Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Angela Zhang | In January 2025, the release of a new model and chatbot by Chinese artificial intelligence (AI) company, DeepSeek, sent shockwaves through the tech industry in the US and elsewhere. DeepSeek’s launch was only one milestone in the ongoing AI competition between China and the US which has seen the US try to restrict the exports of key components used in AI development to other countries. In the second episode of The Ballpark’s miniseries on AI and the U...
Jun 30, 2025•35 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson | On May 7th, 2025, India launched missile strikes on Pakistan in response to a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir on April 22nd. On May 10th a ceasefire was reached following mediation from the United States. To discuss the US’ part in brokering a ceasefire, and the US’ responses to disputes between India and Pakistan over the past three decades, in June 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Lisa Curtis, senior fellow and director of the Indo-Pac...
Jun 18, 2025•35 min
Contributor(s): Dr Theresa Squatrito, Rohan Mukherjee, Agnes Yu, Farsan Ghassim, Tim Murithi | The US-led international order is under strain from without and within. Authoritarian powers such as Russia and China are challenging the core tenets of global cooperation and conflict management. Rising states of the Global South like India, Brazil, and South Africa demand reformed multilateralism in the institutions of global governance, and the US and its Western allies face a domestic surge of righ...
Jun 03, 2025•34 min
Contributor(s): Bhamati Viswanathan, Chris Gilson | Many institutions are now using artificial intelligence (AI) models as tools to think about solutions to a variety of challenges, from the everyday to the global. At the same time, many commentators have expressed concerns about AI and its effects on society, the economy and democracy. In the first episode of The Ballpark’s miniseries on AI and the US, we explore the implications of AI for intellectual property. The rise of AI tools has been fu...
May 21, 2025•38 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Michael Latner | In February 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Michael Latner, Professor of Political Science at California Polytechnic State University and Director of Research on Democratic Reform at the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard Law School. They discussed the recent history of voting rights and the state of democracy in America in 2025. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Luke Digweed. Further reading and resour...
May 05, 2025•34 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, John Minnich | In March 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to John Minnich, Assistant Professor in the Department of International Relations at LSE about why semiconductors are so important in the global economy, and why the US is willing to go to what Dr Minnich terms, economic war, over them. They also discussed how the semiconductor trade is framed as a national security issue in the US and China, and how President Trump may approach the ‘chip-war’ in coming months....
Apr 14, 2025•47 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Mukulika Banerjee | Description: In February 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to spoke to Mukulika Banerjee, Professor in LSE’s Department of Anthropology. They spoke about using anthropology to better study politics, how the US might be turning into what she terms a “checklist democracy” and how seeing the US from an outside point of view might help Americans to understand their own politics better. Professor Mukulika Banerjee was inaugural director of the...
Apr 04, 2025•38 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Nicola Leveringhaus | The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has brought the spectre of potential nuclear conflict back into the public consciousness for the first time in decades. But what’s behind the potential for nuclear conflict and what issues are at stake for nuclear powers other than the US and Russia, like China? To discuss these and other questions on the current state of global nuclear tensions and development, in March 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Dr Nico...
Mar 24, 2025•35 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Rachel Blum | Donald Trump’s links to the right, including the far right and the alt-right date back to least to his 2016 presidential campaign and continued through his first term and then into his 2024 election campaign where Trump faced accusations of being an authoritarian populist. To discuss Donald Trump’s links to the far right, in February 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Dr Rachel Blum of the University of Oklahoma. They also discussed Dr Blum’s research ...
Mar 10, 2025•38 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Minxin Pei | President Trump has made his feelings about US competition with China plain; one of the early acts of his second presidential term has been to place tariffs on Chinese imports. China has since responded with its own tariffs on certain US goods and restrictions on the import of important minerals. To talk about US-China relations with the return of Donald Trump, in February 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Minxin Pei, the Tom and Margot Pritz...
Feb 24, 2025•33 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Shiping Tang | In the past decade, many commentators have increasingly spoken of growing competition between the United States and China in areas like trade, industrial policy, but also on foreign policy and global influence more generally. To discuss these issues and how the social sciences can learn from evolutionary thinking, in January 2025 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Shiping Tang of Fudan University. The conversation ranged over how Profes...
