Save Putin’s War in Ukraine” by Liana Fix and Michael Kimmageforeignaffairs.com/china/how-china-could-save-putins-war-ukraine“The Myth of Multipolarity” by Stephen G. Brooks and William C. Wohlforthforeignaffairs.com/united-states/china-multipolarity-myth“The West Needs a New Strategy in Ukraine” by Richard Haass and Charles Kupchanforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/russia-richard-haass-west-battlefield-negotiations“Don’t Panic About Taiwan” by Jessica Chen Weissforeignaffairs.com/china/taiwan-chinese-invasion-dont-panic
Stephen Kotkin: What Putin Got Wrong About Ukraine, Russia, and the West | Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-04-27 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Stephen Kotkin was originally published on May 26, 2022.Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the world has contended with the stakes of the conflict, and what the war means for Russia’s relationship with the West—and beyond. Should Russia still be considered a great power? What in Russia’s past explains the mistakes it’s making today? Will unity in the West outlast the war? What is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ultimate goal in Ukraine, and is it changing? Stephen Kotkin is the author of seminal scholarship on Russia, the Soviet Union, and global history, including an acclaimed three-volume biography of Joseph Stalin. He is a professor at Princeton University and a fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. Kotkin brings formidable historical depth and a sharp sense of the current geopolitical landscape to these questions about Russia, Putin’s leadership, and Ukraine’s future.We discuss why Russia’s capabilities too often fall short of its ambitions, why Putin underestimated the West (and why the West tends to underestimate itself), what China is learning from Russia’s experience, and what could happen next in Ukraine.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“The Cold War Never Ended” by Stephen Kotkinforeignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2022-04-06/cold-war-never-ended-russia-ukraine-war“Russia's Perpetual Geopolitics” by Stephen Kotkinforeignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2016-04-18/russias-perpetual-geopolitics“The Fantasy of the Free World” by Shivshankar Menonforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-04-04/fantasy-free-worldRead More by Stephen Kotkinforeignaffairs.com/authors/stephen-kotkin
Immigration Before Automation | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-04-25 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Lant Pritchett was originally published on April 20, 2023.There seems to be an unstoppable march toward the automation of work, including the checkout at the supermarket, the seemingly limitless possibilities of ChatGPT, and so much else. What is driving this push toward automation? For one, labor scarcity in developed countries.But Lant Pritchett, a development economist, argues in a new piece for Foreign Affairs that instead of choosing machines over people and funneling resources into job-killing technologies, countries should work to let people move to where they are needed. Pritchett is the research director of Labor Mobility Partnerships, the RISE research director at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford, and a former World Bank economist.We discuss why automation is a policy choice rather than an inevitable force and how it is contributing to poverty levels across the globe.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“People Over Robots” by Lant Pritchettforeignaffairs.com/united-states/global-economy-immigration-before-automation-people-over-robots
Richard Haass: Why Is Today’s World So Dangerous? | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-04-20 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Richard Haass was originally published on October 20, 2022.Over the past 100 years, there have been many declarations in the pages of Foreign Affairs that the world is in a historic transition period. These days, that claim feels especially plausible. The United States’ unipolar moment appears to be ending—but it’s unclear what will replace it. Will China continue to rise? Will the war in Ukraine undo Russia? Will the United States move past the political divisions that are tearing it apart? As Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, sees it, this is shaping up to be a very dangerous decade. Haass has been a close observer of the forces affecting the world for some time. In addition to serving as the head of CFR for 20 years, Haass has had a long career as a U.S. diplomat, representing the United States and leading negotiations everywhere from Northern Ireland to Afghanistan. From January 2001 to June 2003, Haass was director of policy planning for the Department of State, where he was a principal adviser to Secretary of State Colin Powell. He has also served on the National Security Council and in the Defense Department. We discuss how traditional geopolitical tensions are once again front and center at the same time that transnational threats, such as climate change and pandemics, demand international cooperation.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“The Dangerous Decade” by Richard Haassforeignaffairs.com/united-states/dangerous-decade-foreign-policy-world-crisis-richard-haass“Green Upheaval” by Jason Bordoff and Meghan L. O’Sullivanforeignaffairs.com/articles/world/2021-11-30/geopolitics-energy-green-upheaval“Competition Without Catastrophe” by Kurt M. Campbell and Jake Sullivanforeignaffairs.com/articles/china/competition-with-china-without-catastrophe“The Growing Danger of U.S. Ambiguity on Taiwan” by Richard Haass and David Sacksforeignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-12-13/growing-danger-us-ambiguity-taiwan“Sanctioning Madness” by Richard Haassforeignaffairs.com/united-states/sanctioning-madness“The Use and Misuse of Economic Statecraft” by Jacob J. Lew and Richard Nephewforeignaffairs.com/articles/world/2018-10-15/use-and-misuse-economic-statecraftThe Anarchical Society by Hedley BullA World Restored by Henry A. Kissinger Thinking in Time by Richard E. Neustadt and Ernest R. May
Will Iran’s Regime Survive? | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-20 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Karim Sadjadpour was originally published on November 17, 2022.Protests have rocked Iran for nine weeks, despite a violent crackdown by the country’s security services. The demonstrations erupted in mid-September after Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman, was detained by the morality police in Tehran for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly. She was reportedly beaten, fell into a coma, and died days later. The public responded to her death with grief and outrage, and over the last several weeks the protests have evolved into a much broader movement against the country’s leaders. As Iran’s regime grapples with these internal threats to its power, it is sending weapons to Russia to use in Ukraine and continuing to wield its influence around the Middle East.Earlier this year, Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, argued in Foreign Affairs that Iran’s foreign exploits were coming at great cost at home. “Ultimately,” he wrote, “the Islamic Republic’s grand strategy will be defeated not by the United States or Israel but by the people of Iran, who have paid the highest price for it.”We discuss whether Iran’s regime will survive this wave of protests, whether reform is possible, and the nature of Iran’s relationship with Russia and China.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Iran’s Hollow Victory” by Karim Sadjadpourforeignaffairs.com/articles/iran/2022-02-16/irans-hollow-victory
