Foreign Policy Live

U.S. public opinion is undergoing a dramatic shift, with more and more Americans calling for less military support to Israel. So, is the “special relationship” between the two countries over? According to an essayist in Foreign Policy’s latest print issue, the partnership has peaked—and the only way to go is down. Why is that, and how did we get here? Joshua Leifer, a columnist for Haaretz and author of that essay, joins FP Live to explore trends in the U.S.-Israeli partnership.

Plus, Ravi shares his read on the proposed U.S.-Iran cease-fire deal.

Paul Musgrave: Iran Is a Bigger Defeat Than Vietnam

Will Todman: Everyone Lost the War With Iran

Menahem Merhavy: Iran’s Victory Is More Pyrrhic Than It Looks

Joshua Leifer: The End of the U.S.-Israel Alliance

FP’s Summer Print Issue: The End of the World as We Know It

David E. Rosenberg: Netanyahu’s Reelection Could Hinge on Outcome of Iran War

Steven A. Cook: Why the U.S. Should Wind Down Military Aid to Israel

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This week, the largest-ever World Cup will commence. Across the three host countries—Canada, Mexico, and the United States—48 teams will play 104 matches in 16 cities. But it also comes amid a particularly fraught geopolitical backdrop. Not only have the three hosts spent the last year sparring over immigration, trade, and even national sovereignty, but one of them, the United States, is at war with fellow participant Iran. Top soccer expert and Times economics editor Mehreen Khan joins FP Live to explore just how exceptional this World Cup is. 

Plus, Ravi shares his read on troubles for China’s solar industry. 

Financial Times: Adam Tooze: Wasting China’s solar panel surplus is madness

The Economist: China’s world-beating solar industry is in turmoil

FP Coverage of the World Cup

Bobby Ghosh: Sleeping in Mexico, Playing in America

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What would it take to end the Iran war? What exit strategies are still available to the United States? Robert Malley, a former lead negotiator of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal and the Biden administration’s special envoy for Iran, joins FP’s Ravi Agrawal to discuss the current talks to open the Strait of Hormuz. 

Plus, Ravi offers his read on why U.S. President Donald Trump is wavering between two extremes on a cease-fire deal.

New York Times: Robert Malley and Stephen Wertheim: Of Course Trump Bombed Iran

Wall Street Journal: Condoleezza Rice: What the U.S. Has Accomplished in Iran

Ali Hashem: The World Keeps Asking Iran the Wrong Question

Michael Hirsh: Why the U.S. Is Headed for a Long War With Iran

Matthew Kroenig: Iran Does Not Have a Right to Enrich Uranium

Sina Azodi: The Myth of Zero Enrichment

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If the rules-based order is broken, what comes next? And who will lead it? Mark Leonard argues in his new book, Surviving Chaos: Geopolitics When the Rules Fail, that the coming system will be “un-order,” governed not by China or the United States but by no one at all. Are states responding quickly enough? Leonard, who is the director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, joins FP Live’s Ravi Agrawal to explore how policymakers should adjust.

Hal Brands: Three Scenarios for a Post-Trump World

Stephen M. Walt: Chinese Hegemony Might Be Happening

James Palmer: China Doesn’t Always Win When the U.S. Loses

Michael Hirsch: After the Nation-State

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U.S. President Donald Trump arrived in Beijing for his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping to great fanfare but left with little to show for it. What does the Trump-Xi summit reveal about the balance of power between the world’s two biggest economies? Rana Mitter, a top historian of China, joins FP Live to discuss where the world’s most important relationship is headed.

Plus, Ravi shares his read on why the Iran war may be Trump’s greatest failure. 

Ravi Agrawal: Iran Could Be Trump’s Greatest Failure

James Palmer: The Trump-Xi Summit Was Remarkably Banal

Fareed Zakaria: Trump’s China Pragmatism Is Welcome

Stephen M. Walt: Chinese Hegemony Might Be Happening

James Palmer: China Doesn’t Always Win When the U.S. Loses

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There’s little doubt that the conflict in Iran has hurt much of the world economy. But not Russia. Data suggests that the Kremlin has already made billions of dollars in additional oil revenue since the United States and Israel attacked Iran. But beyond just cash, how much will this change President Vladimir Putin’s broader strategy? And what does this mean for the fate of the war in Ukraine? Alexander Gabuev, the director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center, joins FP Live to explain how Russia is navigating a moment of particular global flux.

