Foreign Policy Live

An exclusive episode for our podcast listeners: Host and FP editor in chief Ravi Agrawal gives a preview of the latest print issue: “Letters to the Next President.” Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): Martin Kimani: How to Restore the American Center Arancha González: Isolationism Doesn’t Protect Danny Quah: Why America Should Drop Its Obsession With Being No. 1 Joseph E. Stiglitz: Play...

Former Trump administration National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster joins FP Live to debrief after the Harris-Trump debate. Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): Christina Lu and Amy Mackinnon: Top Foreign-Policy Moments From the Harris-Trump Debate FP Contributors: Letters to the Next President H.R. McMaster and Gabriel Scheinmann: U.S. Restraint Has Created an Unstable and Dangerous Wor...

Nicholas Burns has served as the U.S. ambassador to China since 2022, a period that encompasses not only the country’s COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns but also a series of high and low points in the U.S.-China relationship. How should Washington compete with Beijing without spiraling into conflict? Burns joins FP Live for a rare longform interview. Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): Robbie...

The violence on Oct. 7 and the war in Gaza seem to have derailed any hope for a two-state solution. With tensions in the Middle East continuing to escalate, and a cease-fire agreement proving elusive, what does a path forward for both the Israelis and Palestinians look like? Former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad shares his insights with FP Live. Suggested reading (FP links are p...

The Democratic National Convention concluded Thursday night with Vice President Kamala Harris accepting the party’s nomination. What did we learn about a potential Harris foreign policy? Matt Duss, former foreign-policy advisor to Sen. Bernie Sanders, and Anne-Marie Slaughter, former director of policy planning at the State Department, join FP Live to unpack this week’s DNC. Suggested reading (FP...

How do the proposed economic policies of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump differ—and where is there overlap? Adam Posen, the president of the nonpartisan Peterson Institute for International Economics, joins FP Live to discuss the two campaigns’ agendas. Suggested reading: Adam Posen on Industrial Policy: America’s Zero-Sum Economics Doesn’t Add Up Ravi Agrawal’s Inte...

The assassination of a key Hamas leader in Tehran, following the killing of a top Hezbollah commander in Beirut, could escalate an already tense conflict between Israel, Iran, and its proxies. Middle East expert Trita Parsi sits down with Ravi Agrawal to discuss what might happen next. Suggested reading: Steven A. Cook: Why Americans and Israelis Don’t See Eye to Eye on Iran Chicago Council on Glo...

A leading figure in the Trump administration’s national security team, Elbridge Colby, joins FP Live to discuss the Republican nominee’s potential agenda. He argues for a more business-like approach with allies and alliances as well as prioritizing Asia over Europe.  Suggested reading: Transcript: Decoding Trump’s Foreign Policy Stephen M. Walt: The Trump-Vance Unilaterialist Delusion Elbridge Col...

Former U.S. President Bill Clinton, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and Pussy Riot all have one thing in common—they’ve all sat in front of British portraitist Platon’s wide-angle lens. Platon joins FP Live to share what it’s like to be in the room with the top people in power and discuss how he captures these moments with his camera. Suggested reading: FP Live: How Platon Photographs Power Plat...

Few countries are better equipped to interpret the U.S.-China relationship than Singapore. The small but wealthy city-state has extensive contacts with Washington and Beijing and understands both sides. Singaporean Defense Minister Ng Eng Hen sits down with FP’s Ravi Agrawal on stage at the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado to discuss China’s assertiveness, U.S. soft power, and a shifting global or...

As NATO members up their defense spending to better equip the security alliance in the face of Russian aggression, Canada is coming in from criticism for lagging behind. How is Ottawa planning to rejuvenate its defense sector, and how is it thinking about new threats from the north, in the Arctic? Canadian Defense Minister Bill Blair sits down with Ravi Agrawal at FP’s Security Forum ahead of NATO...

Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski joins FP Live ahead of a summit marking NATO’s 75th anniversary in Washington.  Suggested reading: FP Contributors: Europe Alone Hal Brands: Trump’s Return Would Transform Europe Christopher S. Chivvis: NATO is Turning 75, but How Much is There to Celebrate? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

 U.S. President Joe Biden’s age and apparent frailty stole the show during the CNN presidential debate on June 27, overshadowing much of the domestic and foreign-policy issues discussed between him and his rival, former President Donald Trump. How is the debate being seen in the rest of the world? Political analysts Leslie Vinjamuri and Gideon Rachman join Ravi Agrawal to share their takeaways. Su...

