What are the likely consequences of U.S. military action against Iran. In today's episode, John Mearsheimer argues that even a limited strike could trigger dangerous escalation.

Public opinion, especially among younger Americans, has shifted against Israel. There is very little public support for a war with Iran, and there are deep divisions within Trump’s MAGA base on the issue. Trump’s instincts are to avoid dangerous escalation and forever wars. And U.S. Sunni allies, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and the Gulf states, oppose a U.S. war with Iran. And yet we are heading into another U.S. war on Iran. Why? 

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Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and Sky News, where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. For 30 years, since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.

Is the Woke Era Over? Brendan O’Neill on the vibe shift

Is Western culture undergoing a major shift? In recent years, cancel culture, identity politics, and ideological conformity reshaped public debate across universities, media, corporations, and politics. Supporters saw long-overdue social progress. Critics warned of growing intolerance toward dissent. Now, some observers argue the tide is turning.

In this episode of Switzerland, Tom Switzer speaks with British writer Brendan O’Neill -- one of the most prominent critics of cancel culture and identity politics -- about whether a genuine “vibe shift” is underway, what’s driving it, and what it means for free speech, democracy, and intellectual pluralism.  Brendan O’Neill’s new book is called Vibe Shift: The Revolt Against Wokeness, Greenism and Technocracy (Spiked publications).

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Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and Sky News, where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. For 30 years, since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.

As Washington and Tehran negotiate over Iran’s nuclear program, ballistic missiles and regional militias, the risk of confrontation in the Persian Gulf is once again rising. On Switzerland, Tom Switzer is joined by two of the world’s leading experts on Iran and Syria -- Vali Nasr and Joshua Landis -- to examine whether diplomacy can avert war, what Iran’s leaders really want, and how weakened proxy networks, such as Hezbollah, are reshaping the region. They explore the legacy of Sunni–Shia rivalry, the collapse of the Assad regime’s rule, America’s military posture in the Gulf, and how Donald Trump's MAGA movement may help avert a new Middle East conflict. 

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Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and Sky News, where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. For 30 years, since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.

In this episode of Switzerland, Nick Eberstadt, one of the world’s leading demographers, addresses global depopulation and the coming demographic shock. He explains why falling birth rates and ageing populations are becoming one of the defining forces of the 21st century. From East Asia and Europe to the United States, Eberstadt argues that global depopulation will reshape economic growth, labour markets, welfare states, military power, and the balance between nations -- often in ways policymakers are unprepared for.

The Chinese authorities enforced a one-child policy for three to four decades, and now the country faces massive depopulation. Could the CCP enforce a two-child policy? Could AI, robotics, and automation solve China’s demographic problem? Could slashed immigration to the US make America’s depopulation problem worse? And could falling maths and literacy scores threaten to topple America’s status as a global superpower?

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The legendary historian Max Hastings on NATO, China, democracy — and whether today’s world resembles 1914.

In this episode of Switzerland, Tom Switzer is joined by Sir Max Hastings — one of Britain’s most distinguished military historians, journalists, and former newspaper editors — for a wide-ranging conversation about war, power, and the fate of the Western order. They explore whether today’s fractured international system bears dangerous similarities to 1914, the impact of Donald Trump on U.S. foreign policy, Europe’s strategic vulnerability, NATO’s future, the rise of authoritarianism, and the challenges posed by Russia and China. Drawing on decades of scholarship and reportage, Hastings reflects on nationalism, Brexit, technology’s growing political power, and the enduring strengths — and vulnerabilities — of democratic societies in an age of renewed great-power rivalry.

