Foreign Policy Live

Drones are playing an increasingly decisive role in conflicts around the world. Coupled with artificial intelligence and other technological advances, the very nature of warfare is transforming in front of our eyes. Are countries and their policymakers prepared?  Mara Karlin, former assistant secretary of defense under U.S. President Joe Biden, joins FP Live to share her insights. Karlin is also t...

Gen Z has come of age amid a pandemic, growing polarization, and deep distrust of bureaucratic institutions. How does this shape their political and economic views? Do they still believe in the American Dream? Economic analyst and author Kyla Scanlon joins FP Live to discuss. Suggested reading: Institute of Politics: Spring 2025 Harvard Youth Poll Kyla Scanlon: Gen Z and the End of Predictable Pro...

Earlier this week, thousands of Palestinians stormed an aid distribution site in Gaza, underlining the ongoing humanitarian crisis there and prompting the question: Why isn’t the world doing more? Martin Griffiths served as the undersecretary-general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator at the United Nations from 2021 until 2024. He is currently with the Mediation Group Intern...

**Hello listeners, an earlier version of this episode contained glitches due to an upload error. If you hear breaks in the audio, please download the episode again for the corrected version. Thanks for listening, and we apologize for the mishap!** Is Trump’s Middle East Policy a Break From the Past? Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump visited three countries in the Middle East—Saudi Arabia, the...

U.S. President Donald Trump came to office promising mass deportations of undocumented immigrants, but he hasn’t actually hit the numbers he said he would. Is that because it’s harder than it sounds, or are more plans in the works? And what will Trump’s immigration policy do to America’s standing in the world? Janet Napolitano, a former governor of Arizona and secretary of homeland security under...

Two nuclear-armed countries, India and Pakistan, are locked in their most serious conflict in two decades. Early Wednesday morning, after weeks of pledging to retaliate for the deadliest terrorist attack in more than a decade, India launched missiles across its border into Pakistan. Meanwhile, Pakistan claims it took down Indian fighter jets and has vowed to respond. FP’s Ravi Agrawal asks Tanvi M...

To mark the first 100 days of the second Trump White House, we have a special ask-me-anything episode. Amid a firehose of news, which policies will endure, and which are purely rhetorical? How does Foreign Policy find the signal in the noise? FP Live’s executive producer, Dana Sherne, turns the tables on host Ravi Agrawal as he assesses the implications of President Donald Trump’s foreign policy....

April 29 marks the 100th day of U.S. President Donald Trump’s second term. What do foreign policy experts make of his administration’s performance so far, as it continues to wage a trade war, reshape long-standing diplomatic relationships with allies and alliances, and advance a new world order? FP columnist Emma Ashford sits down with Ravi Agrawal to discuss. Suggested reading (FP links are paywa...

The rollout of the Trump administration’s tariffs has rattled markets, prompting questions of what these protectionist policies mean for the global economy moving forward. Two top experts on globalization join FP Live to share their thoughts. Elisabeth Braw is an FP columnist and the author of Goodbye Globalization: The Return of a Divided World. And Eswar Prasad is a trade scholar and professor a...

The U.S.-China trade war has rattled the global economy, and there’s little sign of de-escalation. What does this mean for their respective economies? Where does this end? The Council on Foreign Relations’ Zongyuan Zoe Liu and the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Scott Kennedy join FP Live to discuss. We want to hear from you! Help us shape the future of FP Live by sharing your thou...

The race is on to dominate the artificial intelligence economy, making the need for safeguards ever more pressing. Jared Cohen, the president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs, joins FP Live to discuss the potential risks and benefits of this growing market—and how so-called geopolitical swing states play an increasingly important role. This conversation was taped earlier this week, before the Tr...

Two leading economists debate the potential trade-offs of the Trump administration’s tariffs that are now roiling markets. Oren Cass, the founder of American Compass, joins Kimberly Clausing, a professor at UCLA, to discuss what this all means for the United States and the global economy.  We want to hear from you! Help us shape the future of FP Live by sharing your thoughts on the show by clickin...

Legal scholars argue that the Trump administration’s push to curtail the power of the U.S. judiciary mirrors moves by several authoritarian governments around the world. What does this mean for the United States’ court system and the rule of law? And what can be learned from global advocacy and civil society defying these trends? Political scientist Andrew O’Donohue joins FP Live to share his find...

