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Episodes
Each episode of The President’s Inbox explores a foreign policy challenge facing the United States.
Episodes

Jul 4, 2023
Jul 4, 2023
32 min
Jack Rakove, the William Robertson Coe professor of history and American studies and professor emeritus of political science and law at Stanford University, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss why the United States declared independence in 1776 and its meaning for the country today.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Bernard Bailyn, The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, “Paul Revere’s Ride”
Jack N. Rakove, Original Meanings: Politics and Ideas in the Making of the Constitution
Jack N. Rakove, Revolutionaries: A New History of the Invention of America
Jack N. Rakove, The Beginnings of National Politics: An Interpretive History of the Continental Congress
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/fourth-july-jack-rakove

Jun 27, 2023
Jun 27, 2023
37 min
Richard Haass, the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, sits down with James M. Lindsay upon completing two decades leading CFR to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the United States.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Richard Haass, A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order
Richard Haass, Foreign Policy Begins at Home: The Case for Putting America's House in Order
Richard Haass, The Bill of Obligations: The Ten Habits of Good Citizens
Richard Haass, The Bureaucratic Entrepreneur: How to Be Effective in Any Unruly Organization
Richard Haass, “The Dangerous Decade: A Foreign Policy for a World in Crisis,” Foreign Affairs
Richard Haass, The Opportunity: America's Moment to Alter History's Course
Richard Haass, The Reluctant Sheriff: The United States After the Cold War
Richard Haass, The World: A Brief Introduction
Richard Haass, War of Necessity, War of Choice: A Memoir of Two Iraq Wars
Michael Mandelbaum, “Foreign Policy as Social Work,” Foreign Affairs
Fareed Zakaria, The Post-American World
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/future-us-foreign-policy-richard-haass

Jun 20, 2023
Jun 20, 2023
32 min
Susan M. Gordon, former principal deputy director of National Intelligence, and Admiral Michael G. Mullen, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, sit down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the nature and extent of U.S. support for Taiwan in the face of growing Chinese power.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Council on Foreign Relations, U.S.-Taiwan Relations in a New Era: Responding to a More Assertive China, 2023
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/future-us-taiwan-relations-susan-m-gordon-and-michael-g-mullen

Jun 13, 2023
Jun 13, 2023
38 min
Nora Bensahel, a visiting professor of strategic studies and senior fellow of the Merrill Center at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the challenges the U.S. armed services are having in attracting new recruits and what can be done about it.
Mentioned on the Podcast
David Barno and Nora Bensahel, “Addressing the U.S. Military Recruiting Crisis,” War on the Rocks
David Barno and Nora Bensahel, Adaptation Under Fire: How Militaries Change in Wartime
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/us-military-recruiting-crisis-nora-bensahel

Jun 6, 2023
Jun 6, 2023
32 min
Steven A. Cook, the Eni Enrico Mattei senior fellow for Middle East and Africa studies at the Council, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss what the reelection of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan means for U.S.-Turkey relations and the future of NATO.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Sinan Ciddi and Steven A. Cook, “Why Turkey Experts Got the Election All Wrong,” Foreign Policy
Steven A. Cook, False Dawn: Protest, Democracy, and Violence in the New Middle East
Thomas Frank, What's the Matter with Kansas?: How Conservatives Won the Heart of America
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/erdogans-victory-steven-cook

May 30, 2023
May 30, 2023
40 min
Vanda Felbab-Brown, a senior fellow in the Strobe Talbott Center for Security, Strategy, and Technology in the Foreign Policy program at the Brookings Institution, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss why the United States is struggling to stop the flood of fentanyl entering the country.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Vanda Felbab-Brown, “Why America Is Struggling to Stop the Fentanyl Epidemic,” Foreign Affairs
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/fentanyl-epidemic-vanda-felbab-brown

May 23, 2023
May 23, 2023
34 min
Sadanand Dhume, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and a South Asia columnist for the Wall Street Journal, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the political, economic, and climate crises roiling Pakistan.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Sadanand Dhume, “Imran Khan’s Arrest, the Army and Pakistan’s Perennial Crisis,” Wall Street Journal
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/pakistan-crisis-sadanand-dhume

May 16, 2023
May 16, 2023
33 min
Ashley J. Tellis, the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the challenges inherent in the evolving relationship between the United States and India.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Ashley J. Tellis, “America’s Bad Bet on India,” Foreign Affairs
Ashley J. Tellis, Striking Asymmetries: Nuclear Transitions in Southern Asia
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/us-india-relations-ashley-j-tellis

May 9, 2023
May 9, 2023
35 min
Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at CFR and a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the status of the war in Ukraine and whether it is time for the United States and the West to rethink their strategy.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay, “The West Holds Firm,” Foreign Affairs
Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay, “Why Putin Underestimated the West,” Foreign Affairs
Richard Haass and Charles Kupchan, “The West Needs a New Strategy in Ukraine,” Foreign Affairs
Charles Kupchan, Isolationism: A History of America's Efforts to Shield Itself From the World
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/us-strategy-ukraine-charles-kupchan

May 2, 2023
May 2, 2023
32 min
Scott Snyder, a senior fellow for Korea studies and the director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol’s recent state visit with U.S. President Joe Biden and its implications for the U.S.-South Korean alliance.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Soyoung Kim, Ju-min Park, and Hyonhee Shin, “Exclusive: South Korea's Yoon Opens Door for Possible Military Aid to Ukraine,” Reuters
Don McLean, “American Pie”
Scott Snyder, South Korea at the Crossroads: Autonomy and Alliance in an Era of Rival Powers
Scott Snyder, The United States-South Korea Alliance: Why It Might Fail and Why It Must Not (forthcoming, November 2023)
“South Korean President Yoon sings 'American Pie',” Associated Press
The Animals, “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place”
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/biden-yoon-summit-scott-snyder