Is capitalism broken? A growing number of Americans think so amid declining social mobility and rising inequality. According to investor Ruchir Sharma, author of What Went Wrong With Capitalism, the United States has gone on a decades-long debt binge, with too many regulations and a culture of bailouts, which he says has weakened dynamism in the economy—and capitalism itself. Sharma joins FP Live...

The United Nations’ high commissioner for refugees Filippo Grandi talks to FP Live ahead of a visit to Sudan on World Refugee Day. Are international institutions adequately equipped to help a rising number of displaced people around the world? What more should be done? Neha Wadekar: The World’s Refugee Relief is Utterly Broken Shelly Culbertson: A Chance to Fix the Broken Refugee Model Robbie Gram...

From pundits to polls, there was a wide expectation this year that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would not only win a rare third consecutive term, but also secure an even bigger parliamentary majority than he had before. As results emerged on Tuesday, it was clear that India’s voters had other ideas. Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party won the most seats—more than the entire opposition alliance co...

The presidential election in Mexico this weekend will likely result in the country’s first female president. It’s an open question, however, whether the front-runner in the polls and expected winner, Claudia Sheinbaum, will carry on the policies of her political mentor, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Former Mexican Ambassador to the United States Arturo Sarukhán joins Ravi Agrawal to analy...

Does progress always come with a backlash? How should societies think about managing the immense changes unleashed by technology and globalization? CNN host and author Fareed Zakaria joins FP Live to discuss his latest book, Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash From 1600 to the Present. Suggested reading: Michael Hirsh: Is This a Revolution? Or Are People Just Very Ticked Off? Michael Hirsh:...

Tehran has announced that it will hold elections on June 28 after President Ebrahim Raisi died in a helicopter crash on Sunday. Who might win, and what would that mean for Iranian politics—both at home and abroad? Iran experts Karim Sadjadpour and Robin Wright join FP’s Ravi Agrawal to discuss.  Suggested reading: Robin Wright: What Raisi’s Death Means for the Future of Iran  Ali Vaez and Hamidrez...

Increasingly, countries are closing off their economics and questioning the case for globalization. But where does this leave the Bretton Woods institutions intended to facilitate peace and prosperity through trade? World Trade Organization Director-General Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala joins FP Live to discuss. Suggested reading: Gordon Brown: A New Multilateralism Eswar Prasad: The World Will Regret Its R...

Chinese President Xi Jinping’s trip to Europe this week is “perhaps one of the most aggressive attempts on the part of the Chinese to actively foment disunity,” Evan Medeiros says. How will his visit play out in Washington, particularly on the heels of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s own diplomatic efforts in Beijing? And what would closer EU-China ties mean for U.S.-China competition? Me...

Gaza faces what the World Food Program is calling “catastrophic levels of hunger.” And the United Nations recently issued a report that said a famine is “imminent.” Ravi Agrawal is joined by two experts on the humanitarian situation in Gaza to discuss what the international community can do to prevent the worst outcomes. Sari Bashi is a program director for Human Rights Watch. Shira Efron is the d...

Now that Congress has approved around $60 billion in military aid to Ukraine, Washington is racing to get military supplies to the war’s front lines. How will Kyiv use the assistance, and how will it impact the course of the war? Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba sits down with FP Live from his office in Kyiv.  Suggested reading: J.D. Vance: The Math on Ukraine Doesn’t Add Up Jack Detsch: U...

The Republican Party is clearly divided on Ukraine, as recent votes in Congress have underscored. But beyond that, is it more united on foreign policy than we imagine? A new book argues just that. Matthew Kroenig is an FP columnist and a co-author of We Win, They Lose: Republican Foreign Policy and the New Cold War. He joins FP Live to discuss what a Trump 2.0 foreign policy might look like and wh...

Iran’s unprecedented attack on Israel last weekend accelerated concerns of a widening Middle East crisis. Israel’s response on Friday was limited and appeared to heed calls for caution by Western allies. What does this mean for the conflict in Gaza as well as the region? Ravi Agrawal is joined by Iran expert Suzanne Maloney and Israeli journalist Ronan Bergman for this discussion. Suggested readin...