Is U.S. Foreign Policy Trying to Do Too Much? | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-20 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Emma Ashford was originally published on October 6, 2022. As the global balance of power shifts, and in the wake of crises such as the United States’ messy withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is an important time to consider the way U.S. foreign policy is made. What are the priorities shaping Washington’s agenda? Can the United States truly restore its leadership on the global stage? And how should the West respond as Russia escalates the war in Ukraine?Emma Ashford is a keen observer of the foreign policy debate in Washington. A senior fellow at the Stimson Center, she consistently offers some of the most trenchant and thoughtful criticism of U.S. strategy and the forces shaping it. She has warned about the dangers of groupthink in Washington—and has made the case for accepting the limits of what U.S. power can achieve.We discuss American foreign policy failures, the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Ukraine, and what great-power competition will look like in the years to come.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Strategies of Restraint” by Emma Ashfordforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-08-24/strategies-restraint“In Praise of Lesser Evils” by Emma Ashfordforeignaffairs.com/reviews/praise-lesser-evils-realism-foreign-policy-emma-ashford“How the War in Ukraine Could Get Much Worse” by Emma Ashfordforeignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-03-08/how-war-ukraine-could-get-much-worse“Build a Better Blob” by Emma Ashfordforeignaffairs.com/united-states/build-better-blob“Ukraine Holds the Future” by Timothy Snyderforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/ukraine-war-democracy-nihilism-timothy-snyder“The New Spheres of Influence” by Graham Allisonforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-02-10/new-spheres-influence
Timothy Snyder: How Putin’s Lies Are Driving the War in Ukraine | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-04-18 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Timothy Snyder was originally published on January 12, 2023.Russia’s mythmaking—about its place in the world and the role Ukraine plays in its history—has made the world a more dangerous place. Russian President Vladimir Putin is the chief storyteller—and his version of events has even warped American thinking about Ukraine. Why didn’t the West react more forcefully in 2014, when Russia first violently took Ukrainian territory? Why is Ukraine’s post-Soviet history so different from Russia’s? And what can Ukrainians teach Americans about democracy? Timothy Snyder is an expert on Ukrainian history and began warning about the dangers Russia poses long before Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine last February. He is the Richard C. Levin Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University and the author of several books, including Bloodlands, On Tyranny, and The Road to Unfreedom. In September, Snyder traveled to Ukraine and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.We discuss what’s at stake in Ukraine, what a Ukrainian victory might look like, and why using the word “stalemate” to describe the war is misguided.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Ukraine Holds the Future” by Timothy Snyderforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/ukraine-war-democracy-nihilism-timothy-snyderRead More by Timothy Snyderforeignaffairs.com/authors/timothy-snyder
Putin and the People | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2023-04-14 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Maria Lipman was originally published on April 6, 2023.Even for an autocrat like Russian President Vladimir Putin, waging war depends on the acceptance—if not the support—of his people. Despite the disastrous start to his invasion of Ukraine, and with Moscow facing battlefield losses and mounting casualties, Russian approval of the war remains remarkably high.Maria Lipman, a Russian journalist and political scientist who fled her country when the war began, explains why Russian support for the war remains so strong—and what Putin is doing to keep it that way. He “has used the war to clamp down on Russian society, to pull elites even closer to him, and to shore up his domestic position,” Lipman writes in a January essay with Michael Kimmage. We discuss the strength of Putin’s regime, how the war in Ukraine has shaped Putin’s relationship with the Russian people, and what outcomes of the war the Russian public would possibly accept.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Wartime Putinism” by Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipmanforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/ODLhUAsAKuI“What Mobilization Means for Russia” by Michael Kimmage and Maria Lipmanforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/Hwc_lx-UwCU
The Decision to Defect | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-14 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Boris Bondarev was originally published on November 3, 2022.Boris Bondarev worked as a Russian diplomat for 20 years. On the morning of February 24, when the Russian military started bombing Ukraine, he decided to step down from his post at Russia's permanent mission at the UN in Geneva. After getting his family to safety, he publicly resigned in May, making it clear he was leaving his job in protest of the war. In the latest issue of Foreign Affairs, he writes about his reasons for publicly resigning—and what he learned after years of watching President Vladimir Putin’s regime up close. “The invasion of Ukraine made it impossible to deny just how brutal and repressive Russia had become,” he writes. In this episode, Foreign Affairs Deputy Editor Kate Brannen talks to Bondarev about the Russian military’s vulnerabilities, how his family reacted to his decision to leave, and what happens to Russia after Putin.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“The Sources of Russian Misconduct” by Boris Bondarevforeignaffairs.com/russian-federation/sources-russia-misconduct-boris-bondarev
Russia Is Weaker—but Is It Less Threatening? | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-11 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Michael Kofman was originally published on December 1, 2022.Russia has suffered major setbacks on the battlefield in Ukraine, its economy is battered by Western sanctions, and its diplomatic clout has suffered due to President Vladimir Putin’s illegal invasion. It is fair to say that Russia is militarily, economically, and geopolitically weaker than it was a year ago—and policymakers in Washington and Europe may be tempted to downgrade the Russian threat as a result. But dismissing Russia would be a mistake, argue Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Michael Kofman in the November/December issue of Foreign Affairs. “Russian power and influence may be diminished, but that does not mean Russia will become dramatically less threatening,” they write. “Instead, some aspects of the threat are likely to worsen.” In this episode, Kendall-Taylor and Kofman speak with Deputy Editor Kate Brannen as part of Foreign Affairs’ event series. We discuss the state of Russian power, Ukraine’s recent battlefield wins, and how this war might end. SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Russia’s Dangerous Decline” by Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Michael Kofmanforeignaffairs.com/ukraine/russia-dangerous-decline
