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The Foreign Affairs Interview: Daily Summaries Delivered
by Foreign Affairs Magazine
Foreign Affairs invites you to join its editor, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, as he talks to influential thinkers and policymakers about the forces shaping the world. Whether the topic is the war in Ukraine, the United States’ competition with China, or the future of globalization, Foreign Affairs’ weekly podcast offers the kind of authoritative commentary and analysis that you can find in the magazine and on the website.
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- 3 days ago1h 4m
The Coming Battles Over American Foreign Policy: A Conversation With Kori Schake and Thomas Wright
The Democrats’ sweeping victory in the midterm elections this week marks not only the start of a new phase for Donald Trump’s foreign policy. It also kicks off a more intensive discussion among both Democrats and Republicans about the future of American foreign policy beyond Trump. Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke with two foreign policy veterans who have participated in these debates inside and outside government, including in Foreign Affairs. Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, served in the State Department and on the National Security Council under George W. Bush. Tom Wright was senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council under Joe Biden and is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. All of these debates will have to contend with big questions about specific policies, from China and the Middle East to AI and defense spending. They also involve deep and often bitter fissures between and within parties. Meanwhile, the war in Iran is far from resolved and the specter of an already unpredictable president’s lame-duck period introduces even more uncertainty about what the world will look like when Trump leaves the White House for good in January 2029. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
- 1 weeks ago57 min
A Warrior’s View of Why War Fails: A Conversation With William McRaven
William McRaven spent four decades in the U.S. military as a Navy SEAL, a four-star admiral, and head of U.S. Special Operations Command. He led the 2003 operation that captured Saddam Hussein and oversaw the 2011 operation that killed Osama bin Laden. But in a new essay in Foreign Affairs, McRaven focuses not on the potential of military force but on its limits—limits that American policymakers frequently disregard, at immense cost. He warns of a persistent “American delusion—our excessive faith in the capacity of military power to achieve victory and thereby fundamentally political ends.” And while the Trump administration’s war in Iran may offer a particularly stark example of this delusion, McRaven worries that the problem will get worse rather than better in the future. Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke with McRaven on October 26 about the war in Iran and Ukraine; about the damage to civil-military relations and military culture under President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; about how technology is, and is not, transforming the battlefield; and about the risks of a strictly transactional foreign policy for the durability of American power. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
- 2 weeks ago1h 7m
What India’s Protests Reveal About the Future of Liberalism: A Conversation With Pratap Bhanu Mehta
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is facing his biggest challenge since taking office in 2014. But in an essay in Foreign Affairs, Pratap Bhanu Mehta argues that the youth protests that have swept New Delhi don’t just pose a test for Modi’s authority—they may also mark an inflection point for India itself. “The future of Indian democracy,” Mehta writes, “hinges on whether this contest opens up more democratic space or leads to greater repression.” Deputy Editor Kanishk Tharoor spoke with Mehta on October 19 about Modi’s power, about what these protests can and cannot achieve, and about what the battle in India means for the future of liberal democracy around the world. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
- 3 weeks ago1h 0m
Iran’s Long War: A Conversation With Ali Vaez and Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar
Nearly eight months since it began, the war in Iran has settled into a grim stalemate. Two essays in the new issue of Foreign Affairs consider just how long this stalemate could continue—and what decision-makers in Tehran think they can achieve in the coming months. In “The New Forever War,” Ali Vaez of the International Crisis Group argues that Iran prefers deadlock to any plausible compromise with Washington. In “Why Iran Escalates,” Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar of Texas A&M argues that Tehran will pursue a more ambitious goal: forcing the United States out of the Middle East altogether. Senior Editor Daniel Block spoke with Tabaar and Vaez on Monday, October 12 to discuss U.S. and Iranian strategies, the future of Iran’s Axis of Resistance, and the durability of a regime that Western policymakers have often underestimated. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
- Oct 8, 202659 min
Russia’s Widening War on Europe: A Conversation With Julianne Smith
