Conversations with Bill Kristol

“You have to look at the strange new thing about US foreign policy. It’s not being made by diplomats. It’s not being made just by Marco Rubio. It’s being made by this group of businesspeople connected to Trump.” So argues Pulitzer Prize winning historian Anne Applebaum in a wide-ranging  Conversation  about how private business interests connected to Trump are shaping US foreign policy t...

"For the first time ever, the United States homeland cannot be taken for granted as a secure rear area against non-nuclear attacks." So argues Steve Rosen, professor emeritus of government at Harvard, in a bracing  Conversation  on the radically new security environment created by AI, precision strike weapons including drones, and cyber capabilities. Because these technologies give a dis...

Where do things stand in the wars in Ukraine and Iran? What are the implications of these wars for military technology, the future of warfare, and our highly fluid geopolitical environment? In this  Conversation , Phillips O'Brien, the distinguished military historian and author of the indispensable  Phillips's Newsletter on Substack , shares his perspective on the two major wars. O...

We are less than seven weeks away from Election Day, and early voting already has begun in some states.  To discuss where things stand and where American politics might go after the midterms, we are joined again by David Axelrod, chief strategist for Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012. Axelrod shares his perspective on how the election might play out  when Trump “is i...

"We're 60 days away from a completely different political environment. And I think people are underestimating how different it's going to be, and how volatile it's going to be without really any moorings for either party." So argues Doug Sosnik, former political director for Bill Clinton, one of the shrewdest analysts of American politics, and the author of an indispensable new  Substack...

Where do things stand with the military in Trump’s Second Term? What are the consequences of a shortage of munitions in the conduct of the Iran War? What should we make of the firings of senior military leaders? In this  Conversation , Eric Edelman, former Under Secretary of Defense and former ambassador to Turkey and Finland, shares his perspective on what he describes as increasing dysfunction i...

"Am I worried? A lot. Why? Because they’re not done yet. And it’s not just the president, but the efforts of those around him and on the outside supporting him who have a very huge and fundamental and reshaping ideology, driving an effort to … increase the president’s power even further. And this dramatically weakens the power of Congress." So argues the distinguished political scientist and leadi...

A year and a half into the second Trump administration, is the Supreme Court meeting the moment? What are the broader implications of recent Court decisions and the conduct of lower courts? What might the next years look like? To discuss these questions we are joined, again, by Ryan Goodman, a law professor at New York University, former special counsel in the Department of Defense, and co-editor...

What makes Niccolò Machiavelli the founder of modern politics? How did liberal thinkers like Locke, Montesquieu, and the American founders modify Machiavelli’s inventions? How did later thinkers like Kant and Hegel attempt to save reason? How stands rational control today? How stands the case for liberalism? Is there a path forward for a revived liberalism? Drawing on his recent book  The Rise and...

“This election looks like a classic collision between the irresistible force and the immovable object. The irresistible force is the elevated share of Americans who disapprove of Trump’s performance as president, which has increased since last December and is now running consistently around 60%.... The immovable object is that this election, in both the House and the Senate, is going to be fought...

“China is aiming to enhance its power with respect to the United States in particular, and eventually to emerge as the dominant player in the international system, and it’s working towards that goal…. It is not clear to me at this point what our strategy is, or even if we have one.” So argues Princeton Professor Aaron Friedberg in a new  Conversation  assessing the state of US-China relations in t...

“The Ukrainians believe Putin’s now being faced with more dilemmas than they are.” So argues the distinguished historian and a leading analyst of the Ukraine War, Phillips O’Brien. Author of the indispensable  Phillips’s Newsletter  on Substack, O’Brien shares his perspective on where things stand in Ukraine and Russia, and assesses the broader implications for Europe and beyond. Kristol and O’Bri...

“This branding binge [Trump] has been on: with everything he’s trying to have put his name on. To build the White House ballroom, the arch in front of Arlington Cemetery. And the war and military adventurism. It’s a way of trying to cement his state permanently as a dominant figure in history, because he knows he’s going to die.” So argues veteran political reporter A.B. Stoddard in a bracing anal...