How Technology Is Disrupting the Intelligence World | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-06 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Amy Zegart was originally published on February 9, 2023.Last week, a Chinese surveillance balloon floating over the United States set off a political firestorm in Washington. It also offered a glimpse into the secret world of intelligence gathering, where countries are racing to harness new technologies that will help them gain a competitive edge. But these same new technologies are making spycraft, especially the collection of human intelligence, far more challenging. To adapt to these changes, Amy Zegart, a Stanford professor and the author of the book "Spies, Lies, and Algorithms," believes the U.S. government should overhaul the way the intelligence community is organized. In a new essay for Foreign Affairs, she argues that a new intelligence agency dedicated to open-source intelligence is needed if the United States is going to keep up. If not, she writes, “a culture of secrecy will continue to strangle the adoption of cutting-edge technical tools from the commercial sector.” We discuss how human intelligence collection is becoming more dangerous, what the war in Ukraine has revealed about the intelligence world, and the risks and opportunities of open-source intelligence.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Open Secrets” by Amy Zegart”foreignaffairs.com/world/open-secrets-ukraine-intelligence-revolution-amy-zegart“Spies Like Us” by Amy Zegartforeignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2021-06-22/spies-us“Intelligence Isn’t Just for Governments Anymore” by Amy Zegart foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-11-02/intelligence-isnt-just-government-anymore“Spies, Lies, and Algorithms” by Amy Zegart and Michael Morellforeignaffairs.com/united-states/spies-lies-and-algorithms
What Comes After Globalization? | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-06 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Rana Foroohar was originally published on December 29, 2022.In recent years, many of the key assumptions and ideas that guided economic policy for decades have fallen apart. Globalization pushed jobs overseas—and when those jobs were not replaced, the dislocation people felt gave rise to new political movements in the United States and beyond. Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit, and it laid bare how vulnerable global supply chains had become. While it is clear that the old system of neoliberal economic thinking is no longer working, it is far from certain what new ideas will replace the old paradigms.Rana Foroohar is a business columnist and an associate editor at the Financial Times. She has covered trade and economic policy for years, and in an essay for Foreign Affairs—and a new book, titled Homecoming—she steps back to explain what went wrong and how the fallout is shaping global politics today.We discuss the failure of neoliberal policies, the importance of manufacturing, and the recent crypto collapse.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“After Neoliberalism” by Rana Forooharforeignaffairs.com/united-states/after-neoliberalism-all-economics-is-local-rana-foroohar“How the System Was Rigged” by Branko Milanovicforeignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2022-06-21/how-the-system-was-rigged“Fighting Climate Change Through Trade” by Joseph E. Stiglitz, Todd N. Tucker, and Isabel Estevezforeignaffairs.com/united-states/fighting-climate-change-through-trade“Can Trade Work for Workers?” by Gordon H. Hansonforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-04-20/can-trade-work-workers“Globalization’s Wrong Turn” by Dani Rodrikforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2019-06-11/globalizations-wrong-turn“The End of Globalization?” by Adam S. Posenforeignaffairs.com/articles/world/2022-03-17/end-globalization“The New China Shock” by Margaret M. Pearson, Meg Rithmire, and Kellee S. Tsaiforeignaffairs.com/china/new-china-shock
A World Between Orders | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-06 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Shivshankar Menon was originally published on January 26, 2023.To hear Western leaders tell it, the outcome of Russia’s war in Ukraine will determine whether the international rules-based order survives. If Russian President Vladimir Putin wins in Ukraine, the laws and norms that are supposed to protect sovereignty will be exposed as useless. But what if that order is already broken, and there is no going back? The international system’s response to recent transnational challenges—whether it’s climate change, conflict, the pandemic, or the global debt crisis—has been deeply inadequate, especially for the “global South.” Much of the world can see that the stakes are high in Ukraine, especially for European security—but does not share the view that the outcome will fundamentally change how the world is governed.In recent essays for Foreign Affairs, Shivshankar Menon, who served as national security adviser to Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh from 2010 to 2014, explores the failures of the current world order and examines what could replace it. He has also served as India’s foreign secretary and as the country’s ambassador to Israel, Sri Lanka, China, and Pakistan. He is the author of India and Asian Geopolitics: The Past, Present.We discuss what’s at stake in Ukraine, India’s place in this changing world, and what order could emerge from today’s great-power competition.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Nobody Wants the Current World Order” by Shivshankar Menonforeignaffairs.com/world/nobody-wants-current-world-order“The Fantasy of the Free World” by Shivshankar Menonforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-04-04/fantasy-free-world“How India and China Can Keep the Peace” by Shivshankar Menonforeignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-12-08/how-india-and-china-can-keep-peace