Feb 10, 2025•44 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Douglas Fuller | In December 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke Dr Douglas Fuller, Associate Professor in the Department of International Economics, Government and Business at Copenhagen Business School. They spoke about how the Chinese high-tech and semiconductor chip industry has evolved and the recent history and effectiveness of US chip controls towards China. They also discuss how the US has achieved a multilateral consensus for the implementation of chip controls...
Jan 06, 2025•33 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Michael Mastanduno, Dr Jennifer Lind | In October 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Michael Mastanduno, Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government at Dartmouth College, and Dr Jennifer Lind, Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College. They spoke about US export controls against China and about their history and effectiveness This episode was produced by Chris Gilson, Luke Digweed and Anderson Tan. Further reading Lind, J. (2024). ...
Dec 09, 2024•1 hr
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Kishore Mahbubani | In November 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Professor Kishore Mahbubani, Distinguished Fellow at the Asia Research Institute at the National University of Singapore. From 1971 until 2004 he was a diplomat with the Singapore Foreign Service. He served as Singapore’s Ambassador to the UN from 1984-1989 and then from 1998 to 2004 and as President of the UN Security Council in January 2001 and May 2002. He was appointed the Founding Dean...
Nov 25, 2024•38 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Yeling Tan | In October 2024 the LSE Phelan US Centre spoke to Yeling Tan, Professor of Public Policy at the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford. They spoke about how China understands economic security and its evolving economic strategy, and how public attitudes in China towards international trade influence the country’s trade policy. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Anderson Tan. Further reading• Global economic influence and d...
Nov 11, 2024•38 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Lawrence Lessig | In October 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to spoke to Lawrence Lessig, the Roy L. Furman Professor of Law and Leadership at Harvard Law School. Cited by The New Yorker as “the most important thinker on intellectual property in the internet era”, Professor Lessig now focuses on “institutional corruption”, especially as that affects democracy. He is the author of many books, including They Don’t Represent Us: Reclaiming Our Democracy, Fide...
Oct 28, 2024•46 min
Contributor(s): Professor Fawaz Gerges, Chris Gilson | In October 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Fawaz Gerges, Professor of International Relations in the Department of International Relations at LSE, and holder of the Emirates Professorship in Contemporary Middle East Studies. They spoke about his new book, “What Really Went Wrong: The West and the failure of democracy in the Middle East”. We also discussed the history of US involvement in the region, and the ongoing conflict in the Middle ...
Oct 18, 2024•39 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Nick Lewis | In September 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Nick Lewis, a PhD student in LSE’s Department of Government and a recipient of a Phelan US Centre PhD Summer Research Grant in 2022. Nick’s research looks at how social media creates bias in democratic deliberation. They spoke about how Facebook discourages people from taking part in discussions via what’s called the “spiral of silence”. They also discussed the importance of social media in the 2024 presid...
Oct 14, 2024•31 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Dr. Peter Harris | In September 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Peter Harris, Associate Professor of Political Science at Colorado State University about his new book, Why America Can’t Retrench (And How It Might) which looks at the US’ dominant role in the world, how it got there and the factors preventing global restraint. They discuss the idea of America’s ‘primacist’ approach to international affairs and the role of domestic politics and systems in preventing...
Sep 30, 2024•57 min
Contributor(s): Evelyn Ong, Callum Cleasby | In August 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Evelyne Ong, an undergraduate research assistant with the Phelan US Centre for the 2023-24 academic year. They discuss her work with Visiting Professor Jeffrey Legro, on the project, ‘The Nuclear Revolution and Great Power Competition’. They also talked about her experience taking part in the Phelan US Centre’s undergraduate research assistantship programme. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and And...
Sep 23, 2024•31 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson | In 2024, the Phelan US Centre ran an essay competition for master’s students with the prompt, ““How should the United States work to shape the future of capitalism in this age of insecurity?”. We speak to the author of the winning essay, David Millman, and the runners-up, Yazmin Baptiste and Manickam Valliappan. We discuss their essays, the competition, what it’s like for students to engage with a wider audience, and the opportunity they had to present their essays...
