The world’s great powers

Worldly

Vox Media Podcast Network

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.4 • 1.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2021

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Zack, Jenn, and Alex break down one of the DC foreign policy world’s hottest new catchphrases: “great power competition.” It’s the idea that international politics in the 21st century will be dominated by a struggle for influence between the US, China, and (to a lesser extent) Russia. The gang talks about what the concept actually means and whether it’s a useful framework for understanding international politics today and in the future. References: Dan Nexon’s Foreign Affairs article inspired the Worldly crew to record this episode. The Atlantic had an excellent piece explaining how “great power competition” became a DC buzzword. The National Interest had an op-ed detailing why great power competition could be a problem. Matthew Kroenig wrote in Foreign Policy on how the US should outline goals for its competition with China. The Congressional Research Service has a comprehensive report on what “great power competition” has meant in recent years. Hosts: Zack Beauchamp (@zackbeauchamp), senior correspondent, Vox Jennifer Williams (@jenn_ruth), senior foreign editor, Vox Alex Ward (@AlexWardVox), White House reporter, Vox Consider contributing to Vox: If you value Worldly’s work, please consider making a contribution to Vox: bit.ly/givepodcasts More to explore: Subscribe for free to Today, Explained, Vox’s daily podcast to help you understand the news, hosted by Sean Rameswaram. About Vox: Vox is a news network that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Follow Us: Vox.com Newsletter: Vox Sentences Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	There's a term that has become dominant in foreign policy and international relations
0:14.5	conversations right now, and the term is great power competition, right?
0:19.7	It's everywhere, right?
0:20.7	And it's based on the sort of obvious observation that you're starting to see more areas of
0:25.5	competition between the United States and China and to a lesser extent, Russia, and that
0:30.3	this seems like an important thing for international relations, okay, but what actually is important
0:37.4	about this?
0:38.4	What is competition in great power competition even mean, right?
0:43.0	And what does it mean for the future of the world if there is in fact a return to whatever
0:48.5	this kind of competition is, or if it's a return to some kind of previous past at all
0:53.2	in any meaningful sense?
0:54.2	These are all questions that come up that aren't really answered in any depth in the
0:59.1	public conversations surrounding the future of the world.
1:02.4	So today onworldly, part of the Vox Media Podcast Network, we are going to talk about great
1:07.9	power competition.
1:08.9	We're going to try to understand what it means, what the implications for the world would
1:12.4	be if there is in fact a rise of great power competition, and whether or not any kind
1:18.0	of workable foreign policy can be built around this idea as the Trump administration in particular
1:22.0	are trying to, and it's unclear whether the Biden team will pick up this mantle.
1:25.8	I'm Zach Beecham, here's always with Jen Williams and Alex Ward.
1:29.1	Hey!
1:30.1	Good morning.
	...

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