Several of the world’s wealthiest men stood behind Donald Trump as he was inaugurated for a second term, contradicting his image as a populist president. This prompts the question, how much influence do the wealthy have on U.S. politics? Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy joins FP Live to share his take on the state of U.S. democracy, and whether the United States is becoming more corrupt, to mark the l...

The Trump administration has dramatically shifted the United States’ long-standing relationship with Europe, pushing it to shore up its own defense. How is the continent grappling with these changes? And what does it mean for its policies, both foreign and domestic? Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):  Kishore Mahbubani: It’s Time for Europe to Do the Unthinkable Transcript: The Speech...

Geopolitical risk analyst Ian Bremmer joins FP Live to assess U.S. President Donald Trump’s first 50 days in office and how it is impacting the world. Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): Ravi Agrawal: Trump Is Ushering In a More Transactional World Daniel C. Kurtzer and Aaron David Miller: Lessons from the Trump-Zelensky Confrontation Howard W. French: Trump’s Plan for a Greatly Diminis...

With so much of the focus in recent weeks on the Trump administration’s policies toward Europe, where does that leave the broader trajectory of the U.S.-China relationship? Expert and former Biden administration official Rush Doshi sits down with Ravi Agrawal to discuss. Doshi is currently the C.V. Starr senior fellow for Asia studies and director of the China Strategy Initiative at the Council on...

“I don’t give up on Trump. I do think that, for the wrong reasons, we can get him to do the right things” says former Human Rights Watch chief Kenneth Roth. Roth sits down with Ravi Agrawal to share his take on human rights today amid democratic backsliding, ongoing conflict, and a new U.S. administration on the world stage. Roth led Human Rights Watch for nearly 30 years and is the author of Righ...

Finnish President Alexander Stubb sits down with Ravi Agrawal on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference to discuss European security in Trump 2.0. Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): Transcript: Finland’s President: Trump’s Strategy ‘Is a Bit of a Seesaw’ Transcript: The Speech That Stunned Europe C. Raja Mohan: India Sees Opportunities as Trump Jettisons the Western Ord...

How history will weigh the war in Gaza, with author Pankaj Mishra. Mishra recently previewed his new book on the subject with Foreign Policy, in a piece titled “How Gaza Shattered the West’s Mythology.” He shares more now with Ravi Agrawal. Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): Pankaj Mishra: The World After Gaza: A History Pankaj Mishra: How Gaza Shattered the West’s Mythology David E. R...

U.S. President Donald Trump began his second term with rapid-fire proposals ranging from invading Greenland to imposing tariffs on top trading partners. How are these moves being viewed globally? FP Live host Ravi Agrawal is joined by three experts, spanning three continents, to learn more. Nathalie Tocci serves as the director of the Italian think tank Istituto Affari Internazionali. Former Singa...

At a White House press briefing on Tuesday, the Trump administration maintained that it would impose a 25 percent tariff on imports from Mexico and Canada on Feb. 1. This comes after announcing a 10 percent duty on China earlier in the week. Trade and capital expert Brad Setser is skeptical that it will follow through, though, saying that the economic ramifications of tariffs at that scale would b...

FP Live host Ravi Agrawal kicked off a lively discussion on the new frontiers of cybersecurity at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. He was joined by panelists Samir Saran, president of the Observer Research Foundation; Matthew Prince, co-founder and CEO of Cloudflare; Andrius Kubilius, European commissioner for defense and space; Joe Kaeser, chairman of Siemens Energy’s supervisory b...

Immigration was a top issue among voters in the 2024 U.S. election, with President-elect Donald Trump calling for the “largest deportation operation in American history.” And with the incoming administration expected to take action as soon as Trump returns to office, what are the possible ramifications of this policy? Edward Alden, author of the recent book When the World Closed its Doors: The COV...

FP Live is joined by Comfort Ero, the president and CEO of the International Crisis Group, as she details the 2025 edition of “10 Conflicts to Watch.” From Sudan to Myanmar, Haiti, Ukraine, Iran, and beyond, why is the world facing so many crises at once, and how can it solve them? Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): Comfort Ero and Richard Atwood: 10 Conflicts to Watch in 2025 Aaron Da...