Plus, Ravi offers his read on U.S. President Donald Trump’s visit to Beijing.

Christian Caryl: Vladimir Putin Is Much Weaker Than You Think

Sean Wiswesser: Don’t Fall for Rumors of Putin’s Weakness

Keith Johnson: Russia Is Making Bank on Trump’s Iran War

Christian Caryl: How Ukraine Benefited From Trump’s Iran War

Alexey Kovalev: Russia’s War Boom Masks an Economic Implosion

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While the conflict in Iran has dominated headlines in the last two months, accounts of ordinary life in the Islamic Republic are scarce. According to journalist Ali Hashem, who spent six weeks in Tehran and has visited several times in the last decade, life in the capital looks more normal than one might imagine. Shops and restaurants are largely open, and regular people seem to be rallying around the flag in the face of an external threat. And while the internet as we know it is shut down, an intranet of sorts—with access to local versions of Netflix, Uber, and WhatsApp—is allowing people a semblance of regular life. Hashem speaks with host Ravi Agrawal about his reporting from Iran. 

Ali Hashem: Iran Is More Unified Than Ever

Ali Hashem: The Iran Cease-Fire Has Only Divided the War

Ali Hashem: Waiting for the War to End in Tehran

Ali Hashem: Iran Is Becoming America’s Ukraine

Ali Hashem: Iran Is Built to Withstand the Ayatollah’s Assassination

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It’s time for another ask-me-anything edition of FP Live. This one takes on the war in Iran from many angles: the economic impact, regional balance of power, the longer-term global impact, and much else. Producer Dana Sherne puts audience questions to FP’s editor in chief Ravi Agrawal.

Ravi Agrawal: The World Is Paying the Price for America’s War

Ravi Agrawal: Trump Is Losing the War in Iran

Stephen M. Walt: The End of America’s Soft Power

Amir Handjani: The Real Meaning of the UAE’s OPEC Exit

Aaron David Miller and Daniel C. Kurtzer: Why Trump Might Come to Regret the Iran War

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The extension of a fragile cease-fire in the Middle East has left the region with no clear path forward. The Strait of Hormuz is still blocked, which means the global energy crisis will get worse. But Tehran’s new leaders are suffering too. What is their plan? Iran expert Karim Sadjadpour joins FP Live to discuss the shifting state of the war.

Plus, Ravi shares his read on how the war’s economic fallout is worst in Asia.

Ravi Agrawal: The World Is Paying the Price for America’s War

David Ignatius: Both Sides Want a Deal. Both Keep Acting As if They Don’t.

Menahem Merhavy: The Man Who Represents Post-Clerical Iran

Bobby Ghosh: Tehran Can’t Count on Hormuz

Philip H. Gordon and Rebecca Lissner: The Strategic Aftershocks of Trump’s Iran War

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The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is like a ticking time bomb for the global economy, disrupting the flow of energy and rippling through industries from agriculture to semiconductors. How bad could it get? The International Monetary Fund has cut its forecast for global growth this year from 3.4 percent to 3.1 percent in the best-case scenario and 2 percent in the worst case. What countries will be the most affected, and what can they do to protect themselves? Gita Gopinath, an economics professor at Harvard University who was formerly the first deputy managing director of the IMF, joins FP Live to discuss.

IMF’s World Economic Outlook: Global Economy in the Shadow of War

Ravi Agrawal: The World Is Paying the Price for America’s War

Keith Johnson: Why Iran Isn’t Blinking Yet

Jason Bordoff and Spencer Dale: Making the U.S. More Resilient to Oil Price Shocks

Esfandyar Batmanghelidj: The Iran War Is Jeopardizing the Entire Global Economy

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