All Episodes
Power Problems — 211 episodes
Embracing Multipolarity
Modeling War on the Korean Peninsula
A Regime Change War in Iran?
Do Madman Tactics Work?
Gen Z, Internationalism, & Change in Foreign Policy
Can Trump Make a Deal with Iran?
UFOs, Aliens, & National Security
Why America Needs to Change Its Nuclear Weapons Posture
India’s Quest for Major Power Status
Strategic Empathy & the Roots of the Ukraine War
The Return of Bipolarity
Reconsidering US Strategy in Europe & Asia
Trump, Conquest, & the Laws of War
The AI Competition with China
Perverse Incentives in the Permanent War Economy
Negotiating Peace in Ukraine
The Fall of Assad & Syria's Uncertain Future
How Not to Fix U.S. Foreign Policy
Foreign Policy in the Second Trump Term
The Trouble with Tariffs and the Future of Trade
Status, Revisionism, & US-China Relations
Is Whataboutism Effective?
Why Can't America Retrench?
Not Another Axis of Evil
The Pentagon’s Budgetary Time Bomb
The Rising Costs of Overseas Military Bases
Security Dilemmas, Great Powers, & International Order
Should America Let Europe Defend Itself?
Ukraine, NATO, and the End of the War
Why Security Assistance Fails
Classical Realism, Purpose, and the Rise of China
The Trouble with US Support for Israel & Ukraine
Drones, Secrecy, and Endless War
Regional "Push Factors" in the Emigration Upsurge
Reevaluating the "Special Relationship" with Israel
The Economics of Great Power War & Peace
The Hard Choice of Retrenchment
The Will to Hegemony
Elite Politics & the Hawkish Bias in US Foreign Policy
Managing Instability in Europe, Asia, & the Middle East
Arms, Influence, and the Military Industrial Complex
The Middle East Is a Powder Keg. Washington Is Making It Worse
The Economic War on China Is Self-Defeating
"Credibility" Is Not What You Think It Is
The Realism of Reinhold Niebuhr
Israel, Gaza, and America’s Broken Middle East Policy
America Is Eroding the International Order
Human Psychology and Nuclear Brinkmanship
Middling Powers & U.S. Decline
Can the “Restraint Coalition” Endure?
Tripwires, Public Opinion, & War
The Perils of Being the World's Biggest Arms Trafficker
Social Science, Think Tanks, & National Security Policy
India, the Swing State?
The National Security Implications of Artificial Intelligence
Nobody Wins in Ukraine
Managing China, Avoiding War
Market Adjustment and Foreign Policy Failure
Honor, Deterrence, and Peace
The Politics of the China Threat in East Asia
Chinese vs American Diplomacy in the Middle East
Strategy, Restraint, and the Pursuit of Dominance
Quantifying US Militarism
After Ukraine, Does Europe Need the US Military?
Identity, Power, and the Struggle for Recognition
The Changing U.S.-Pakistan Relationship
Biden’s Foreign Policy Promises
Covert Action and International Law
Vacuum Fears & U.S. Foreign Policy
The Persistent Status Quo on North Korea
Nuclear Weapons, Strategic Stability, and Ukraine
Overpowered: Restraining Presidential War Authority
Stabilizing Great Power Rivalry
A Realist’s Guide to Russia’s War in Ukraine
How to Avoid a Zero-Sum U.S.-China Relationship
What We Get Wrong about Cyber Security
Afghanistan: One Year After US Withdrawal
Poking the Dragon and the Bear
Ukraine and the Discourse of War
Biden’s Incoherent Iran Policy
The Transatlantic Divide
Great Powers and Territorial Disputes
Prediction and Judgement: Artificial Intelligence & War
The Dangerous Contradictions in U.S.-Syria Policy
Intelligence, Politics, & National Security Policy
Enemy Images, Foreign & Domestic
National Security and the Image of Public Harmony
Neutrality for Ukraine?
The End of the Post-Cold War Era?
Russia, Ukraine, and European Security
Too Many Secrets: How to Fix Overclassification
Public Choice and U.S. Grand Strategy
How to Defuse the Ukraine Crisis
Quantum Mind and Social Science
Competing for Status?
Nuclear Competition and MAD
The Erosion of Civil-Military Relations
Spending Smarter: How to Fix the U.S. Military Budget
Oil & Great Power Politics
Bad Friends: America’s Middle East Allies
The Battle of Ideas over America's Role in the World
A Distracted Grand Strategy
Cutting Through the Noise on Afghanistan Withdrawal
How to Actually End Endless Wars
The "Restraint Coalition" and Strategy toward China
Foreign Policy Malpractice Since 9/11
Afghanistan: An End to the War or a Shift in Tactics?