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The discussion ranges across Israel’s war in Gaza, the wave of protests in Western cities, debates over free speech and community relations, and Australia’s own tensions following the Bondi attacks and the political controversy surrounding Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s response. Future episodes feature Nicholas Eberstadt on global depopulation and Sir Max Hastings on global disorder

Does sharp criticism of Israel’s conduct in Gaza inevitably shade into antisemitism? In the days after the December 14 Bondi terror attacks, Australian leader Anthony Albanese faced fierce criticism -- from the conservative opposition at home and from Benjamin Netanyahu abroad -- over how his government had responded to rising tensions and Jewish community fears. Those scenes, including the angry public reception the Prime Minister received at Bondi, have become emblematic of how raw and polarised the atmosphere has become.

All of this is unfolding alongside a conflict in Gaza that generated mass protests across cities from London to New York to Sydney -- demonstrations that supporters describe as humanitarian, and critics fear can blur into hostility toward Jews. These matters are put to Professor John Mearsheimer from the University of Chicago and former Singaporean diplomat and policy maker Kishore Mahbubani. Future episodes feature Nicholas Eberstadt on global depopulation and Max Hastings on global disorder. 

Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and Sky News, where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. For 30 years, since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world. 

Join Tom's Exclusive Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/cff5e11f69a3/switzerland-with-tom-switzer

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Donald Trump says Greenland must become American -- by consent if possible, by force if necessary. Europe has responded with a flat refusal, warning that any American land grab could trigger the unravelling of NATO itself.  

In the third of his new YouTube program, Switzerland, Tom Switzer puts questions to Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the National Interest in Washington, and professors Kishore Mahbubani from Singapore and John Mearsheimer from Chicago. Subjects include the future of NATO, the decline of Europe and French President de Gaulle’s prediction that the US would withdraw its military forces from the continent.

Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times (international), The Australian, and across ABC and Sky News, where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. For 30 years, since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.

Join Tom's Exclusive Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/cff5e11f69a3/switzerland-with-tom-switzer

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In the first of a two-part series of his new YouTube program, Switzerland, Tom Switzer puts questions to two leading intellectual critics of the western foreign-policy consensus: professors Kishore Mahbubani from Singapore and John Mearsheimer from Chicago. Subjects include the Sino-American strategic competition, trade wars, the Trump administration’s National Security Statement, great powers’ spheres of influence, the Russia-China “axis,” and the subject of Kishore’s important 2020 book, Has China Won? The second part, forthcoming, will concentrate on US-Europe affairs and the resurgence of antisemitism in the wake of the Bondi massacres.

Read Tom's Substack: https://substack.com/@tomswitzer

Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Australian, and across ABC and Sky News, where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. For 30 years, since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.

Has President Trump made a historic mistake in Venezuela?  

On his new program, Switzerland, Tom Switzer challenges John Bolton and John Mearsheimer on the Trump administration’s move to remove Nicolás Maduro from power. Bolton, Trump’s former national security adviser, argues the operation is justified if it delivers real regime change. Mearsheimer, the University of Chicago political scientist, warns the intervention makes no strategic sense and risks dangerous precedents. 

Is President Trump willing to settle for Maduro 2.0? Does Venezuela mark a break from the post-war liberal order? Will Beijing and Moscow draw lessons for Taiwan and Ukraine? Can Washington control Venezuela’s oil without nation-building? And how does this intervention square with Trump’s promise to avoid foreign entanglements? 

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Join Tom's Exclusive Newsletter: https://mailchi.mp/cff5e11f69a3/switzerland-with-tom-switzer 

Read Tom's Substack: https://substack.com/@tomswitzer

Tom Switzer is a journalist and broadcaster who has been a prolific commentator on politics and international affairs. His writing and commentary have appeared in outlets including The Wall Street Journal, The Australian, and across ABC and Sky News, where he has been a regular presenter and panellist. For 30 years, since 1995, he has worked at the Washington-based American Enterprise Institute, the Australian Financial Review, The Australian, the London-based Spectator magazine, and the Sydney-based Centre for Independent Studies, which he headed from 2017 to 2025. He is the host of Switzerland, a long-form interview series exploring global politics, modern history, and the ideas shaping the world.