Charles A. Kupchan

Everything, apparently.

Charles Kupchan of Georgetown University, for instance, who told an ambassadors conference, quote, If you look at the rhetoric from the Trump administration, you can come to the conclusion that it's game over.

We're done with you.

We don't like you.

Better to be wrong than unprepared.

Still, even if you do that, quote, I don't think it's possible to stay two or three steps ahead of Trump, said Charles Kupchan, a former senior national security official during the Obama administration, who apparently enjoys raining on parades.

He acts on impulse, argued Kupchan.

I don't know if I'm pronouncing that right, but it's funny.

We will also explore a new architecture for global governance in an unravelling world of disarray and growing illiberal populism.

Joining us is Charles Kupchan, who was Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

He's now a Professor of International Affairs in Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

and he spent the last three years of the Obama administration as special assistant to President Obama for national security.

I'm gonna put that access to evil fools

Welcome back.

I'm Ian Masters, and this is Background Briefing, available 24-7 at backgroundbriefing.org. And joining us now from Belgrade, Serbia, is Charles Kupchan, who was Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council during the Clinton administration.

He's now a Professor of International Affairs at Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

It's called Bringing Order to Anarchy, Governing the World to Come.

Professor and Dr. Charles Kupchan, welcome to America at Night.

Thanks for joining us.

Good to be with you, McGraw.

And so I would say right now it's more likely than not that the next president of France may hail from the far right, and that will be a political earthquake for Europe.

Yeah, no, I would think so.

Charles Kupchan is our guest.

He is a senior fellow on the Council of Foreign Relations, also a professor at Georgetown.

Mm-hmm.

And I should tell everybody, there is an author, uh, that I follow, uh, Charles a C- Kupchan, Kup- Kupchan, who wrote a book I read years ago, and I'm looking at it right now as for memor- for, for my, so I can remember it.

Uh, No One's World, The West, The Rising Re- W- The Rising Rest and the Coming Global Turn.

He's one of many authors.

And you mentioned, you know, I mean, the obvious, uh, the constructivist bit, the realist, and the liberal paradigms in the beginning.

Uh, uh, so if I can ask you, you know, in a nutshell, uh, uh, briefly, what are these paradigms and what are your reservations exactly with each of these? Particularly, uh, interested to hear, you know, your reservations with liberalism, perhaps with likes of John Ikenberry and Charles Kupchan.

Yes.

Okay.