How Washington Overestimates Chinese Weakness | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-06 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Christopher Johnson was originally published on March 9, 2023.American politics and foreign policy have become consumed with the challenge from China, and the face of that challenge is Xi Jinping. But many depictions of Xi are stark black and white, portraying Xi as either an all-powerful mastermind carrying out a long-term plot for Chinese domination—or as a leader guilty of self-defeating overreach that has sent China into decline.For Christopher Johnson, who worked for two decades as a China analyst at the CIA, the truth is in the messy middle. Today, Johnson is president and CEO of China Strategies Group and a senior fellow at the Asia Society Policy Institute’s Center for China Analysis. He argues that a better U.S.-China policy requires a more nuanced understanding of Xi and his power.We discuss what the spy balloon incident revealed about the U.S.-Chinese relationship, how Xi has fared since suddenly lifting China’s strict COVID-19 lockdown measures in the fall, and why Washington seems gripped by “Taiwan invasion hysteria.”SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Xi the Survivor” by Christopher Johnson foreignaffairs.com/china/xi-survivor“Why China Will Play It Safe” by Christopher Johnson foreignaffairs.com/china/why-china-will-play-it-safe“Competition Without Catastrophe” by Kurt M. Campbell and Jake Sullivanforeignaffairs.com/articles/china/competition-with-china-without-catastrophe“Short of War” by Kevin Ruddforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-02-05/kevin-rudd-usa-chinese-confrontation-short-of-war
Why Is Putin Escalating the War in Ukraine? | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-04 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Fiona Hill was originally published on September 22, 2022.Russian President Vladimir Putin is taking a number of steps to up the ante in Ukraine. This week, Kremlin-backed leaders in Russian-occupied areas in eastern and southern Ukraine announced plans to hold referendums on whether to join Russia. These sham votes would pave the way for Putin to quickly annex the territory, just as he did in Crimea in 2014—meaning that any attack on these lands by Ukrainian forces could be used as a pretext for Putin to escalate actions against Ukraine and the West. In a televised speech on September 21, Putin indicated that’s exactly where he’s headed, announcing a partial mobilization of Russian troops and reminding the world about the country’s nuclear arsenal. Why is Putin making these moves now? Is Russia’s leader running out of options? And where does his vision of a new Russian empire end?Fiona Hill, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, has been studying Putin for a long time. During the Trump administration, she served as senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council. And from 2006 to 2009, she served as national intelligence officer for Russia and Eurasia at the National Intelligence Council.We discuss Putin’s escalation, what to make of his nuclear threats, and what Washington’s options are during this risky and volatile period.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“The World Putin Wants” by Fiona Hill and Angela Stentforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/8wJ27Ecf4Ek“The Kremlin’s Strange Victory” by Fiona Hillforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/IQKAiRy9CoIRead More by Fiona Hill: foreignaffairs.com/authors/fiona-hill
Is the United States Getting China Policy Dangerously Wrong? | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-04 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Jessica Chen Weiss was originally published on September 15, 2022.In Washington, there is a growing fatalism that a confrontation with China is unavoidable—and perhaps even necessary. What does success look like in a world where the United States is reflexively countering China’s every move? Is catastrophic conflict the only acceptable destination?Jessica Chen Weiss, a professor of China and Asia-Pacific studies at Cornell University, believes today’s debate over how best to deal with China is far too narrow. She recently completed a yearlong post working on the Policy Planning Staff at the State Department as a Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs Fellow, a program for tenured international relations scholars. She observed that in policy circles in Washington, debate is often stifled as no one wants to appear “soft” on China. As she writes in the most recent issue of Foreign Affairs, the result is that “the instinct to counter every Chinese initiative, project, and provocation remains predominant, crowding out efforts to revitalize an inclusive international system that would protect U.S. interests and values.”We discuss how U.S.-Chinese relations have become especially fraught, the potential consequences of zero-sum competition, and what the costs are to American democracy. SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“The China Trap” by Jessica Chen Weissforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/ob4wvqC8Q9E“The Outsiders” by Stacie E. Goddardforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/jhiUaOnZmk4
Is China Changing How It Sees the World? | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-04-04 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Kevin Rudd was originally published on August 18, 2022.With tensions running high over the Taiwan Strait, and with Chinese President Xi Jinping poised to secure an unprecedented third term in office at the next Chinese Communist Party Congress later this fall, understanding how China sees itself and its role on the global stage has never been more important to managing Washington’s relationship with Beijing—and to avoiding a catastrophic military escalation. What is Xi’s vision for China, and what role does ideology play in his ambitions for the country? How has Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shaped Beijing’s thinking on Taiwan? And what does Washington get wrong about China’s intentions to remake the world order?Kevin Rudd, the former prime minister of Australia, is unique among China watchers: he speaks fluent Mandarin and has personally interacted with Chinese leaders at the highest level. And for years, he’s been closely tracking the internal politics of the CCP and relations between the United States and China. In his latest book, The Avoidable War, Rudd argues that conflict between the two superpowers does not have to be inevitable. We discuss Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taipei earlier this month, Xi’s shaping of Chinese ideology, and how he sees the world changing around him.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Rivals Within Reason?” by Kevin Ruddforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/nCu4v96RDCc“Short of War” by Kevin Ruddforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/HP-FHLbUliI“The Coming Post-COVID Anarchy” by Kevin Ruddforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/hxmlJ2wFaEw“How Xi Jinping Views the World” by Kevin Ruddforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/Kpa9COfkSSA
Linda Thomas-Greenfield: Is Diplomacy the Most Undervalued Tool of American Power? Foreign Affairs 2023-04-04 | This episode with Linda Thomas-Greenfield was originally published on August 4, 2022.The world is facing a series of crises—energy and food shortages, climate change, war in Ukraine—as well as growing anxiety about potential conflict between the United States and China. American diplomacy is central to managing all of these problems. And yet the State Department is chronically underresourced and often sidelined in policy debates, elbowed out by the Defense Department, a behemoth by comparison. Why are American diplomats undervalued—and what is the cost to policymaking? What would it take to strengthen the State Department? And how is U.S. leadership on the world stage affected by problems at home, from threats to democracy and mass shootings to rollbacks in women’s rights and the ongoing struggle for racial justice? U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield wrestles with these questions every day. Of any senior U.S. official, she spends the most time working with Russian and Chinese counterparts day to day at the UN. She understands what a powerful tool American diplomacy can be—and what it needs to be successful.We discuss what it’s like to represent the United States at a time of domestic turmoil, how the UN has performed with regard to Ukraine, the prospects for progress in Africa, and why diplomacy is the key to a better relationship with China.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“The Transformation of Diplomacy” by William J. Burns and Linda Thomas-Greenfieldforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/yY9bJkqT5o4