Realpolitik and Diplomacy: Are States Rational?
The Limits of Force in Israel-Palestine
America's Oil Myths
Public Opinion & U.S. Foreign Policy
Abetting State Violence
China's Evolving Strategy
The Negativity Bias
Fixing US Diplomacy
The Stupidity of War
A New Approach in Asia
The Search for a Conservative Foreign Policy
Domestic Politics and the China Scare
Shining a Light on the SolarWinds Hack
Should America Abandon "Global Leadership"?
Liberalizing the Liberal Order?
Manifest Destiny in the Stars?
Trump to Biden: A foreign Policy Shift?
Thucydides Again?
On Declinism and American Influence
China, India, and Sovereignty in the Himalayas
A Tour of South Asia
With Friends Like These
Power Problems/Pop & Locke Crossover: Dr. Strangelove
After Coronavirus III: Great Powers and COVID
After Coronavirus II: The Pandemic and The Defense Budget
Trevor's Farewell Episode
After Coronavirus I: Can the Global Economy be Saved?
The Robot Revolution Will Not Be Televised
Building a Modern Military: The Force Meets Geopolitical Realities
What the World Thinks about America in the Age of COVID-19
Donald Trump and the Generals
COVID-19 and International Security
Amer-Exit?
A Strategy for Cyberspace?
OPEC+ or OPEC-?
Twitter in the Time of Trump
Greeted as Liberators? Regime Change and Reality
The Future of Progressive Foreign Policy
Reading Trump’s Trade Tea Leaves
China’s Authoritarian Turn
Maximum Pressure Meets Maximum Resistance: Trump vs. Iran
Irregular Channels: Unpacking the Ukraine Affair
The Quincy Institute Makes a Splash
Misplaced Confidence or Militarized Patriotism? Public Attitudes towards the U.S. Military
Fuel to the Fire: How Trump Made America’s Broken Foreign Policy Even Worse
Tests and Temptations: The Nuclear Balance in Asia
Should We Stay or Should We Go? The U.S. and the Middle East
The US Defense Industry: Arsenal of Democracy or the Walmarts of War?
Dunking on Huntington: Nationalism in U.S. Foreign Policy
The Trade War to End All Trade Wars?
If I Had a Hammer
Power Problems Live! The Kennan Sweepstakes
Nuclear Crossroads II: The Arms Control Serial Killer
Nuclear Crossroads I: America Ad Astra
The Arab Winter
America Adrift: Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy
Peace, War and Liberty
Will John Bolton Finally Get His Iran War?
Insurgent Women
Back to the Future: China, the U.S. and the “New Cold War”
Enter the Cyber Mercenaries
Failure (to Launch?): Donald Trump in Hanoi
How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maduro?
Great Power Competition, Part II
Great Power Competition, Part I
Mr. Trump, Tear Down That Wall
Holiday Edition: 2018 in Review
Nostalgianomics: Trump, Trade, and American Foreign Policy
Free Thoughts/Power Problems Crossover: What do Libertarians Believe About Foreign Policy?
The Future of Liberal Foreign Policy
The Future of Conservative Foreign Policy
Scattershot Sanctions: The Trump Administration and the World
Donald Trump, the Blob, and the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy
So What Did I Miss?
Out of Order? Debating the Past and Future of the Liberal International Order
It’s Not Just about the Elephants: Understanding Illegal Wildlife Trafficking
Trump's Iran Policy: Strategy or Strategery?
The Complicated Case of the Rohingyas
Counterterrorism Strategy in the Trump Era - Firm or Faux?
Works for Wonks: A Summer Reading List
When Terrorists Have Ji-had Enough
Statesmanship in the 21st Century
To Summit or Not to Summit? Trump and North Korea
The US: Global Force for Good?
It’s (Not) a Thucydides Trap: Rising Powers and Time Horizons
Arms Bizarre: Selling Weapons in the Age of Trump
Out of Africa: A New Front in the War on Terror
Here Comes the New Russia, Same as the Old Russia
Yemen: One War or Three?
The Nuclear Posture Review: Pushing All the Wrong Buttons?
The Trump Doctrine at One Year
A Trade Policy Deficit
Hype and Hype-ability: Threat Inflation in U.S. Foreign Policy
All I Want for Christmas Is an F-35: Trump, the Generals and the Pentagon
Power Problems Live Event Announcement
A Syria(s) Problem: Chemical Weapons & International Norms
Middle East Madness
Trump and Iran: Deal or No Deal?
Desperate Times, Desperate Measures
The Art of the (Nuclear) Deal
Kim Jong Trump
Same Strategy, Different Day
It’s All about Those (Military) Bases
More Power More Problems