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Power Problems

Power Problems is a biweekly podcast from the Cato Institute. Host John Glaser offers a skeptical take on U.S. foreign policy, and discusses today’s big questions in international security with guests from across the political spectrum. Podcast Hashtag: #CatoFP. The podcast is available for subscription via iTunes, and RSS.

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  • March 18, 2025
    Power Problems
    Strategic Empathy & the Roots of the Ukraine War
    Strategic Empathy & the Roots of the Ukraine War
    Barry Posen, professor of political science at MIT, argues that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 qualifies as a preventive war and was motivated in part to thwart U.S.-led efforts to expand NATO in Europe. He responds to detractors from this view and also discusses the partial political responsibility of U.S. leaders, the difference between explaining the war and justifying it, the lack of strategic empathy in U.S. foreign policy, how best to negotiate the end of the war, and whether the U.S. is making a similar mistake in incentivizing preventive war logic in Beijing with respect to Taiwan.
    Featuring Barry R. Posen and John Glaser
  • March 4, 2025
    Power Problems
    The Return of Bipolarity
    The Return of Bipolarity
    Jennifer Lind, Associate Professor at Dartmouth College, argues that China’s rise now means the world is back to a bipolar balance of power. She provides insight into how U.S. foreign policy should manage this new reality and discusses why polarity is important, how to measure the balance of power, how stable unipolar, bipolar, and multipolar systems are, the major points of conflict between the US and China, and what to do about Taiwan, among other topics.
    Featuring Jennifer Lind and John Glaser
  • February 18, 2025
    Power Problems
    Reconsidering US Strategy in Europe & Asia
    Reconsidering US Strategy in Europe & Asia
    Miranda Priebe, senior political scientist at RAND, discusses US strategy towards Europe and Asia and how to manage relations with Russia and China. She talks about changes to US posture towards Europe and Russia following the Ukraine war, NATO strategy, how to manage the Russia-China relationship, and potential changes to US posture in Asia, particularly towards Taiwan. She also touches upon the ‘isolationist’ label, the complicated politics of restraint, and how to put diplomacy at the forefront of US foreign policy, among other topics. 
    Featuring Miranda Priebe and John Glaser
  • February 4, 2025
    Power Problems
    Trump, Conquest, & the Laws of War
    Trump, Conquest, & the Laws of War
    Oona Hathaway, professor of international law at Yale University, addresses President Trump’s plans to expand US territory into Greenland, the Panama Canal, and Canada. She discusses international law, the causes of the decline in interstate war, the difference between norms and laws, the problem of enforcement, tensions between norms against conquest and the need for a negotiated peace in the Russia-Ukraine war, among other topics.
    Featuring Oona A. Hathaway and John Glaser
  • January 21, 2025
    Power Problems
    The AI Competition with China
    The AI Competition with China
    Sam Bresnick, Research Fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology, discusses artificial intelligence in the context of the US-China relationship. He explains how AI will be used by states in coming years and compares different obstacles and advantages that both the US and China have in their competition to develop AI and its various applications. Among other topics, he also discusses diplomatic pathways for the US and China to avoid dangerous AI scenarios. 
    Featuring Sam Bresnick and John Glaser
  • January 7, 2025
    Power Problems
    Perverse Incentives in the Permanent War Economy
    Perverse Incentives in the Permanent War Economy
    Julia Gledhill, Research Associate for the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center, discusses the “permanent war economy” and ongoing efforts to increase military spending. She also talks about perverse incentives for defense contractors, the myth that military spending is properly construed as a jobs program, and the lack of strategic thinking in policy debates on how to confront China, among other issues. 
    Featuring Julia Gledhill and John Glaser
  • December 24, 2024
    Power Problems
    Negotiating Peace in Ukraine
    Negotiating Peace in Ukraine
    Anatol Lieven, Director of the Eurasia Program at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, discusses how the international politics of the Ukraine war have changed since Trump’s election win, how to move towards  negotiations to end the war, and the various issues - from territory to NATO membership - to be resolved in any peace deal. 
    Featuring Anatol Lieven and John Glaser
  • December 10, 2024
    Power Problems
    The Fall of Assad & Syria’s Uncertain Future
    The Fall of Assad & Syria’s Uncertain Future
    Joshua Landis, professor of Middle East studies at the University of Oklahoma, discusses the recent rebel advances in Syria, the causes and conditions that paved the way for these events, the many mistakes of US policy since the start of the civil war, and the regional politics wrapped up in Syria’s future. 