The Iraq War and the Limits of American Power | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-03-27 | The 20th anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq has prompted a wave of reflection on the war: how and why it began, where it went wrong, and how it continues to haunt the Middle East and burden American leadership.In a recent essay in Foreign Affairs, “What the Neocons Got Wrong,” Max Boot does some of this painful reflection. In 2003, Boot was a prominent neoconservative voice making the case for war. Today, Boot is the Jeane J. Kirkpatrick Senior Fellow for National Security Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and the author of several books, including The Road Not Taken: Edward Lansdale and the American Tragedy in Vietnam and The Corrosion of Conservatism: Why I Left the Right. In a conversation with Foreign Affairs Executive Editor Justin Vogt, he looks back with regret at the flawed assumptions that shaped his thinking—and considers the troubling lessons for American foreign policy today.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“What the Neocons Got Wrong” by Max Bootforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/Nyn-P8nHaWg“Iraq and the Pathologies of Primacy” by Stephen Wertheimforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/QIxzx-N7L_MForeign Affairs Interview Podcastforeignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interviewRead More by Max Boot foreignaffairs.com/authors/max-boot
The United Kingdom’s Existential Crisis | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast Foreign Affairs 2023-03-07 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Fintan O’Toole was originally published on February 23, 2023.There may be no better example of how domestic dysfunction can hobble global power than the United Kingdom in recent years. Constant political and economic turmoil has reinforced the sense that this once great power is in terminal decline. Brexit, the United Kingdom’s decision to leave the EU in 2016, put the United Kingdom as a whole at odds with Scotland and Northern Ireland, where large majorities voted to stay in Europe. Although Brexit is clearly to blame for many of the United Kingdom’s recent problems, the forces undermining the country’s stability started taking shape long ago.In a new piece for Foreign Affairs, Irish writer Fintan O’Toole argues that English nationalism, which “was previously buried under British and imperial identities,” is one of the driving forces pulling the United Kingdom apart. Today, the country is “unsure about not just its place in the international order but also whether it can continue to be regarded as a single place.”We discuss how Brexit continues to haunt British politics, the future of the Scottish independence movement, and how national identity is formed and expressed.SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE“Disunited Kingdom” by Fintan O’Tooleforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/rw30xggijxgWe Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland by Fintan O’Tooleamazon.com/We-Dont-Know-Ourselves-Personal/dp/1631496530
Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine: One Year Later | Foreign Affairs Foreign Affairs 2023-02-25 | When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022, he thought his military would quickly take Kyiv and bring down the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That the war has lasted this long is evidence of how wrong Putin’s initial assumptions were and how well the Ukrainian military has performed on the battlefield. Although Ukraine has heroically defended itself, the conflict has taken an enormous toll. Ukrainian towns have been destroyed, thousands of civilians have died, and the trauma of war crimes haunts survivors. The consequences of Putin’s decision to invade have stretched far beyond Ukraine’s borders, too. The war has disrupted global food and energy markets. It has strengthened some alliances while straining others. A year later, the world is still debating what is at stake in Ukraine and what it will take to bring this war to an end.Foreign Affairs Editor Dan Kurtz-Phelan and authors, Dara Massicot, Liana Fix and Michael Kimmage mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the upcoming launch of the March/April issue.Additional Resources"The Ukraine Scenarios" by Liana Fix and Michael Kimmageforeignaffairs.com/issue-packages/2022-04-20/ukraine-scenarios"The Russian Military’s People Problem" by Dara Massicotforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/5ujJndzmxBkMarch/April 2023 Issue: Innovation Powerforeignaffairs.com/issues/2023/102/2Foreign Affairs Websiteforeignaffairs.com
Is Washington Ignoring the North Korean Nuclear Threat? | The Foreign Affairs Interview Foreign Affairs 2022-12-22 | Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Sue Mi Terry was originally published on December 15, 2022.The question of what to do about North Korea and its nuclear weapons program has fallen off Washington’s radar. But while the West is preoccupied with the war in Ukraine, competition with China, instability in Iran, and a long list of other foreign policy challenges, Kim Jong Un continues to develop his country’s nuclear capabilities, with a possible seventh nuclear test in the works. What should the Biden administration be doing to prevent this crisis from spinning out of control? Sue Mi Terry, a former senior CIA analyst and an official on the National Security Council under Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama, says it is high time for the administration to get more engaged and better articulate its policy approach—especially as support for a domestic nuclear program intensifies in South Korea. We discuss North Korea’s recent weapons-testing spree, whether denuclearization is still a worthy U.S. foreign policy goal, and the stability of Kim’s regime.Sources for the Episode:“North Korea Raises the Nuclear Stakes” by Sue Mi Terryforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/m3rcFfYvwyc“North Korea’s Nuclear Opportunism” by Sue Mi Terryforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/p8fjqY-kpIU“North Korea’s Nuclear Family” by Sue Mi Terryforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/Q1zp9f_7fWI“Can North Korea Cope With the Coronavirus? ” by Sue Mi Terryforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/rAC1_aBBl8wIf you have feedback, email us at podcast@foreignaffairs.com.“The Foreign Affairs Interview” is produced by Kate Brannen, Julia Fleming-Dresser, Markus Zakaria, and Molly McAnany; original music by Robin Hilton. Special thanks to Grace Finlayson, Nora Revenaugh, Caitlin Joseph, Asher Ross, and Gabrielle Sierra.
