FP columnist Emma Ashford makes the case that we’re entering a post-unipolar world—that countries can sense that the United States is no longer an unchallenged superpower. If that’s the case, how should Washington adapt its foreign policy?
Ashford sits down with host Ravi Agrawal to discuss her new book, First Among Equals: U.S. Foreign Policy in a Multipolar World.
Plus, One Thing from Ravi on South Korea’s latest soft power hit, KPop Demon Hunters.
Ravi Agrawal: Is America Now Merely the First Among Equals?
Emma Ashford: Passing the Baton in Europe
Stephen M. Walt: The Realist Case for Global Rules
Michael Hirsh: Why Everyone in Washington Is a ‘Realist’ Now
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46:46
Is Trump Making India Turn Away From the United States?
The relationship between the world’s two largest democracies—India and the United States—could be in trouble. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warmly embraced his Russian and Chinese counterparts at a summit this week, shortly after the Trump administration pushed ahead with sky-high tariffs on Indian exports. Is New Delhi considering a shift in its geopolitical posture?
Former Indian Foreign Secretary Nirupama Rao sits down with host Ravi Agrawal. Plus, One Thing from Ravi on China’s massive military parade this week.
Nirupama Rao: Strategic Autonomy Is Nothing to Fear
C. Raja Mohan: Modi, Lee, and Trump’s Nobel Prize Obsession
Sam Roggeveen: China’s Military Is Now Leading
Rudra Chaudhuri: Can India and the U.S. Repair Their Relationship?
Anchal Vohra: India Is Struggling to Figure Out Trump
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Former Iranian FM to Trump: ‘Stop Listening to Bibi’
We talk a lot about Iran on this show, but we don’t often hear from Iranian leaders. I wanted to change that this week—and so I asked Mohammad Javad Zarif to come on the program. Zarif played a major role in crafting Iranian foreign policy over the last 15 years, as foreign minister from 2013 to 2021 and as the lead negotiator of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action. While Americans perceived him as the diplomatic face of Iran, at home he was seen as a reformer trying to hold off the hard-liners. Zarif served as Iran’s vice president of strategic affairs from 2024 to earlier this year, but he’s now out of government and a bit more free to express his opinions. He spoke with me about the June war between Israel and Iran and the prospects for diplomacy with the Trump administration.
Mohammad Javad Zarif: The Time for a Paradigm Shift Is Now
Trita Parsi: The Next Israel-Iran War is Coming
Steven A. Cook: In the Middle East, a Cold War Redux?
Charli Carpenter: Why the Nuclear Taboo Is Stronger Than Ever
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If Americans Are Lawyers and Chinese Are Engineers, Who Is Going to Win?
The United States and China are constantly looking for a leg up in their rivalry for geopolitical primacy. But what if the real advantage lies in adopting a bit of the other’s culture? A new book makes the case that while China has become an engineering state obsessed with building, the United States has become a lawyerly society focused on procedures and blocking. Can they learn from each other? Author and scholar Dan Wang sits down with Ravi Agrawal to discuss his new book, Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future.
Dan Wang: Breakneck: China’s Quest to Engineer the Future
Ravi Agrawal: Why China’s Tech Dominance Is Not Inevitable
Bob Davis: America’s Flailing Industrial Policy Can Take Lessons From China
James Palmer: A Guide to Censorship in China
Brought to you by: quince.com/fplive
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Grading Trump’s Ukraine Diplomacy
The Trump-Putin summit on Friday, followed by Monday’s unprecedented White House meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky and seven other European leaders, has left analysts wondering whether recent diplomacy will result in an end to hostilities—or if it’s all just pageantry. Andrea Kendall-Taylor and Sergey Radchenko sit down with Ravi Agrawal to debrief these two high-level meetings.
Kendall-Taylor is a former CIA analyst and a senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Radchenko is a Johns Hopkins University professor and the author of To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power.
Ravi Agrawal: Grading Trump’s Ukraine Diplomacy
Ivo H. Daalder: Russia and Ukraine Are as Far Apart as Ever
Stephen M. Walt: Trump Has No Idea How to Do Diplomacy
Rishi Iyengar: Key Takeaways From Trump’s Meeting with Zelensky
Keith Johnson: 7 Lingering Questions After the Trump Ukraine Summit
Michael Hirsh: Trump’s Putin Gambit Failed—but Maybe It Was Still Worth Trying
Sergey Radchenko: Not Unprecedented but Unprincipled
Christina Lu: ‘There’s No Deal Until There’s a Deal’
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Each week, Foreign Policy Live will feature a substantive conversation on world affairs. Host and FP editor in chief Ravi Agrawal will be joined by leading foreign-policy thinkers and practitioners to analyze a key issue in global politics, from the U.S.-China relationship to conflict and diplomacy. FP Live is your weekly fix for smart thinking about the world.
Foreign Policy magazine subscribers can watch these interviews live and submit questions and suggestions by going to https://foreignpolicy.com/live/.
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