Global I.Q. Podcast

Fiona Hill, one of the nation’s foremost experts on Russia, is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. She previously served as Deputy Assistant to the President and Senior Director for European and Russian Affairs on the National Security Council from 2017 through 2019. In November 2019, Hill testified before the House Intelligence Committee during the committee’s impeachment hearing. Dr. H...

John Boehner was a small business owner when he first decided to run for elected office after witnessing what he considered the negative effects of “high taxes and red tape” on American entrepreneurs. After two decades in office, Boehner became Speaker of the House in 2011 and immediately found himself in opposition to President Obama’s vision for America. In On the House, Boehner reflects on his...

It’s no secret that China is in the midst of dynamic change. Through an incisive look at President Xi Jinping’s political and economic reforms, Elizabeth Economy analyzes that transformation as it’s occurring today. One of the nation’s foremost experts on Chinese domestic and foreign policy, Economy writes with authority in her latest book, “The Third Revolution,” about the widespread implications...

A decade after the Arab Spring began in 2011, where does the Middle East stand today? At the time, the uprisings stunned the world and appeared to ignite a flame of freedom across the Arab world. But what came of the movements? From an ongoing civil war in Syria to the burgeoning democracy of Tunisia and reemerging protests in the region, the lasting effects of the Arab Spring span a wide range. I...

When so many of our home goods and clothing items are made in China, it may be a good idea to step back and understand how those goods actually get to us. In 2012, an Oregon mother, Julie Keith, came face to face with the reality of cheap American consumerism when an SOS letter from China fell out of a box of $5 Halloween decorations. The writer’s name was Sun Yi, an engineer imprisoned in a Chine...

Our virtual conversation with former Secretary of Defense General Jim Mattis will be moderated by Council President Emeritus Jim Falk. General Mattis served as the 26th secretary of defense from January 2017 through December 2018 after retiring from his 43-year career as an infantry marine in 2013. Through his decades of experience, General Mattis has developed an acute understanding of American f...

Paul Haenle will discuss the factors driving the downturn in the U.S.-China relations in recent years and the outlook for the relationship under the Biden administration. He will share his perspective on how Washington and Beijing can chart a more constructive path forward for the relationship, analyzing areas of confrontation, competition, problem-solving, and cooperation. About Haenle: Taken fro...

Former military officers and award-winning authors Admiral James Stavridis and Elliot Ackerman have written a geopolitical thriller about an imagined naval clash between the U.S. and China in the South China Sea in 2034. Based upon “actual decisions already made,” the novel imagines how “a single technological leap forward” enables China to blind and bind our military. Jim Mattis’ review of the no...

Ayman Safadi has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs & Expatriates for the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan since 2017 and has also served Deputy Prime Minister since October 2020. As you can see in his Twitter posts, he meets on a daily basis with foreign ministers and heads of state of countries in all regions of the world. In previous public appointments, he served as adviser to King Abdullah, Min...

Diplomacy’s equivalent of the military’s special forces is the “expeditionary diplomat,” a resourceful professional with specialized training from the Department of Defense and CIA who can take on the toughest diplomatic assignments in high threat, unstable or failed states. Join diplomatic correspondent Paul Richter, author of the “The Ambassadors,” for a virtual conversation with three of Americ...

Elizabeth Kolbert asks: “After doing so much damage, can we change nature, this time to save it?” In 2015, Kolbert won a Pulitzer Prize for her book chronicling humanity’s destructive behavior towards nature. She now turns her focus to the ways in which that very same human development may now be used to protect and save the planet. Meeting with scientists, engineers, and researchers, Kolbert shin...

How do we weigh the benefits of artificial intelligence with its potential harm? In Turning Point, Darrell West outlines a policy blueprint to maximize the benefits and minimize the downsides of AI. As AI becomes increasingly an unavoidable part of our lives, West breaks down the uses of AI, how it actually works, and how “the transformative technology of our time” causes economic disruptions. Nea...