What Has the War in Ukraine Revealed About Russian Power? Foreign Affairs 2022-11-17 | Vladimir Putin's war in Ukraine has exposed weaknesses in the Russian state, from rot in the army to the Kremlin's authoritarian echo chamber. The war has also hastened Russia's decline. The country has suffered enormous losses on the battlefield, and it has been cut off from important energy markets and access to critical technology. Does this mean Russia should be ruled out, or at least downgraded, as a threat? Deputy Editor Kate Brannen and authors Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Michael Kofman observe the launch of the Foreign Affairs November/December 2022 issue with a discussion of Russian power and how it could threaten U.S. interests in the years to come.Read more:November/December 2022 issueforeignaffairs.com/issues/2022/101/6"Russia’s Dangerous Decline" By Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Michael Kofmanforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/YJXfEhrVF28Foreign Affairs Websiteforeignaffairs.com
The History That Made the World Today | A Foreign Affairs Centennial Event Foreign Affairs 2022-07-27 | When Foreign Affairs published its first issue in 1922, the world was still reeling from the aftershocks of World War I. In 2022, the world is once again consumed by crises, including Russia’s war in Ukraine, a global pandemic, and American democracy under attack.How did the events of the last century shape the geopolitical landscape today? And what are the forces that will drive the next? Please join Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and leading scholars John Lewis Gaddis and Margaret MacMillan for a conversation offering historical perspective on this pivotal moment in world politics.This discussion is part of our centennial event series, marking the 100th anniversary of Foreign Affairs.Additional Resources:“A Country of Their Own” by Francis Fukuyamaforeignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-04-01/francis-fukuyama-liberalism-country“The New Cold War” by Hal Brands and John Lewis Gaddisforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-10-19/new-cold-war“Which Past Is Prologue?” by Margaret MacMillanforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-08-11/history-which-past-prologueStay Up-to-Date on Foreign Affairs news and events:Twitter: twitter.com/ForeignAffairsApp: apps.apple.com/us/app/foreign-affairs/id575171785Podcast: foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview
Democracy, Autocracy, and the Pandemic: Foreign Affairs July/August 2020 Issue Launch Foreign Affairs 2022-07-14 | How will the pandemic change global politics and international order? Will the crisis mark a turning point for great-power rivalry, political institutions, or American leadership? Watch “Democracy, Autocracy, and the Pandemic,” a virtual panel discussion on the July/August 2020 issue of Foreign Affairs with Executive Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and contributors Danielle Allen and Francis Fukuyama.
What Happens When We Have the Vaccine? | Foreign Affairs Sept/Oct 2020 Issue Launch Foreign Affairs 2022-07-14 | What happens when a COVID-19 vaccine becomes available? How does it get to people? What are the global considerations of distribution? What would it take to create an enforceable vaccine trade and investment agreement—and prevent nationalism from undermining the ultimate goal of stopping the spread of the virus?The closer the world gets to the day when the first proven vaccines emerge, the less time there is to set up an equitable, enforceable system for allocating them.Watch Foreign Affairs Executive Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan moderate a virtual panel discussion with Thomas J. Bollyky, Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Chair of the Board of the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization, and Michael T. Osterholm, Director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy on these questions and more.
