FP Live

How does Washington plan to deal with China?  How does it prioritize this alongside more pressing immediate concerns, not least with Russia’s war in Ukraine, but also regarding North Korea, Iran, and beyond? Colin Kahl is the U.S. undersecretary of defense for policy and one of the Biden administration's senior-most policymakers. He has in the past served as a deputy assistant to President Barack Obama, and between 2014 and 2017 served as Vice President Joe Biden’s national security advisor.

Economist Adam Posen argues that for U.S. industrial policy to be successful and resilient, it needs to be barrier free. How and why? Subscribers are encouraged to send in their questions. Posen will discuss his FP cover essay in a conversation with FP’s editor in chief, Ravi Agrawal.

James Stavridis is a retired four-star admiral who served as supreme allied commander at NATO. He is currently a managing director of the Carlyle Group, a global investment firm. FP's Ravi Agrawal spoke with him on FP Live to discuss how Washington should think about arming Ukraine and what Kyiv should consider while planning its forthcoming push to repel Russian forces.

Three China experts joined FP's Ravi Agrawal to discuss the recent meeting between the presidents of China and Russia, the recently concluded “two sessions” meetings in Beijing—an annual rubber-stamp convening—and the ongoing dramas over TikTok and a recent public sighting of Jack Ma, the founder of Alibaba. They also talked  about the rival diplomatic missions from Taiwan.

Heading into a possible reelection year, FP’s reporters discussed how U.S. President Joe Biden can juggle substantial foreign-policy issues—and how the campaign trail might change things. They also talked about the budget and what it reveals about the administration’s foreign-policy agenda. 

There’s a growing debate among Western policymakers and politicians about the choices they face when it comes to dealing with Russia’s war in Ukraine. For an in-depth military perspective on the options facing Washington and its partners, FP’s Ravi Agrawal sat down with Philip Breedlove, a retired four-star U.S. general who served as NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe between 2013 and 2016, a period that included Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

To understand Washington’s part in fostering industrial policy, FP's Ravi Agrawal sat down with U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai, the Biden administration’s top official tasked with mapping out and implementing the White House’s trade policy. Tai counters critics who say the United States is fostering unfair competition over semiconductors and clean energy.

Is the Biden administration’s China policy too hawkish? And how might that be impacting the world? Jessica Chen Weiss, formerly a senior advisor for policy planning at the State Department under the Biden administration, makes the case that the United States is becoming consumed by competition with China, a strategy that could lead to dangerous conflict. 

This week marks exactly one year since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered his troops to invade Ukraine. FP's Ravi Agrawal spoke with two of the very best Russia experts: Angela Stent, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of Putin’s World: Russia Against the West and With the Rest, and Michael Kofman, the research program director of the Russia studies program at the Center for Naval Analyses. Watch the conversation or read the condensed transcript.