Artificial intelligence, social media, biotechnology, energy systems, propaganda, and geopolitics — each is transformative on its own, but together they're converging in unprecedented ways that are rapidly reshaping our world. On this episode of World Class, Colin Kahl shares expertise and insights from a panel of scholars on how emerging technologies are impacting society, politics, and global security. Drew Endy is a bioengineer at Stanford University who studies and teaches synthetic biology....
May 21, 2026•43 min•Ep. 172
Even though China is the main global competitor to the United States, has there has been sufficient planning in Washington on how the U.S. might respond to aggression against the island of Taiwan by Beijing? Eyck Freymann wants to make sure there is. He joins Colin Kahl on World Class to discuss his new book, Defending Taiwan: A Strategy to Prevent War with China , which outlines how the U.S. can integrate its military strength, economic leverage, technological leadership, and diplomatic influen...
Apr 28, 2026•44 min•Ep. 171
On February 28, 2026, the United States and Israel launched wide-spread, coordinated attacks against Iran which struck military, naval, and nuclear infrastructure and killed many of the country’s senior leaders. On a special episode of World Class, Colin Kahl discusses the war, its immediate impacts, and its possible trajectory with Israeli security expert Ori Rabinowitz and Iranian studies professor Dr. Abbas Milani. The audio of this episode was originally recorded during a panel discussion he...
Mar 06, 2026•55 min•Ep. 170
H.R. McMaster and Jake Sullivan, the respective national security advisors of the first Trump administration and the Biden administration, join Colin Kahl to sort through everything that has happened in U.S foreign policy since the start of the year, from Venezuela and Iran to Greenland and strain on U.S.-European alliances, and the ever-present competition with China and Russia, and how all of these issues may affect the rest of 2026. H.R. McMaster is the Fouad and Michelle Ajami Senior Fellow ...
Feb 18, 2026•37 min•Ep. 169
There are a lot of changes happening in the world, from the "rupture" in the global order to a new host of World Class! Colin Kahl, the new director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, joins Michael McFaul to take on the role of podcast host and discuss how institutions like FSI can better study and contribute understanding about the rapidly changing world. Colin Kahl is the director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and the S...
Jan 26, 2026•25 min•Ep. 167
Gabrielius Landsbergis is the former minister of foreign affairs of the Republic of Lithuania. Previously, he was the chairman of the Homeland Union Party while concurrently a member of the Lithuanian Parliament. Before assuming these roles, Landsbergis was also a member of the European Parliament and began his career as a diplomat for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Lithuania. He is currently based at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford Universi...
Dec 15, 2025•24 min•Ep. 166
Marshall Burke is a senior fellow at the Center on Food Security and the Environment and senior fellow at the Stanford Woods Institute for the Environment, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, and Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. His research focuses on social and economic impacts of environmental change, and on the economics of rural development in Africa. Colin Kahl is the Steven C. Házy Senior Fellow at Stanford University’s Center for International Security and...
Nov 24, 2025•28 min•Ep. 165
Michael McFaul the director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He served as the U.S. ambassador to Russia from 2012 to 2016, and has spent much of his academic career researching political change, great power competition, and American policy toward Russia. His new book is Autocrats vs. Democrats: China, Russia, America and the New Global Disorder , which is available for purchase from major booksellers. If you like what you hear, you can get additio...
Oct 28, 2025•22 min•Ep. 164
Larry Diamond is the the Mosbacher Senior Fellow in Global Democracy at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI), the William L. Clayton Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, and a Bass University Fellow in Undergraduate Education at Stanford University. Diamond’s research focuses on global trends affecting freedom and democracy and on U.S. and international policies to defend and advance democracy. His book, Ill Winds: Saving Democracy from Russian Rage, Chinese Ambition,...
Jul 15, 2025•19 min•Ep. 163
Ruth Gibson is a postdoctoral scholar at Stanford University’s Department of Health Policy and an affiliate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation (CISAC). Her research focuses on volatile regions affected by war and sanctions. She also works with the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights on the use of unilateral sanctions. If you like what you hear, you can get additional content from scholars at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies by following us ...
