The Hale Report Podcast Episode 37

The Hale Report Podcast Episode 37

On Election Day, a Refreshingly Optimistic View of US Prospects with Ali Wyne
posted by Lyric Hughes Hale on November 8, 2022 - 11:40am

Ali Wyne immediately confesses that he is a hopeless optimist. He is also the author of a new book America's Great-Power Opportunity: Revitalizing U.S. Foreign Policy to Meet the Challenges of Strategic Competition which is the perfect antidote to the current spate of election doomsaying in the US. A sample from our podcast, which I have been saving up for this week:

The United States has a storied tradition of not only overcoming or weathering periods of domestic upheaval, but also of defying prognostications of terminal decline. There's no self-evident reason why it should be beyond the capacity of the US to do so once more. I'm kind of a pragmatic optimist in the sense that America's competitive advantages will not automatically renew … renewal takes work, but the United States has renewed itself before and it can do so again.

I think certainly as formidable as America's challenges are at home and abroad, that I would rather have America's challenges than those that China and Russia confront. So I'm cautiously optimistic, but the United States needs to get to work and it needs to get to work now.

Wyne is a senior analyst with Eurasia Group's Global Macro-Geopolitics practice.  He is a David Rockefeller fellow with the Trilateral Commission, a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, and a security fellow with the Truman National Security Project. 

As a writer and keen contributor to foreign policy debates Wyne is someone to watch. Though still in the early stages of his career, he is already making an impact. I think you will enjoy hearing his personal story as well as his analysis of what we can and should be doing as a nation in the United States to remain globally competitive.

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By Ali Wyne

November/December 2022 / Foreign Affairs

BOOK REVIEW

America’s Great-Power Opportunity

Jessica T. Mathews

Wyne does not attempt to describe in any detail what such a policy might look like. But he makes a timely and compelling case that the United States should resist the temptation of simply reacting to the agendas and actions of other powers and instead pursue the more demanding but rewarding route of setting an independent course.

October 27, 2022 / Modern War Institute at West Point

REPORT

Beyond the Prism of Strategic Competition: The Most Important Judgement in the New National Security Strategy

As the National Security Strategy explains, it must pursue a foreign policy that is rooted “not in terms of what we are against but what we are for.”

October 27, 2022 / Inkstick Media

COMMENTARY

Cross-Strait Risks in Xi’s Third Term

Is a Chinese invasion of Taiwan a question of when, not if?

Foreign Policy

November 4, 2022 / Foreign Policy

ANALYSIS

The U.N. (as We Know It) Won’t Survive Russia’s War in Ukraine

James Traub

The institutions designed to secure global order clearly aren't up to the task. What will take their place?

October 26, 2022 / Politico

REPORT

How Foreign Policy Amateurs Endanger the World

Derek Leebaert

Political appointees have too little experience and too many delusions.

October 23, 2022 / Politico

PAPER

‘Frustrated and powerless’: In fight with China for global influence, diplomacy is America’s biggest weakness

Nahal Toosi

In Panama, a bridge to connect the country highlights China’s growing diplomatic presence and sway, while the U.S. goes four-and-a-half years without an ambassador.

November 2022 / Brookings

REPORT

A course correction in America’s China policy

Ryan Hass, Patricia M. Kim, and Jeffrey A. Bader

The U.S.-China relationship is on a downward trajectory. And while competition resides at the core of the relationship, it is a mistake to view the relationship solely through the lens of rivalry. Doing so limits tools available to Washington for developing a more durable, productive relationship that serves America’s interests.

July 1, 2019/ MIT Press

PAPER

Weaponized Interdependence: How Global Economic Networks Shape State Coercion

Henry Farrell, Abraham L. Newman

Liberals claim that globalization has led to fragmentation and decentralized networks of power relations. This does not explain how states increasingly “weaponize interdependence” by leveraging global networks of informational and financial exchange for strategic advantage.

October 13, 2022 / Cyberscoop

COMMENTARY

The Reason to Ban TikTok has Nothing to Do with Data Security

Dakoda Cary

Beijing will not constantly seek to influence the operation of TikTok nor its content. Consistent interference and censorship are too likely to draw unwanted attention and risks TikTok’s market access for unclear and undetermined benefits.

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