Zack Cooper

To

discuss how Trump's foreign policy might evolve after the elections, I talked to Zach Cooper, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington.

A conservative, Zach has close ties to the Republican world.

He served in George W. Bush's administration in the Pentagon and on the National Security Council.

The Detail is a Newsroom production supported by RNZ and New Zealand On Air.

This Saturday episode is made with funding from the Peter M. Ackland Foundation.

Thank you to Zach Cooper.

This episode was produced by Alexia Russell and engineered by Phil Benj.

With the midterm elections just days away, polls suggest the Republican Party is set to be hammered.

But what about a post-Trump America? Is his leadership an aberration or the new norm? Zack Cooper is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the Sir Howard Kippenberger Chair at Victoria University's Centre for Strategic Studies.

I asked him how he thinks our government has handled Donald Trump 2.0.

I think the government has done an outstanding job.

But I think this is where the new administration is going to have to be doing this with lots of countries.

And the challenge is going to be where do they prioritize? And For many of us that love New Zealand, we'd like a lot of that focus to be here early on, but there's so many challenges for an incoming administration to rebuild trust.

That's Zack Cooper.

There is so much more of our conversation.

Today, we're going to talk about the idea of military victory.

Is there such thing as military victory? Is military victory achievable for either Russia or Ukraine? And if so, at what cost? And will we ever see a war that ends in unconditional surrender? I'm Melanie Marlowe of CSIS, here with Chris Preble of the Stimson Center, and Zack Cooper of the American Enterprise Institute.

How are you?

Hello again.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Net Assessment.

If you enjoyed it, please rate us wherever you get your podcasts.

As Chris said, you can follow us at Real Chris Preble at Zack Cooper and Prof Marlowe.

Thanks to the Stimson Center for hosting us and to University FM for producing the show.

Today we're going to talk about AI.

What tasks in the American foreign and defense policy expert community are most likely to be replaced or automated by AI? How will this change the role of experts? And if we don't get very much right anyway, does it matter if AI is coming for our jobs? I'm Melanie Marlowe of CSIS here with Chris Preble of the Stimson Center and Zack Cooper of the American Enterprise Institute.

How are you? Zach, it's good to have you back.

I've missed both you guys.

Zach, see, that has a double meaning.

Yeah.

We were grateful to Tom for pinch hitting, but, you know, there's no replacing Zack Cooper.

It's just like...

The US has not sold conventional weapons to Beijing for over three decades, with sales suspended after the Tiananmen Square crackdown in 1989.

Zack Cooper of the American Enterprise Institute found it shocking that Trump is resisting authorizing arms sales to Taiwan, but at the same time offering them to China.

Perdue also noted that Trump and Xi discuss American arms sales to Taiwan every time they meet, contradicting Washington's 1982 Six Assurances.

Dennis Simon of the Quincy Institute suggested this was a rhetorical negotiating maneuver and an intentionally provocative way of reframing the Taiwan issue, viewing the weapons package as leverage.