The Changing World Order - Foreign Affairs July/August 2022 Issue Launch Foreign Affairs 2022-07-07 | Russia’s war in Ukraine may be far from over, but already it appears to have set in motion a reordering of global powers—or accelerated a shift that was already underway. For U.S. President Joe Biden, this is the latest fight in the showdown between the world’s democracies and autocracies; for others, the development of newly strengthened alliances and severed relationships suggests a more complicated divide. As the war proceeds, how will it shape the international system? And how should the United States navigate this new chapter of geopolitics?Please join Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and authors Ivo Daalder, Tanisha Fazal, and Shivshankar Menon as they mark the launch of the July/August issue with a discussion of the changing world order.Additional Resources:"The Return of Conquest?" by Tanisha M. Fazalforeignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-04-06/ukraine-russia-war-return-conquest"Last Best Hope" by Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsayforeignaffairs.com/articles/world/2022-06-21/last-best-hope-better-world-order-west"The Fantasy of the Free World" by Shivshankar Menonforeignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2022-04-04/fantasy-free-worldStay Up-to-Date on Foreign Affairs news and events:Twitter: twitter.com/ForeignAffairsApp: apps.apple.com/us/app/foreign-affairs/id575171785Podcast: foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview
A Conversation With Antony Blinken Foreign Affairs 2022-06-01 | U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken joined Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan for a conversation about the evolution of American foreign policy and the challenges facing the Biden administration today in regard to Russia, China, the war in Ukraine, and more.This discussion is the first in our centennial event series celebrating the 100th anniversary of Foreign Affairs.Mentioned in this discussion:“The False Crisis Over the Atlantic” by Antony J. Blinken (2001)foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2001-05-01/false-crisis-over-atlantic“The Sources of Soviet Conduct” by George F. Kennan (1947)foreignaffairs.com/articles/russian-federation/1947-07-01/sources-soviet-conduct“Worlds of Color” by W.E.B. Du Bois (1925)foreignaffairs.com/articles/africa/1925-04-01/worlds-color“Who Will Control the Internet?” by Kenneth Neil Cukier (2005)foreignaffairs.com/articles/2005-10-01/who-will-control-internet
War in Ukraine: Foreign Affairs May/June 2022 Issue Launch Event Foreign Affairs 2022-04-19 | Russia's invasion of Ukraine has brought war to Europe, driven millions of refugees across borders, and increased the risk of a direct conflict between NATO and Russia. The world has entered a perilous era, rife with uncertainties: What are the possible trajectories of the war? What is Moscow's endgame? What role can, or should, the United States play? And how could the outcome reshape global politics?Watch Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and authors Robert Kagan, Michael Kimmage, and Angela Stent as they mark the launch of the May/June issue with a discussion of what comes next in the Russian-Ukrainian war.Read more:May/June 2022 Issueforeignaffairs.com/issues/2022/101/3"The Price of Hegemony" by Robert Kaganforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/tKeYD26NWNc"What If Russia Wins?", "What If Russia Loses?" and "What If Russia Makes a Deal?" by Michael Kimmage and Liana Fixforeignaffairs.com/authors/michael-kimmage"The Putin Doctrine" by Angela Stentforeignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-01-27/putin-doctrine
What Does the Emergence of a Multipolar World Mean for the Middle East? Foreign Affairs 2022-03-23 | With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over, the United States is shifting its focus away from the Middle East. How will other powers and forces, from China to sectarianism to climate change, drive events on the ground in the years ahead? And how should Washington navigate this complex environment without making further catastrophic blunders?This is an excerpt from a recent Foreign Affairs event in which Executive Editor Justin Vogt and authors Gregory Gause, Amaney Jamal, and Marc Lynch mark the launch of the March/April issue with a discussion of today’s Middle East.Read more:March/April 2022 Issueforeignaffairs.com/issues/2022/101/2"The Price of Order" by F. Gregory Gause IIIforeignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2022-02-22/price-order"Why Democracy Stalled in the Middle East" by Amaney A. Jamal and Michael Robbinsforeignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2022-02-22/why-democracy-stalled-middle-east"The End of the Middle East" by Marc Lynchforeignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2022-02-22/end-middle-east
A New Era in the Middle East? Foreign Affairs March/April 2022 Issue Launch Foreign Affairs 2022-03-10 | With the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over, the United States is shifting its focus away from the Middle East. How will other powers and forces, from China to sectarianism to climate change, drive events on the ground in the years ahead? And how should Washington navigate this complex environment without making further catastrophic blunders?Watch Foreign Affairs Executive Editor Justin Vogt and authors Gregory Gause, Amaney Jamal, and Marc Lynch as they mark the launch of the March/April issue with a discussion of today’s Middle East.Read more:March/April 2022 Issueforeignaffairs.com/issues/2022/101/2"The Price of Order" by F. Gregory Gause IIIforeignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2022-02-22/price-order"Why Democracy Stalled in the Middle East" by Amaney A. Jamal and Michael Robbinsforeignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2022-02-22/why-democracy-stalled-middle-east"The End of the Middle East" by Marc Lynchforeignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2022-02-22/end-middle-east
Can the United States Curb the Threat From Cyberspace? [Foreign Affairs Issue Launch] Foreign Affairs 2022-01-21 | Cyberattacks dominated U.S. headlines in 2021, sowing panic and chaos and exacting a huge financial toll on governments, businesses, and citizens alike. As the problem gets worse, policymakers are struggling to respond. What is the United States’ cyberstrategy getting wrong? And what is at stake if the country fails to mount a better defense against this unrelenting threat?Foreign Affairs Deputy Editor Kate Brannen and authors Dmitri Alperovitch, Jacquelyn Schneider, and Joseph S. Nye, Jr., mark the launch of the January/February issue with a discussion of U.S. cyberstrategy.Additional Resources:"A World Without Trust" by Jacquelyn Schneiderforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/mYK0CVHYSzc "The End of Cyber-Anarchy?" by Joseph S. Nye, Jr.foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/-Wu0eGjca3U"The Case for Cyber-Realism" by Dmitri Alperovitchforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/66Qs7iLOAgMJanuary/February issue:foreignaffairs.com/issues/2022/101/1
Is America Getting Russia Wrong? Foreign Affairs Issue Launch With Fiona Hill, Andrea Kendall-Taylor Foreign Affairs 2021-11-19 | Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has had a tendency to discount Russia as a serious competitor, but Russian President Vladimir Putin has proven quite capable of manipulating existing American divisions and dysfunction to weaken U.S. democracy. Does Washington need to reevaluate its assumptions about Russian power? How can policymakers address the domestic vulnerabilities that Moscow and other U.S. adversaries are eager to exploit?Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and authors Fiona Hill and Andrea Kendall-Taylor discuss U.S. Russia policy as they mark the launch of the November/December issue.Additional Resources"The Kremlin's Strange Victory" by Fiona Hill:foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/5KjqBS7f02Y "The Myth of Russian Decline" by Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Michael Kofman:foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/Bj1anStNiowNovember/December issue:foreignaffairs.com/issues/2021/100/6Fiona Hill is Robert Bosch Senior Fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution. She served as deputy assistant to the president and senior director for European and Russian affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 to 2019.Andrea Kendall-Taylor is a Senior Fellow and Director of the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.
