Episode notes
Alex Yu-Ting Lin, Assistant Director and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s International Security Center, explains how China’s concerns about status interact with smaller regional states and how that in turn helps shape the US-China rivalry. He examines how states use information warfare to delegitimize adversaries’ foreign policies and applies his analysis to US-China relations. He also discusses Euro-centric bias in international relations studies, China’s approach to flashpoints like the South China Sea and Taiwan, and whether China should be considered…
Podcast
Power Problems
Cato Institute · News · English
Power Problems is a bi-weekly podcast from the Cato Institute. Host John Glaser offers a skeptical take on U.S. foreign policy, and discusses today’s big questions in international security with distinguished guests from across the political spectrum. Podcast Hashtag: #FPPowerProblems. Hosted on A
More from Power Problems All episodes →
-
E196 · 24 Dec 2024 · 43 min
Negotiating Peace in Ukraine
Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses how the international politics of the Ukraine war have changed since Trump’s election win, how to move towards negotiations to end the war, and the various issues - from territory to NATO membership - to be resolved in any peace deal. Show Notes Anatol Lieven, “ Three Conditions for a US-Backed Peace Agreement in Ukraine ,” UnHerd , November 30, 2024. Anatol Lieven, George Beebe, “ The Diplomatic Path to a Secure Ukraine ,” Quincy Paper #13, February 16, 2024. Hosted on Acast. See…
-
E195 · 10 Dec 2024 · 47 min
The Fall of Assad & Syria's Uncertain Future
Joshua Landis, professor of Middle East studies at the University of Oklahoma, discusses the recent rebel advances in Syria, the causes and conditions that paved the way for the fall of the Assad regime, the many mistakes of US policy since the start of the civil war, and the regional politics wrapped up in Syria’s future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
-
E194 · 26 Nov 2024 · 43 min
How Not to Fix U.S. Foreign Policy
Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, discusses the foreign policy implications of Trump’s victory, the extent to which it represents a rejection of “Liberal Hegemony,” and why Trump failed in his first term to set U.S. foreign policy on a new course. He also discusses the bureaucratic challenges of reforming foreign policy, what to expect from Trump in the second term, and the potentially beneficial constraints of “American decline,” among other topics. Show Notes Stephen M. Walt, “ The 10 Foreign Policy Implications of the 2024 Election ,” Foreign Policy…
-
E193 · 12 Nov 2024 · 48 min
Foreign Policy in the Second Trump Term
Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Brandan P. Buck, research fellow at the Cato Institute, discuss the impact of foreign policy in Trump’s electoral victory, whether Democrats will rethink their foreign policy agenda following their losses, what changes Trump might make with respect to the wars in Europe and the Middle East and towards China, among other topics. Show Notes Christopher S. Chivvis and Stephen Wertheim, “ America’s Foreign Policy Inertia ,” Foreign Affairs, October 14, 2024 Brandan P. Buck, “ Harris Embrace of Cheney Goes Back…
-
E192 · 29 Oct 2024 · 46 min
The Trouble with Tariffs and the Future of Trade
Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, discusses America’s new regime of high protective tariffs under the Trump and Biden administrations and assesses what may be to come on trade policy under a future Trump or Harris administration. He discusses the overly expansive authorities presidents have to impose tariffs, the weakness of commonly employed national security justifications for them, and the economics of why tariffs fail, among other topics. Show Notes Clark Packard and Scott Lincicome, " Presidential Tariff Powers and the Need for Reform ," Cato…
-
1 Oct 2024 · 39 min
Is Whataboutism Effective?
Dov Levin, Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Hong Kong, examines the effects of whataboutism - essentially, charges of U.S. hypocrisy - on Americans’ foreign policy views. He explains his survey experiments to test the effectiveness of whatbaoutism on US public opinion and how it might shape policy. He also discusses his work on U.S. foreign election interference, the academic literature on hypocrisy costs, U.S. foreign policy activism, and avenues for future research on whataboutism. Show Notes Wilfred Chow and Dov Levin, “ The Diplomacy of Whataboutism and…
-
E189 · 17 Sep 2024 · 52 min
Why Can't America Retrench?
Peter Harris critiques America’s grand strategy of primacy and advocates for a move to restraint that necessarily includes wholesale reforms to domestic as well as foreign policy. He explains why primacy has persisted despite the wisdom of retrenchment and how decades of an expansive foreign policy has shaped American politics, culture, and institutions. He also discusses the problems of vested interests, partisanship, and how to make restraint more salable to the public. Show Notes Peter Harris, Why America Can’t Retrench (and How it Might) , Polity Press, 2024. Hosted on Acast. See…
-
E188 · 3 Sep 2024 · 44 min
Not Another Axis of Evil
Daniel DePetris and Jennifer Kavanagh of Defense Priorities discuss the latest iteration of the Axis of Evil threat, this time in reference to China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, and argue their relationship is misconstrued and overhyped. They discuss threat inflation, the relationship dynamics among these four powers, including China and Russia’s relationship and how US posture has pushed them together, the state of the Russia-Ukraine war, China’s role in the Middle East, the problem of prioritizing threats and interests under primacy, and how to constructively think about core US…
-
E187 · 20 Aug 2024 · 41 min
The Pentagon’s Budgetary Time Bomb
The Stimson Center’s Senior Fellow Dan Grazier and Research Associate Julia Gledhill analyze U.S. defense spending and explain how the Pentagon is creating “a budgetary time bomb set to explode in the next twenty years.” They discuss several examples of failed over-budget weapons acquisition programs and warn that future such fiascos are now in the making, with unsustainable budgetary implications, unless crucial reforms to U.S. defense and foreign policy are made. Show Notes Dan Grazier, Julia Gledhill, Geoff Wilson, “ Current Defense Plans Require Unsustainable Future Spending ”, Stimson…
-
6 Aug 2024 · 58 min
The Rising Costs of Overseas Military Bases
Renanah Joyce, Assistant Professor at Georgetown University, and Brian Blankenship, Assistant Professor at the University of Miami, explain how great power competition for foreign military bases in third-party host countries increases the costs of securing access. They discuss the strategy behind US forward basing over time, expansion into Africa in recent years, different ways of providing compensation to host countries, increasing competition for host country access, the lack of transparency on US overseas presence, and the strategic utility (or lack thereof) of overseas basing. Show…
Take it with you
The Melo app keeps playing with the screen off, works in the car and on your watch, wakes you to your station, and browses the whole catalogue offline. Free, no ads, no account.