Since the start of the war in Ukraine almost five years ago, Russia has mounted ever more aggressive attacks in Europe, far from the battlefield. These attacks were long talked about as a form of “hybrid warfare.” But as Julianne Smith, the former U.S. ambassador to NATO, notes in a new piece in Foreign Affairs, they have reached a level of risk and flagrancy where that label may no longer apply. And these attacks come in the context of escalation in Ukraine and dissension in the transatlantic alliance, as the Trump administration calls into question basic commitments to Europe. Smith has warned of the dangers of Russian escalation and urged NATO to do more in response. Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke to her on Tuesday, October 6, about the options for raising the cost on Russia—as well as about the future of the war in Ukraine and the prospects for the United States and Europe in the wake of President Donald Trump. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
- Oct 1, 202654 min
What America and China Fear Most About AI: A Conversation with Kyle Chan and Helen Toner
Over the course of just a few months, artificial intelligence has become one of the most central issues, and one of the most fraught issues, in the relationship between the United States and China. Policymakers in Washington and in Beijing simultaneously worry about which country’s tech sector has the advantage and wonder whether the search for advantage will itself lead to catastrophe for both countries and everyone else. Recent bilateral meetings, including the one last week between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, have yielded only minimal progress toward cooperation—agreement to start talking about talking about AI. Kyle Chan is a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Helen Toner is executive director of Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. Both fairly uniquely combine deep knowledge of AI and deep knowledge of China, which they bring to their work in Foreign Affairs and beyond. Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke with Chan and Toner about how the two countries think and approach AI, with real differences as well as some new convergences; what it means to compete; and what it will take for the United States and China to find some way to reduce the biggest risks. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
- Sep 24, 20261h 0m
Caught in the Middle of the Iran War: A Conversation With Anwar Gargash
By all accounts, Iran’s neighbors, even those long at odds with the Islamic Republic, opposed the U.S.-Israeli war that began on February 28. Yet it is those Middle Eastern states that have paid some of the highest costs in the months since. As their governments grapple with the consequences of a war that is still far from settled, they are also struggling to shape a new Middle Eastern order. But there is little consensus about what that order should be—or what it should mean for relationships with the United States and China, for future economic models, or for the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Anwar Gargash is one of the region’s most experienced diplomats and foreign policymakers. He long served as the minister of state for foreign affairs in the United Arab Emirates, and is now diplomatic adviser to the UAE’s president. Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke with Gargash on Monday, September 21, about the war in Iran and where it may end; the UAE’s rift with Saudi Arabia and approach to Israel, Gaza, Sudan, and more; and what a new, better Middle Eastern order might look like. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
- Sep 17, 20261h 0m
How to Understand the New Age of War: A Conversation With Lawrence D. Freedman
By some measures, there is more war in the world today than at any point since World War II. Today’s wars have brought a level of destruction, disruption, and global risk that would have been hard to imagine not long ago, often in places where such combat seemed a thing of the past. Policymakers once again worry about nuclear use, and military planners once again contemplate war between great powers, including the United States and China, and NATO and Russia. And all of this comes as the Trump administration dismantles key pieces of the international system and technology scrambles expectations about how wars start, unfold, and end. No one has left a greater mark on our understanding of wars past and present than Lawrence Freedman. Freedman has written a slew of definitive books on military strategy and history, and he has offered some of the most penetrating analysis of Iran, Ukraine, and more, in Foreign Affairs and elsewhere. He is emeritus professor of war studies at King’s College London. Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke with Freedman on Monday, September 14, about the course of today’s conflicts; about what is and is not changing in the nature of war; and about why policymakers, military officers, and strategists so often start wars based on bad assumptions—and how those bad assumptions explain some of the biggest calamities in global security today. You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.
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About The Foreign Affairs Interview
Foreign Affairs invites you to join its editor, Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, as he talks to influential thinkers and policymakers about the forces shaping the world. Whether the topic is the war in Ukraine, the United States’ competition with China, or the future of globalization, Foreign Affairs’ weekly podcast offers the kind of authoritative commentary and analysis that you can find in the magazine and on the website.
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