The Foreign Affairs Interview
by Foreign Affairs Magazine
Latest episode
The Coming Battles Over American Foreign Policy: A Conversation With…
The Coming Battles Over American Foreign Policy: A Conversation With…
About this podcast
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.
Episodes
The newest 50 of 100 episodes
- The Coming Battles Over American Foreign Policy: A Conversation With Kori Schake and Thomas Wright · 1 h 4 minThe 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…
- A Warrior’s View of Why War Fails: A Conversation With William McRaven · 58 min · Episode 6William 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…
- What India’s Protests Reveal About the Future of Liberalism: A Conversation With Pratap Bhanu Mehta · 1 h 7 minIndian 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…
- Iran’s Long War: A Conversation With Ali Vaez and Mohammad Ayatollahi Tabaar · 1 h 0 minNearly 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…
- Russia’s Widening War on Europe: A Conversation With Julianne Smith · 59 minSince 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…
- What America and China Fear Most About AI: A Conversation with Kyle Chan and Helen Toner · 54 minOver 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…
- Caught in the Middle of the Iran War: A Conversation With Anwar Gargash · 1 h 0 minBy 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…
- How to Understand the New Age of War: A Conversation With Lawrence D. Freedman · 1 h 0 minBy 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…
- The Iran Shock Is Not Over: A Conversation With Jason Bordoff and Meghan L. O’Sullivan · 54 minWhen Iran closed the Strait of Hormuz six months ago, the world seemed on the verge of an energy crisis that would upend economies, governments, and much else. It was, as Meghan…
- What Does China Want? A Conversation With Jessica Chen Weiss · 50 minThere has been no shortage of dizzying shifts in American foreign policy since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year. But perhaps none have been as surprising as the…
- Afghanistan After America: A Conversation With Laurel Miller and Graeme Smith · 1 h 13 min · Episode 5Five years ago this month, the United States ended its war in Afghanistan. Washington’s exit was chaotic; as Taliban forces swept through the country and the U.S.-backed…
- Is a Post-American World Inevitable? A Conversation With Kurt Campbell, Rush Doshi, and Mark Leonard · 1 h 16 minEver since Donald Trump returned to the White House last year, a big question has loomed over any discussion of global politics: How much of the change he has brought to U.S…
- From the Archive: How the Past Shadows China's Future: A Conversation With Odd Arne Westad · 60 minAt the end of last year, editor Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke with the historian Odd Arne Westad about China’s complicated past and how that history shapes the way Chinese leaders see…
- Cyberwarfare in the AI Age: A Conversation With Jen Easterly · 57 minIt’s been nearly 15 years since Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta warned of a “cyber–Pearl Harbor.” Since then, most people have become fairly inured to such a risk. That’s true…
- The End of Free Trade: A Conversation With Robert E. Lighthizer · 53 minAlmost no one in the last several decades has done more to change the American approach to trade than Robert Lighthizer. Lighthizer was the U.S. trade representative in President…
- The Future of Palestine: A Conversation With Salam Fayyad · 47 minIn the nine months since a cease-fire ended full-on war in Gaza, the world’s attention has in many ways moved on. That has been especially true since February, with the start of…
- The End of American Military Dominance? A Conversation With Paul Scharre · 54 minThe war in Iran pitted two of the world’s mightiest militaries against one weakened by years of strikes, sanctions, and sabotage. And yet it was the smaller country that appears…
- What China Thinks It Can Gain From a Disordered World: A Conversation With Oriana Skylar Mastro · 1 h 1 minLike the rest of us, China’s leaders are confronting a world in turmoil. They see uncertain American commitments to allies, even as many of those allies ramp up their own defense…
- The AI Race Nobody Can Win: A Conversation With Sebastian Mallaby · 54 minThe breakneck pace of AI progress and the intensity of the competition for AI supremacy has left U.S. policymakers in a difficult position. They must encourage the innovation…
- America, Iran, and a World in Turmoil: A Conversation With Ian Bremmer · 1 h 2 minThe war in Iran may have come to an end, but both the course and the conclusion of that war have brought into sharp relief the forces that increasingly define a world of…
- Is the Iran War Coming to an End? A Conversation With Narges Bajoghli and Vali Nasr · 1 h 0 minThe Iran war may be coming to an end, as Washington and Tehran prepare to sign a framework agreement later this week. That deal should reopen the Strait of Hormuz and end the…
- Is Cuba Next? A Conversation With Michael J. Bustamante and Ricardo Zuniga · 1 h 5 minU.S. President Donald Trump has insisted that he will have the “honor of taking Cuba.” Although the administration has not specified what that might mean, following interventions…
- Are America’s Allies Finally Learning to Deal With Trump? A Conversation With Philip H. Gordon and Mara Karlin · 1 h 8 minSix months ago, Philip Gordon and Mara Karlin wrote an essay in Foreign Affairs about the plight of the United States’ allies in U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. What…
- How to Prevent the Next World War: A Conversation With Thant Myint-U · 54 minThe world today is more dangerous and more violent than it’s been at any time since 1945. States everywhere have jettisoned commitments to cooperation and opted for aggression…
- Does Trump Have a Strategy? A Conversation With A. Wess Mitchell · 1 h 6 minBoth of Donald Trump’s presidential administrations have prompted sharp debates about the direction of U.S. foreign policy. But how to discern a strategic logic behind…
- The View From the Front Row of the Trump-Xi Summit: A Conversation With Orville Schell · 41 minOrville Schell may be the United States’ greatest chronicler and observer of several decades of U.S.-Chinese relations. Foreign Affairs was extremely lucky to have him in Beijing…
