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The Rachman Review

Financial Timesplay.acast.com
Gideon Rachman, the Financial Times chief foreign affairs columnist talks to the decision-makers and thinkers who are shaping world affairs.

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Episodes

EU at a turning point

EU leaders are facing showdowns on several fronts this week, with the UK over Brexit, and with Hungary and Poland over the rule of law. Gideon discusses what’s at stake with Professor Catherine De Vries of Bocconi University in Italy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 10, 202019 min

Thai students call for change

Gideon talks to Thai opposition leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and John Reed, the FT’s Bangkok bureau chief, about the student protests that have challenged Thailand’s traditional power structures by demanding constitutional change. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Dec 03, 202019 min

Ethiopia’s struggle with ethnic nationalism

A country that enjoyed decades of economc growth and stability now risks being torn apart by ethnic divisions. Gideon discusses what’s behind the outbreak of violence with Gabriel Negatu, a senior fellow at the Atlantic Council in Washington, and David Pilling, the FT’s Africa editor. Clips: Reuters, Live Aid Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 26, 202025 min

Macron's world

Gideon discusses the international ambitions, and problems, of the French president with Sylvie Kauffmann, editorial director of Le Monde. Are Emmanuel Macron’s views on European integration and strategic independence winning out? Clips: Reuters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 19, 202021 min

Biden’s global goals

Ivo Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, served as US ambassador to Nato during the Obama years. He joins Gideon Rachman to talk about how Joe Biden may seek to rebuild the US’s broken alliances and project a new image to the world. Clips: CBS 60 Minutes; Reuters. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Nov 12, 202021 min

An American chasm

Americans woke on November 4 to find that the result of their presidential election remained unclear. President Donald Trump’s statements about the integrity of the vote and his plan to dispute the final result at the Supreme Court signalled that the US could face days or weeks of political uncertainty. In this special early edition episode, Gideon talks to Jeremy Shapiro, a former US state department official and the current research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, about ...

Nov 04, 202017 min

Susan Glasser on the pandemic election

The columnist has written about life in Trump’s Washington for The New Yorker magazine for almost four years. As voters head to the polls to elect the next US president, Gideon Rachman talks to Glasser about what to expect on November 3 — and after, if there is not a decisive victor and the election ends up in the courts. Review clips: C-SPAN, CNN, Reuters Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oct 29, 202022 min

Bringing history back to Burma

Western nations have tended to regard the recent history of Myanmar, formerly Burma, as a struggle between democracy and dictatorship. But the country’s colonial past and climate change have also played a key role in its complex problems, Burmese historian Thant Myint-U tells Gideon Rachman. Clips: Reuters Thant’s book, The Hidden History of Burma, is published by Atlantic. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Oct 22, 202027 min

Why humans wage wars

Gideon Rachman talks to historian Margaret MacMillan about her study of warfare through the ages and why she fears that, while the manner in which we wage war has changed, our propensity to stumble into conflict remains the same. Clips: Reuters Margaret MacMillan’s book War: How Conflict Shaped Us is published by Random House Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Oct 15, 202022 min

American entanglement in the Middle East

Philip Gordon, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a long-time Washington insider who worked on Middle East policy for the Obama administration and is now an informal adviser to the Biden campaign. In this episode, Gideon Rachman talks to him about the US presidential election and American policy in the Middle East — the subject of his new book, Losing the Long Game . After decades of American engagement in the region, Gordon shares his thoughts on why no recent US president ...