Sep 16, 2024•43 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Nathan Lane | In July 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Nathan Lane, Associate Professor in Economics at Oxford University, about industrial policy in the United States and its history, including recent policies from the Biden administration like the Inflation Reduction Act and the CHIPS Act. They also discussed how US industrial policy might change depending on who wins the 2024 presidential election. This episode was produced by Chris Gilson and Anderson Tan.
Sep 02, 2024•40 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Patriann Smith | In 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Patriann Smith, professor in the College of Education at the University of South Florida. Dr. Smith's transdisciplinary research examines how differences in languages, Englishes, and English language ideologies affect Black Caribbean students’ immigrant literacy practices as they cross cultures and languages between their home countries and the United States. In this episode, they spoke about her new b...
Aug 19, 2024•52 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Adia Wingfield | In June 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Adia Harvey Wingfield, the Mary Tileston Hemenway Professor of Arts & Sciences and Vice Dean for Faculty Development and Diversity at Washington University in St. Louis. They spoke about Professor Wingfield’s new book, Gray Areas: How the Way We Work Perpetuates Racism and What We Can Do to Fix It. The discussion also covered US labor activism, and the role US federal and state governments have in addre...
Aug 05, 2024•34 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Maxwell Stearns | In May 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Maxwell Stearns, the Venable, Baetjer & Howard Professor of Law at the University of Maryland Francis King Carey School of Law about his new book, Parliamentary America: The Least Radical Means of Radically Repairing Our Broken Democracy. The book argues that the solution to many of America’s democratic challenges is to amend the Constitution to reform the US government to become a parliamenta...
Jul 22, 2024•1 hr 4 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Dr Lauren Sukin, Debak Das, Matthew Fuhrmann, J. Luis Rodriguez | In June 2024, the LSE Phelan US Centre held the conference, US Nuclear Strategy in a Changing Indo-Pacific. The conference brought together scholars and analysts with a strong record of policy-relevant research on nuclear strategy and expertise in the security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific. The conference was convened by Phelan US Centre Affiliates, Rohan Mukherjee and Lauren Sukin, both Assistant Prof...
Jul 08, 2024•27 min
Contributor(s): Chris Gilson, Professor Jeff Legro | In May 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Jeff Legro, University Professor at the University of Richmond, and Visiting Professor at the Phelan US Centre for 2023-24. They spoke about the US’ role as a “unipolar” country in the world, conceptions of sovereignty, both in the US and abroad, the potential future of US foreign policy, and the relationship between nuclear weapons and globalization. They also discussed Professor Legro’s work with the...
Jun 24, 2024•47 min
Contributor(s): Brooke Gladstone, Chris Gilson | In 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to Brooke Gladstone, host and Managing Editor of WNYC’s On the Media about the US’ changing media landscape, the meaning of truth and facts in the age of Donald Trump, and how we can teach the next generation to be better media consumers. This Extra Inning was produced by Chris Gilson and Anderson Tan.
Jun 10, 2024•47 min
Contributor(s): Dr Fred Kaplan, Chris Gilson | In May 2024 the Phelan US Centre spoke to author and journalist for Slate magazine and Phelan US Centre Visiting Senior Fellow, Fred Kaplan about his 2020 book, The Bomb: Presidents, Generals, and the Secret History of Nuclear War and the changing attitudes of US politicians and policymakers to nuclear weapons and nuclear war. This Extra Inning was produced by Chris Gilson and Anderson Tan. Listen to the podcast of the LSE Event ‘Is the risk of nucl...
May 28, 2024•43 min
Contributor(s): Elizabeth Ingleson | How did China—the world’s largest communist nation—converge with global capitalism? And when did this occur? In this event, held on 7 May 2024, Dr Elizabeth Ingleson of the LSE Department of International History and Phelan US Centre Affiliate argued that this convergence began in the early 1970s, when the United States and China re-opened trade and the interests of US capitalists and the Chinese state gradually aligned: at the expense of US labor and aided b...
May 24, 2024•1 hr 30 min