Jul 07, 2025•16 min•Ep. 162
Arzan Tarapore is a research scholar at the Center in International Security and Cooperation at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. His work focuses on Indian military strategy and regional security issues in the Indo-Pacific. Prior to his scholarly career, he served for 13 years in the Australian Defence Department in various analytic, management, and liaison positions, including operational deployments and a diplomatic posting to the Australian Embass...
Jun 16, 2025•24 min•Ep. 161
Jim Goldgeier is a research affiliate at the Center for International Security and Cooperation and the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University. He is also a professor at the School of International Service at American University. He writes extensively on European security, NATO, Russia, and Ukraine. If you like what you hear, you can get additional content from scholars at the Freeman Spogli Institute f...
Apr 28, 2025•22 min•Ep. 160
Didi Kuo is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies (FSI) at Stanford University. She is a scholar of comparative politics with a focus on democratization, corruption and clientelism, political parties and institutions, and political reform. Her latest book, The Great Retreat: How Political Parties Should Behave and Why They Don’t, is available from Oxford University Press and most major book sellers. If you like what you hear, you can get additional content fro...
Mar 14, 2025•22 min•Ep. 159
Steven Pifer is an affiliate with the Center for International Security and Cooperation, and at The Europe Center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, where his research focuses on nuclear arms control, Ukraine, Russia and European security.. In addition to working in the Foreign Service for more than 25 years, Pifer served as a U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine from 1998 to 2000. He is a non-resident fellow at the Brookings Institution. If you like what you...
Feb 24, 2025•27 min•Ep. 158
Oriana Skylar Mastro is a Center Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, where her research focuses on Chinese military and security policy, Asia-Pacific security issues, war termination, and coercive diplomacy. She is also a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She also serves in the United States Air Force Reserve, where she currently works at the Pentagon as Depu...
Feb 19, 2025•24 min•Ep. 157
Vladimir Kara-Murza is a Russian politician, author, historian, and former political prisoner. A close colleague of the slain opposition leader Boris Nemtsov, he has served as deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party and was a candidate for the Russian Parliament. Leading diplomatic efforts on behalf of the opposition, Kara-Murza played a key role in the adoption of Magnitsky sanctions against top Russian officials by the United States, United Kingdom, European Union, Canada, and Australia. F...
Dec 13, 2024•26 min•Ep. 156
Audra Plepytė was appointed as Lithuania’s Ambassador to the United States of America and to the United Mexican States in 2021. Before this she was a Lithuanian Permanent Representative to the United Nations where she facilitated several negotiations, led the Group of Friends, and was elected to executive bodies of UN instruments and institutions, including being elected as the President of the Executive Board of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in 2021. As a career diplomat for over ...
Nov 08, 2024•27 min•Ep. 155
This audio was originally recorded on October 26, 2024 during the event, “Global Threats Today: What's At Stake and What We Can Do About It,” held during Stanford University's annual Reunion and Homecoming weekend in affiliation with the Stanford Alumni Association. Featuring: Michael McFaul , Director and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International Studies in the Department of Political Science; the Pet...
Oct 31, 2024•35 min•Ep. 154
Susan E. Rice served as domestic policy advisor to President Joe Biden. Previously, she was President Barack Obama's National Security Advisor and U.S. Permanent Representative to the United Nations and a member of the Cabinet. During the Clinton Administration, Rice was U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, as well as Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for African Affairs, and Director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping at the National Security...
Jul 17, 2024•35 min•Ep. 153
Kristjan Prikk has served as Estonia´s Ambassador to the United States since May 2021. This is his third diplomatic posting to Washington, D.C. Before assuming his current duties, Prikk served for nearly three years as the Permanent Secretary of the Estonian Ministry of Defense. In this role he was responsible for the management of the Ministry and for the coordination of activities of the agencies under the Ministry, including the Estonian Defense Forces, the Estonian Foreign Intelligence Servi...
Jun 17, 2024•18 min•Ep. 152
Josep Borrell serves as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. He previously served as President of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2007 and as Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation in the Government of Spain from 2018 to 2019. He is an alumnus of Stanford University (M.S. '75) with a degree in applied mathematics (operations research). Michael McFaul is the director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studi...