    Featuring Joshua Landis and John Glaser
  • November 26, 2024
    Power Problems
    How Not to Fix US Foreign Policy
    How Not to Fix US Foreign Policy
    Stephen Walt, professor of international relations at Harvard University, discusses the foreign policy implications of Trump’s victory, the extent to which it represents a rejection of “Liberal Hegemony,” and why Trump failed in his first term to set U.S. foreign policy on a new course. He also discusses the bureaucratic challenges of reforming foreign policy, what to expect from Trump in the second term, and the potentially beneficial constraints of “American decline,” among other topics.
    Featuring Stephen M. Walt and John Glaser
  • November 12, 2024
    Power Problems
    Foreign Policy in the Second Trump Term
    Foreign Policy in the Second Trump Term
    Stephen Wertheim, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Brandan P. Buck, research fellow at the Cato Institute, discuss the impact of foreign policy in Trump’s electoral victory, whether Democrats will rethink their foreign policy agenda following their losses, what changes Trump might make with respect to the wars in Europe and the Middle East and towards China, among other topics. 
    Featuring Brandan P. Buck, Stephen Wertheim, and John Glaser
  • October 29, 2024
    Power Problems
    The Trouble with Tariffs and the Future of Trade
    The Trouble with Tariffs and the Future of Trade
    Scott Lincicome, vice president of general economics at the Cato Institute, discusses America’s new regime of high protective tariffs under the Trump and Biden administrations and assesses what may be to come on trade policy under a future Trump or Harris administration. He discusses the overly expansive authorities presidents have to impose tariffs, the weakness of commonly employed national security justifications for them, and the economics of why tariffs fail, among other topics. 
    Featuring Scott Lincicome and John Glaser
  • October 15, 2024
    Power Problems
    Status, Revisionism, & US-China Relations
    Status, Revisionism, & US-China Relations
    Alex Yu-Ting Lin, Assistant Director and Senior Research Fellow at the University of Notre Dame’s International Security Center, explains how China’s concerns about status interact with smaller regional states and how that in turn helps shape the US-China rivalry. He examines how states use information warfare to delegitimize adversaries’ foreign policies and applies his analysis to US-China relations. He also discusses Euro-centric bias in international relations studies, China’s approach to flashpoints like the South China Sea and Taiwan, whether China should be considered “revisionist,” among other topics.
    Featuring Alex Yu-Ting Lin and John Glaser
  • October 1, 2024
    Power Problems
    Is Whataboutism Effective?
    Is Whataboutism Effective?
    Dov Levin, Associate Professor of International Relations at the University of Hong Kong, examines the effects of whataboutism - essentially, charges of U.S. hypocrisy - on Americans’ foreign policy views. He explains his survey experiments to test the effectiveness of whatbaoutism on US public opinion and how it might shape policy. He also discusses his work on U.S. foreign election interference, the academic literature on hypocrisy costs, U.S. foreign policy activism, and avenues for future research on whataboutism.
    Featuring Dov Levin and John Glaser
  • September 17, 2024
    Power Problems
    Why Can’t America Retrench?
    Why Can’t America Retrench?
    Peter Harris critiques America’s grand strategy of primacy and advocates for a move to restraint that necessarily includes wholesale reforms to domestic as well as foreign policy. He explains why primacy has persisted despite the wisdom of retrenchment and how decades of an expansive foreign policy has shaped American politics, culture, and institutions. He also discusses the problems of vested interests, partisanship, and how to make restraint more salable to the public.
    Featuring Peter Harris and John Glaser
  • September 3, 2024
    Power Problems
    Not Another Axis of Evil
    Not Another Axis of Evil
    Daniel DePetris and Jennifer Kavanagh discuss the latest iteration of the Axis of Evil threat, this time in reference to China, Russia, North Korea, and Iran, and argue it is misconstrued and overhyped. They discuss threat inflation, the relationship dynamics among these four powers, including China and Russia’s relationship and how US posture has been pushing them together, the state of the Russia-Ukraine war, China’s role in the Middle East, the problem of prioritizing threats and interests under primacy, how to constructively think about core US national interests, among other issues.
    Featuring Daniel DePetris, Jennifer Kavanagh, and John Glaser
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