At what cost should the U.S. continue leading the world? The Biden Administration has indicated in its first month that it is taking a different stance regarding alliances, particularly with Europe. How will this affect transatlantic relationships? Karen Donfried, president of the German Marshall Fund of the United States, has spent the entirety of her career trying to answer questions just like t...

Eleanor Roosevelt died nearly sixty years ago, but she remains a monumental figure in modern American history – a woman who devoted her life to the betterment of others as a diplomat, activist, humanitarian, and the longest-serving First Lady. David Michaelis’ newest book Eleanor offers readers the first-ever single-volume biography of all six decades of Eleanor Roosevelt’s extraordinary life. Fro...

When Syrian president Bashar al-Assad deployed chemical weapons against his own people in 2012, he crossed the “red line” drawn by President Obama. To avoid committing to another never-ending war, the U.S. president accepted Russian President Vladimir Putin’s offer to facilitate the removal of Assad’s chemical weapons. But it soon became clear that Russia’s end goal was to preserve Assad’s rule, l...

Nobel Prize-winning economist, best-selling author and New York Times columnist Paul Krugman says that there are economic misunderstandings about subjects such as health care, housing bubbles and tax reform that seem immortal, and he calls this “zombie economics.” He attempts to slay a few of these zombies in his newest book, breaking down the most pressing policy issues into engaging and easily u...

Ira Rosen, who has been a producer at 60 Minutes for nearly 25 years, reveals how episodes come together for one of American television’s longest-running programs. Full of personal anecdotes about some of the show’s biggest stars, including Chris Wallace, Diane Sawyer, and Barbara Walters, his book “Ticking Clock” exposes interview secrets, power dynamics between colleagues, and the journalistic p...

The National Interest said of Robert Zoellick: “He was instrumental in shaping the course of American foreign policy, and his impact is still felt today.” Having served as president of the World Bank, U.S. Trade Representative, and Deputy Secretary of State, Robert Zoellick has deep experience in global trade, technology and U.S. relations with Mexico. Zoellick will offer both a historical framewo...

A new biography published about George Washington is unlike any other. Described as “form-shattering and myth-crushing,” “keen and savage,” as well as “spirited and engaging,” historian Alexis Coe’s “You Never Forget Your First” chronicles the life of our first president from a 21st century and “decidedly feminist” perspective. Coe says, “I set out to write a book that was true, and different, and...

Sebastian Mallaby’s decades of experience covering economics make him one of the top financial reporters in the world. He worked as a reporter at The Economist for 13 years before joining the Washington Post in 1999 and was a contributing editor at the Financial Times. Mallaby’s work has also appeared in The Atlantic. At the Post, Mallaby’s topics of interest include “central banks, financial mark...

Has China reached the limits of its global expansion? Will it struggle to overcome new risks and endure global backlash as countries around the world come to terms with the repercussions of close relations with China – primarily strategic vulnerabilities to their independence and competitiveness? Informed by his meetings with activists, business managers, diplomats, and thinkers from across Africa...

In Washington’s farewell address of 1796, the president advised his successors to “steer clear of permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world." For the first century of American history, presidents heeded Washington’s advice. But events including the Spanish-American War and the devastating attack on Pearl Harbor required new engagements. World War II and the Cold War fundamentally c...

The Economist’s Adrian Wooldridge and John Mickelthwait argue that authoritarian East Asian governments have outperformed Western governments in their response to the stress test of the COVID-19 pandemic and, as a result, “In terms of geopolitics, the crisis has left the West weaker and Asia stronger.” As the public’s trust in government’s abilities has declined over the last fifty years, they poi...

Abby Rapoport is publisher and co-founder of the award-winning Stranger’s Guide, a unique travel publication for the globally connected age that encompasses print guides and newsletters along with curated products and partnerships. In an effort to combat stereotypes and encourage global awareness, more than half of the writers featured in Stranger’s Guide come from the location being covered. Writ...

In Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate, former senate-insider Adam Jentleson takes a critical look at the history of the filibuster and how it has been used on the Senate floor. Jentleson argues that the emergence of the filibuster has moved the Senate away from the founding fathers’ original vision for the legislative body by allowing individuals to “gridlock the federal government.” By of...