- When Two Superpowers Meet: A Conversation With Nicholas Burns · 57 minNot long ago, it was practically a truism to say that a hard line on China was the only real bipartisan position in American foreign policy. To the extent such a consensus ever…
- Trump, Putin, and Genghis Khan: A Conversation With Fiona Hill · 1 h 7 minFiona Hill has spent her career trying to understand—and, in one case, advise— leaders with grandiose ambitions, high risk tolerance, and an unshakeable sense of themselves as…
- Learning to Live With a Nuclear North Korea: A Conversation With Victor Cha · 1 h 4 minFor most of the past few decades, North Korea was considered a top challenge for American foreign policy. In the past few years, however, it has mostly receded from attention—not…
- Is America Losing the High Ground? A Conversation With Jake Sullivan · 59 minIt is an understatement to say that the United States finds itself at a particularly fraught geopolitical juncture. The outcome of the war in Iran is still uncertain. The war in…
- How the Iran War Is Shaping a Post-American World: Conversations With Matias Spektor and Kishore Mahbubani · 1 h 28 minThe shockwaves of the ongoing war in Iran are being felt far and wide. The continued closure of the Strait of Hormuz has sparked a global energy crisis, one that could be…
- Will the Cease-Fire With Iran Hold? A Conversation With Suzanne Maloney · 31 minOn Tuesday night, as the world held its collective breath, U.S. President Donald Trump announced a temporary cease-fire with Iran, just hours after warning that “a whole…
- America in a World of Upheaval: A Conversation With William J. Burns · 1 h 8 minIn 2024, when he was the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, William Burns wrote in an essay in Foreign Affairs about “the plastic moments that come along only a few…
- Are Europe and the United States Finally Heading For Divorce? A Conversation With Nathalie Tocci and Matthias Matthijs · 1 h 5 minJust a few weeks after its opening salvos, the war in Iran is already going global. Iran has effectively closed the Strait of Hormuz, stranding oil tankers and causing energy…
- How Strong Are Iran’s Strongmen? A Conversation With Stephen Kotkin · 1 h 10 minWhen the United States and Israel launched a joint war on Iran two weeks ago, U.S. President Donald Trump urged Iranians to rise up and rid themselves of their tyrannical rulers…
- Iran’s Tenacious Regime and the Future of the Gulf: Conversations With Afshon Ostovar and Sanam Vakil · 1 h 20 minFor about two weeks, U.S. and Israeli forces have bombarded Iran. They have targeted Iranian military and nuclear sites. They have slain Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and other top…
- America’s War of Choice on Iran: Conversations With Nate Swanson and Richard Haass · 1 h 5 minOver the weekend, U.S. and Israeli forces struck hundreds of sites across Iran and killed its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Large crowds of Iranians took to the…
- America the Predatory Hegemon: A Conversation With Stephen M. Walt · 57 minPresident Donald Trump wields American power like few leaders in U.S. history ever have. By imposing tariffs, threatening territorial conquest, and ordering military…
- Bonus: Is There an Endgame in Ukraine? A Conversation With Michael Kofman · 1 h 0 minFebruary 24 marks the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. After Moscow’s initial onslaught, Ukrainian counteroffensives, and slow Russian gains since…
- Can America’s Allies Survive the Transatlantic Rupture? A Conversation With Chrystia Freeland · 39 minA year into Donald Trump’s second term, the United States’ allies on both sides of the Atlantic seem to have recognized that they need a new strategy for this age of rupture, as…
- The Myths and Realities of Global Migration: A Conversation With Amy Pope · 56 minIn 2024, there were more than 300 million migrants across the world—double the number there were in 1990. Many of those had been displaced by conflict or climate change; many…
- How to Navigate the Shifting International Order: A Conversation With Finnish President Alexander Stubb · 58 minCanadian Prime Minister Mark Carney may have made headlines when he described a “rupture” in global order in a speech at Davos last month. But long before that, policymakers and…
- Is China Leaving the United States Behind? A Conversation With Jonathan A. Czin · 1 h 2 minOne of the big surprises of Donald Trump’s second term has been the change in his approach to China. His first term marked the start of what seemed to be a hard-line consensus in…
- The Erosion of the Sources of American Economic Power: A Conversation With Lael Brainard · 56 minIn the past year, Donald Trump has upended the global trading system and used American economic power like no president in recent memory. He’s imposed tariffs to force other…
- What Kind of Change Is Coming to Iran? A Conversation With Karim Sadjadpour · 1 h 4 minAt the end of December, protests erupted across Iran. The government has since cracked down hard with potentially thousands of Iranians killed. It now seems possible that the…
- What Comes Next in Venezuela: Conversations With Phil Gunson and Juan S. Gonzalez · 1 h 22 minIt was just a few days ago that, after months of saber-rattling by the Trump administration, U.S. forces raided Venezuela and captured its leader, Nicolás Maduro. Already, Trump…
- How the Past Shadows China’s Future: A Conversation With Odd Arne Westad · 59 minThe biggest questions in U.S. foreign policy today tend to be about China. Policymakers and analysts argue over the implications of China’s rise, the extent of its ambitions, the…
- How Liberal Democracy Can Survive an Age of Spiraling Crises: A Conversation With Daron Acemoglu · 58 minThe world has reached various inflection points, or so we are often told. Advanced technology, such as artificial intelligence, promises to transform our way of life. In…
- The Fear and Weakness at the Heart of Trump’s Strategy: A Conversation With Kori Schake · 43 minLast week, the Trump administration released its National Security Strategy. Such documents are usually fairly staid exercises in lofty rhetoric. Not this one. It harshly rebukes…
- America Can’t Escape the Multipolar Order: A Conversation With Emma Ashford · 52 minIn the last decade, American foreign policymakers have been forced to reckon with a shifting global balance of power. Theorists have long argued over the shape of international…