Oct 08, 202025 min

China’s second world war obsession

China’s authorities have started to celebrate the country’s role in the second world war after long regarding it as a subject best forgotten. Gideon talks to the historian Rana Mitter about what’s behind this revised outlook on such a tormented period in the country’s history. Rana Mitter’s book China’s Good War is published by Harvard University Press. Clips: Reuters and ‘The Eight Hundred’ official trailer Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Oct 01, 202034 min

Mexico's populist president

When Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also known as Amlo, took office in late 2018 he promised a fourth political transformation of the country. Gideon Rachman talks to Jude Webber, the FT’s Mexico and Central America correspondent, about how Amlo’s plans to end 'neoliberalism' and fight corruption are faring during the coronavirus pandemic. Review clips: Reuters, PBS News Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Sep 24, 202019 min

German diplomacy tested by multiple crises

From the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and pressure to cancel the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia, to the refugee catastrophe in Greece and headaches over Brexit, Germany has no shortage of foreign policy crises to deal with. Gideon Rachman discusses how best to handle them with Norbert Röttgen, chairman of the Bundestag’s foreign affairs committee and a long-shot contender to replace Angela Merkel as leader of the ruling Christian Democrats. Clips: Reuters Hosted ...

Sep 17, 202025 min

Netanyahu's diplomatic success

Israel’s new deal to normalise diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates comes without any concessions on the Palestinian peace process. Gideon Rachman talks to Anshel Pfeffer, author of Bibi: The Turbulent Life and Times of Benjamin Netanyahu , about whether this agreement is a political triumph for the Israeli prime minister. They also discuss the lingering questions it leaves about lasting peace. Review clips: Reuters, CBS Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Sep 10, 202019 min

Putting existential risk on the agenda

What are the biggest threats to the future of human existence on the planet? Not nuclear war or climate change as some might think, but man-made pathogens and thinking machines, the Australian philosopher Toby Ord tells Gideon Rachman. He talks about how he reached this conclusion and what can be done to avert disaster. Clips: Reuters Toby Ord’s book, The Precipice: Existential Risk and the Future of Humanity, is published by Bloomsbury Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information...

Sep 03, 202024 min

Investigating ‘the doubts’ about the US presidential election

Rumours about the US presidential election abound: is voting by mail secure, can Donald Trump postpone it, will the United States Postal Service be able to deliver ballots in time. Gideon Rachman sorts through what is fact and what is fiction in a discussion with Judith Kelley, Dean of the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, and Edward Luce, the FT’s US national editor. Review clips: C-SPAN, Democratic National Convention, ABC News, Reuters, Tony Orlando and Dawn - “Tie A Yellow ...

Aug 27, 202026 min

What China makes of ‘new cold war’ with US

Gideon Rachman discusses how America’s tech war on China has affected Beijing’s long-held plan to assert its economic and military strength on the global stage with Steve Tsang, director of the China Institute of SOAS at London University. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 20, 202022 min

The future of Lebanon

The Lebanese have survived civil war, decades of rolling blackouts and even managed the influx of 1.5m Syrian refugees, about a quarter of the country's population. But the explosion in Beirut's port in early August that killed scores of people, left hundreds of thousands homeless and cost billions in property damage, have prompted a more intense reckoning about the decades of corruption and mismanagement by the country’s political elite. Chloe Cornish, the FT’s Middle East correspondent, is in ...

Aug 13, 202018 min

Turkey’s assertive foreign policy

Gideon Rachman talks to academic and writer Sinan Ulgen about Turkey’s foreign policy under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, focusing on the controversial decision to turn Istanbul’s Hagia Sophia museum back into a mosque and the rationale behind Turkish military interventions in Syria and Libya. Clips: Reuters and Anadolu Agency Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Aug 06, 202020 min

US economist William Spriggs on scars of the pandemic

Many countries agreed that the best way to stem the pandemic was to shut down movement, but the US took a different path than its peers in handling the economic fallout. Instead of being kept on payrolls through furlough schemes, millions of Americans have had to seek jobless benefits. Rana Foroohar, the FT’s global business columnist, is standing in for Gideon Rachman this week. She talks with William Spriggs, a professor of economics at Howard University and chief economist of the American Fed...

Jul 30, 202022 min

Is US global leadership still possible?

Donald Trump’s “America First” policy represented a marked shift in how the US engaged with its allies. Now Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden is focusing his campaign in part on restoring US leadership on the world stage through strategic alliances. Gideon Rachman is joined by Schwarzman Senior Fellow for Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, Mira Rapp-Hooper, who is author of Shields of the Republic: The Triumph and Peril of America’s Alliances, and Jeremy Shapiro of the E...

