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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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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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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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

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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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European leaders, having agreed to spending 5 percent of their GDP on defense, now must decide where that money goes. What factors should they consider to make sure the money leads to the continent’s growth and a cutting-edge defense industrial base? Ravi Agrawal sits down with Jared Cohen, the president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs, to discuss.

Note: This discussion is part of a series of episodes brought to you by the Goldman Sachs Global Institute.

Ravi’s Recommendations:

Amitav Acharya: Pharaohs, Maharajas, and the Making of a Multipolar World

Robert Kagan: The Jungle Grows Back: America and Our Imperiled World

Additional Reading:

Ravi Agrawal: NATO Is Avoiding a Difficult Conversation

Jared Cohen: Don’t Bet Against the Dollar

Justin Logan: Trump Shouldn’t Settle for European Spending Pledges

Kori Schake: Is NATO Dead?

Matthew Kroenig: A Division of Labor Between Europe and Asia Won’t Work

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Harvard University professor and economist Dani Rodrik first questioned in the late 1990s whether globalization had gone too far. He joins FP Live to share his take on the Trump administration’s tariffs and how to navigate a historically turbulent moment in global trade.

Jamieson Greer: Trump’s Trade Representative: Why We Remade the Global Order

Dani Rodrik: Where Is the Global Resistance to Trump?

Ravi Agrawal: How to Navigate Trump’s Tariffs

Cameron Abadi: Are Tariffs the American Brexit?

Keith Johnson: Trump’s Long-Promised Tariffs Upend Global Trade

Peter Coy: No Need for Hoarding

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As images of starvation in Gaza continue to circulate online, unequivocal support for Israel may be waning in the West, with Britain, Canada, and France moving to formally recognize Palestine in recent weeks. How might this shift the status quo in the region? Daniel Levy, former Israeli peace negotiator and co-founder of J Street, sits down with Ravi Agrawal to discuss.

Stephen A. Cook: Why Recognizing Palestine Is Meaningless or Even Harmful

Stephen M. Walt: Meet the New Middle East, Same as the Old Middle East

Rob Geist Pinfold: Israel Is Sowing Chaos to Secure Displacement in Gaza

Oz Katerji: Britain’s Palestine Action Ban Is a Dangerous Overreach

Aaron David Miller and Lauren Morganbesser: Netanyahu’s Hold on Power Is Slipping. Will Trump Help?

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From Labubus and Chinese soft power to U.S. President Donald Trump’s flip-flopping on Ukraine, join host Ravi Agrawal for another FP Live Ask-Me-Anything.

Ravi Agrawal: Trump is Ushering In a More Transactional World

Henry Tugendhat and Janes Palmer: China Isn’t Ready to Replace USAID

Howard W. French: The U.S. Can No Longer Stave Off Competition From China

Alexandra Sharp: Trump Announces a 25 Percent Tariff on India

Rishi Iyengar: The Trump Trade Tracker

Graham Allison: Is This the Start of a U.S.-China Friendship?

Stephen M. Walt: Trump’s Missed Opportunities Are Piling Up

Sushant Singh: Trump Is Pushing India to Submit to China

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Michael McFaul, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia, joins FP Live to assess the Trump administration’s shifting policies on Ukraine and how that could impact the ongoing war. McFaul is currently a professor at Stanford University and writes the McFaul’s World newsletter.

Michael Hirsch: The Enduring Mystery of Trump’s Relationship with Russia

Luke Coffey: Trump’s Ukraine Shift Sends the Right Signal to Putin

Christian Caryl: Democracy is Ukraine’s Most Powerful Weapon

Franz-Stefan Gady: The Air Battle That Could Decide the Russia-Ukraine War

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quince.com/FPlive

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