Foreign Affairs

Trump merely expressed the imperialist interests of a wing of the US ruling class in its most naked form, while the Democrats and the old Republicans hide their imperialist wars, hide their coups behind phrases about defending democracy, about protecting Western values.

Now, with the defeat of Trump in the midterms, The same liberals, the same people on the left even, are telling us that a return to power of the Democrats will initiate a more peaceful era of US foreign policy.

But is that actually true? And what does the weakening of Trumpism actually mean for the relative decline on the US on the world stage? This is what we'll be discussing today in the first and the main segment of the show before we turn our attention to the wave of

class struggle that's unfolding across

We've seen JD Vance come out on X with a long post about how the Iran war was a mistake.

And we've even seen the attempt to impeach Pete Hexeth.

Clearly, Trump's foreign policy is an important part of his decline.

And I think there's a question on a lot of people's mind now, what is going to happen? What do you make of

Research.

And I think even foreign affairs, I think the subscriptions have jumped up.

It's hit a record year in a row for the sixth year.

I think there's a real hunger for people to understand the world, and yet it's extremely complex and feels like it's leaving them behind.

As an institution, we take no positions.

That's a long-standing tradition here.

And so our view is, when it comes to an issue as controversial as this, is to be a place where we can have civil discourse across a wide range of perspectives, whether that's on stage or in the pages of Foreign Affairs magazine or in the hallways.

And that's what we're committed to, is making sure we have civil discourse.

You can just read the introductions and then jump to the history and then jump to the final conclusion chapter, concluding chapter, which is all about U.S. and China.

And then I've often applied that to, let's just say, And the recent one was an article that I wrote in the journal Foreign Affairs with the title simply, When Trade Leads to War.

And they wanted that title.

And I was trying to show, in fact, trade can lead to war for sure with China or Russia, but can also lead to peace.

Well, they started to protest, just like 1989, and it got to the point where the Chinese government had to bring tanks onto the street one more time.

And I'm talking the army tanks, not just police forces.

And this means that China has that constant worry that something may go wrong with the foreign affairs side of things.

They can't get the food they need.

And joining us now is Elizabeth Saunders, a professor of political science at Columbia University, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and the author of The Insider's Game, How Elites Make War and Peace.

And she has an article at Foreign Affairs, The Dangers of a Lame Duck Trump, How Far Will He Go to Make Peace and War? Welcome to Background Briefing, Elizabeth Saunders.

Thanks for having me.

Well, thanks for joining us.

Well, let's talk about then Trump's aspirations, which are pretty clear for a Nobel Peace Prize.

And it didn't happen the last time.

So do you think that that could be the good news here? Because as you point out in your article at Foreign Affairs, a little bit for the dangers of a lame duck, Trump, how far will he go to make peace and war? That, as you pointed out earlier, that lame ducks often turn to foreign policy and they often have lofty goals, like Bill Clinton wanted to solve the intractable Israeli-Palestinian issue.

So the one thing that has just happened a couple of days ago on Thursday, Trump met with Kirill Dmitriev, the head of the Russia Sovereign Wealth Fund, who came to the White House.