Can the World Avert Climate Catastrophe? Foreign Affairs 2021-10-29 | Beginning October 31, delegates from all over the world will meet in Glasgow for the next UN climate change conference, COP26. The goal: to collectively take more aggressive steps to slow global warming. With climate-related disasters regularly dominating the headlines, the pressure is on for leaders to act quickly. But do they have the political will to address the problem before it becomes more catastrophic?Ahead of this pivotal summit, Foreign Affairs Executive Editor Justin Vogt was joined by authors William Nordhaus, Kelly Sims Gallagher, and John Podesta for a discussion about the prospects of meaningful international cooperation on climate policy.About the Panelists:William Nordhaus is Sterling Professor of Economics at Yale University and a recipient of the 2018 Nobel Prize in Economics.Kelly Sims Gallagher is Professor and Academic Dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University and Founding Director of the Climate Policy Lab. From 2014 to 2015, she was a Senior Policy Adviser in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.John Podesta is Founder and a Member of the Board of Directors of the Center for American Progress. He served as Chief of Staff for U.S. President Bill Clinton and Counselor to U.S. President Barack Obama, overseeing climate and energy policy.Additional Resources:“The Net Zero Trap” by Kelly Sims Gallagherforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/SLGHYrENRd8 “The Climate Club” by William Nordhausforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/zK2Sj-SBgeg"A Foreign Policy for the Climate" by John Podesta and Todd Sternforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/3648h9DIF1wForeign Affairs' climate change coverageforeignaffairs.com/topics/climate-change
Who Won the War on Terror? Foreign Affairs September/October 2021 Issue Launch Foreign Affairs 2021-09-10 | After the attacks on September 11, 2001, pursuing victory in the "war on terror" became the central fixation of U.S. foreign policy. But in the years that followed, a basic question was never answered: What would it mean to "win"?In conversation with Foreign Affairs Executive Editor Justin Vogt, authors Daniel Byman and Nelly Lahoud discuss the consequences of 9/11 and the fight against terrorism for the United States and the world, two decades on.Read more:September/October issueforeignaffairs.com/issues/2021/100/5"Bin Laden’s Catastrophic Success" by Nelly Lahoudforeignaffairs.com/articles/afghanistan/2021-08-13/osama-bin-ladens-911-catastrophic-success"The Good Enough Doctrine" by Daniel Bymanforeignaffairs.com/articles/middle-east/2021-08-24/good-enough-doctrine
Can China Keep Rising? Foreign Affairs July/August 2021 Issue Launch Foreign Affairs 2021-07-08 | The Chinese Communist Party marks its 100th anniversary this year, tallying among its achievements China’s decades-long economic boom and ascent to great-power status. But can Beijing count on continued success?At the launch of our July/August 2021 issue, Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and authors Yuen Yuen Ang, Jude Blanchette, and Orville Schell discussed the evolution of China and its ruling party over the past century—and the economic and political outlook for the next.Read more:July/August issueforeignaffairs.com/issues/2021/100/4"Xi’s Gamble" by Jude Blanchetteforeignaffairs.com/articles/china/2021-06-22/xis-gamble"The Robber Barons of Beijing" by Yuen Yuen Angforeignaffairs.com/articles/asia/2021-06-22/robber-barons-beijing"Life of the Party" by Orville Schellforeignaffairs.com/reviews/review-essay/2021-06-22/life-party
Foreign Affairs May/June 2021 Issue Launch: Making Trade Work for Workers Foreign Affairs 2021-06-03 | Foreign Affairs Editor Daniel Kurtz-Phelan and authors Gordon Hanson, Shannon O’Neil, and Adam Posen discuss the future of the global economy. Globalization's critics are numerous, citing the risks of interdependence—highlighted by the pandemic—and the rise of inequality and discontent as economic change leaves workers behind. What will it take to get U.S. trade and labor policies on a more sustainable track?Read more:May/June issueforeignaffairs.com/issues/2021/100/3"The Price of Nostalgia" by Adam S. Posenforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/YgMvCUh5ZrI?utm_medium=social&utm_source=youtube_posts&utm_campaign=issue_launch"Protection Without Protectionism" by Shannon K. O’Neilforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/MOwvNteCT84?utm_medium=social&utm_source=youtube_posts&utm_campaign=issue_launch"Can Trade Work for Workers?" by Gordon H. Hansonforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/xsJ9HNnAPc0?utm_medium=social&utm_source=youtube_posts&utm_campaign=issue_launch
Foreign Affairs LIVE With Ty McCormick Foreign Affairs 2021-04-16 | Foreign Affairs Senior Editor Ty McCormick discusses his book, Beyond the Sand and Sea: One Family’s Quest for a Country to Call Home, which chronicles a Somali refugee family’s search for a home while exposing the United States’ broken and painful refugee resettlement system.Book link: cfr.org/book/beyond-sand-and-sea
A Conversation With Hillary Clinton | Foreign Affairs Magazine Foreign Affairs 2021-03-22 | Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state, joins us to discuss how the United States can confront today’s national security challenges, from the COVID-19 pandemic to competition with China and Russia.Moderated by Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign RelationsFurther reading from this discussion: “A National Security Reckoning” by Hillary Clintonforeignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/qQfIIu16PEE“Repairing the World” by Richard Haass.foreignaffairs.com/guest-pass/redeem/aXq8rRAFf3UTo join our next virtual event, subscribe to Foreign Affairs: foreignaffairs.com/subscribe