Jun 06, 2024•29 min•Ep. 151
Matviichuk originally delivered this speech at the 2024 S.T. Lee Lecture hosted by the Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at Stanford University. Oleksandra Matviichuk is a human rights lawyer focused on issues within Ukraine and the OSCE region. She is the head of the Center for Civil Liberties , which was a co-recipient of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize . The organization supports legislative reforms, monitors law enforcement and judiciary, conducts wide education programs, and l...
Apr 30, 2024•28 min•Ep. 150
Abbas Milani is the Hamid and Christina Moghadam Director of Iranian Studies at Stanford University and a visiting professor in the department of political science. In addition, Dr. Milani is a research fellow and co-director of the Iran Democracy Project at the Hoover Institution. Michael McFaul is the host of World Class and director of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, where he is also the Ken Olivier and Angela Nomellini Professor of International...
Mar 21, 2024•21 min•Ep. 149
Michael McFaul is joined by: Oleksiy Honcharuk, who served as the 17th prime minister of Ukraine from 2019-2020, during which time he introduced important policy initiatives in Ukraine including the institution of business privatization processes, efforts to combat black markets, and the launch of the Anti-Raider Office to respond to cases of illegal property seizures. Prior to serving as prime minister, Honcharuk was deputy head of the Presidential Office of Ukraine and was a member of the Nati...
Feb 24, 2024•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 148
When Academy Award-winning actor Sean Penn set off to make a documentary about Ukraine, he thought he would be telling the story of a comedic showman-turned president named Volodymyr Zelenskyy and the young democracy that had elected him. Instead, Penn found himself witnessing the start of a horrific war of aggression. Sean Penn joined Michael McFaul at Stanford University for a special screening of "Superpower," a film co-directed by Penn and Aaron Kaufman about the days leading up to and immed...
Feb 01, 2024•45 min•Ep. 147
To understand why the conflict in Gaza is so complex, you have to understand the history of Israel's relationship with Palestine and Hamas well before October 7, 2023. In this episode of World Class, we bring you a conversation with Ambassador Dennis Ross and Ghaith al-Omari, two experts on the Middle East, who help contextualize the current situation in Gaza, offer a framework for how to understand the conflict between Israel and Hamas, and share their thoughts on what it will take to bring sta...
Dec 18, 2023•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 146
Conflict between Hamas and Israel; the ongoing war in Ukraine; rising tensions between China and Taiwan; climate change; dissatisfaction with national politics. These are some of the most pressing challenges facing the world today. What do we need to understand better about these issues, and what can be done to address them? On this episode of World Class, host Michael McFaul brings you a conversation with four scholars from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies held during Stan...
Nov 15, 2023•30 min•Ep. 145
In September 2023, Michael McFaul and political philosopher Francis Fukuyama traveled to Kyiv to participate in the Yalta European Strategy conference. They met with policymakers from Ukraine, Europe, and beyond; military experts; Ukrainian alumni of fellowship and development programs from the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies; and even President Zelenskyy himself. On World Class, they recap what stood out to them from their trip, what they learned, and the stories from everyda...
Oct 18, 2023•22 min•Ep. 144
Changes to the legal code. Massive protests from the public. Walk-outs by members of the legislature. What exactly is going on in Israel? Law and governance expert Amichai Magen joins World Class host Michael McFaul to discuss the growing crisis Israeli democracy faces. Magen gives context on the crisis, explains some of the cultural and institutional reasons that led Israel to this point, and offers his thoughts as to how Israel might move forward from here. If you like what you hear, you can g...
Aug 02, 2023•29 min•Ep. 143
Featuring: Sauli Niinistö , President of Finland Michael McFaul , Director of the Freeman Spogli Institute Anna Grzymala-Busse , Director of The Europe Center Oriana Skylar Mastro , FSI Center Fellow and expert on the Chinese military and strategic competition H.R. McMaster , retired lieutenant general and former U.S. National Security Advisor Steven Pifer , former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine and European security expert Risto Siilasmaa , leader in Finnish technology and security policy and board...
Mar 20, 2023•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 142