Jul 24, 202022 min

Fabulists and the limits of deception

Gideon Rachman talks to FT journalist Michael Peel about the use of false and misleading narratives by world leaders in democracies and dictatorships alike, and how the pandemic may have exposed the limits of doing politics "according to the world as you spin it". Michael’s book The Fabulists is published by Oneworld. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information....

Jul 16, 202021 min

Putin: a president trapped in power

Now in power until 2036 after a recent constitutional change, Vladimir Putin is nevertheless facing a difficult future as the Russian economy stagnates and popular unrest grows. Gideon Rachman and Catherine Belton, author and former FT journalist, discuss how the president and a coterie of close aides took over the wealth of the country on the pretext of reasserting Russia's role on the world stage, but now find themselves without a succession plan. Catherine Belton's book , Putin's People: How ...

Jul 09, 202020 min

Black Lives Matter goes international

In recent weeks people across the world have joined Black Lives Matter protests in response to the police killing of George Floyd in the US. Some activists are uniting under country-specific banners calling for racial equality. Gideon Rachman hosts a panel about the international BLM movement, featuring Dele Olojede, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist from Nigeria, Divya Cherian, a professor of south Asian history at Princeton University and the FT’s Africa editor, David Pilling. Hosted on Acas...

Jul 02, 202030 min

Brazil: a country without a plan

Brazil this week became the second country after the US to register more than 50,000 deaths from Covid-19. President Bolsonaro’s mis-handling of the pandemic has led to calls for his impeachment and even fears of a military coup. Gideon Rachman discusses what happens next with Oliver Stuenkel, professor at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation in São Paulo. Sign up to our coronavirus briefing at www.ft.com/rachmanreviewcovid Take part in our survey to offer your views on the show at www.ft.com/rachmansu...

Jun 25, 202021 min

India’s twin crises: coronavirus and China

India is facing two crises: coronavirus and China. Despite one of the toughest lockdowns in the world, the country has not been able to bring the pandemic under control. Hospitals in New Delhi are overwhelmed. Now a long-standing border dispute with China has turned deadly, with multiple Indian casualties reported. Gideon Rachman talks to Pratap Bhanu Mehta of Ashoka University about how the Modi government is handling the pandemic and the biggest foreign policy crisis the country has seen in de...

Jun 18, 202019 min

Is global oil dominance coming to an end?

Will the current pandemic hasten the end of the oil era, and if so what impact will this have on the global economy and geopolitics? Gideon Rachman discusses the future of energy with former BP chief executive Lord Browne and the FT's energy editor David Sheppard. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Jun 11, 202024 min

George Floyd and the politics of protest

The killing of George Floyd by Minnesota police officers sparked protests in cities across the United States and a government crackdown after nights of unrest. Gideon Rachman talks to Omar Wasow, a professor at Princeton University, about how narratives about rights, justice and crime shape our understanding of protest movements. --- You can find more on Dr. Wasow’s research here: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/agenda-seeding-how-1960s-black-pro...

Jun 04, 202025 min

A new diplomacy in the Pacific Rim

Australia is in the crosshairs of China’s ‘wolf warrior’ diplomacy after Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for an inquiry into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak. Gideon Rachman talks to Michael Fullilove, director of the Lowy Institute, about what the rest of the world can learn from how Australia manages a more aggressive China. --- For more insight and analysis into how the coronavirus pandemic is changing global markets and geopolitics subscribe to the FT’s Coronavirus Business Updat...

May 28, 202020 min

Merkel’s pandemic moment

A German court’s challenge to the supremacy of EU law has brought Chancellor Angela Merkel back into the limelight after she had been regarded as a spent force. Gideon Rachman talks to Constanze Stelzenmüller of the Brookings Institution about Angela Merkel’s resurgence as a leader for the European project. --- For more insight and analysis into how the coronavirus pandemic is changing global markets and geopolitics subscribe to the FT’s Coronavirus Business Update. Follow this link to sign up a...

May 21, 202017 min
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