“What is human happiness? What is political excellence? What is speech, and rhetoric? It’s always important to remind ourselves of that. But especially when you have artificial intelligence, and all of these vast possible changes in human affairs, it’s important to remind ourselves of what’s basic…. And Aristotle uncovers 80%, 90%, 95% of what really one could say, I think, reasonably, and intelli...

“It’s hard for me to see how [the war] ends in a way that enhances our position in the world generally—and, in particular, enhances our position with relation to the country that I still think is our principal strategic challenge, namely China. And that’s what really worries me.” So argues Princeton professor and Aaron Friedberg in an incisive and sober conversation on the war in Iran and its broa...

“Whatever happens in 2026, I think no one should take any interpretation of that as a precursor to what’s going to happen in 2028.” So argues Doug Sosnik, former political director for Bill Clinton and one of the shrewdest and most imaginative analysts of American politics. Sosnik considers possible scenarios in 2026 including a wave election year for Democrats driven by higher turnout of college-...

“The US government wants to arrest, detain, and deport one in every 24 people in the country—4% of the US population. That cannot be done without fundamentally transforming who we are as a people and our relationship to law enforcement.”  So argues Aaron Reichlin-Melnick, a leading expert on immigration and Senior Fellow at the American Immigration Council, in a bracing  Conversation  on the scale...

“The Europeans have been in this alliance [NATO] to protect themselves, largely from Russia and other aggressors. And now it has an aggressor within the gates, so to speak. And that’s quite an extraordinary situation.” So argues the eminent political thinker Francis Fukuyama, who begins with his assessment of Trump’s bullying of Denmark and Western Europe in recent days. In a thought-provoking tou...

Where do things stand in American politics as we head into a midterm election year?    To discuss these questions we are joined again by Ron Brownstein, a  Bloomberg Opinion  columnist and senior CNN political analyst. Brownstein points to President Trump’s approval rating as perhaps the most significant indicator in the 2026 midterm elections—and potentially still a major factor in 2028. As he pu...

“We take for granted the degree of peace that we’ve enjoyed over the past eight plus decades. And we think that’s the norm. The norm is actually a lot more like what the world looked like before 1945. Certainly, the previous 100 years were one of constant great power warfare. And I don’t think people are ready for that—the world that we’re now moving into.” As the distinguished historian Robert Ka...

Dick Cheney (1941-2025) is widely regarded as one of the most consequential vice presidents in American history.  To discus his life and legacy, we are joined by Steve Hayes, CEO and editor of  The Dispatch  and author of  Cheney  (2007), who had extraordinary access to Cheney during his time as vice president. In this  Conversation , Hayes shares his personal reflections on Cheney’s character, vi...

How has the second Trump presidency differed from the first? How did Trump’s experiences during his time out of office and on the campaign trail in 2024—including his trial in New York and the assassination attempts—shape him? What can we expect in the months and years ahead?  In this  Conversation , Jonathan Karl, a leading chronicler of Donald Trump and author of  Retribution: Donald Trump and t...

Where do things stand in the United States nine months into the second Trump administration? Where do things stand in Ukraine, and what are the implications of the war for the future of liberal democracy around the globe? In this Conversation , the distinguished historian Timothy Snyder reflects on the situation of the United States, Eastern Europe, and the politics of the current moment.     

“It’s hard for me to imagine a voter that votes in 2026 that doesn’t have Trump on their mind.” According to veteran Democratic strategist James Carville, Trump "keeps jacking the stakes up, every day” and remains the focal point of American politics as we head towards the midterms next year. As he puts it, the Republican Party has become a “personality cult” while the Democratic Party is "a coali...

The second Trump administration’s approach to China so far differs from the more consistently hawkish posture of the first term.  To analyze the increasingly dangerous state of our geopolitical situation and the threat posed by China, we are joined again by Princeton professor Aaron Friedberg. According to Friedberg, China continues to strengthen in military, technological, and geopolitical might...