
5.6M
Downloads
355
Episodes
Each episode of The President’s Inbox explores a foreign policy challenge facing the United States.
Episodes

Apr 25, 2023
Apr 25, 2023
35 min
Morgan Bazilian, director of the Payne Institute and a professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss why critical minerals have emerged as a major issue in the U.S.-China geopolitical competition.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Morgan D. Bazilian and Gregory Brew, “The Missing Minerals: To Shift to Clean Energy, America Must Rethink Supply Chains,” Foreign Affairs
Keith Bradsher, “Why China Could Dominate the Next Big Advance in Batteries,” New York Times
Geological Survey 2022 Final List of Critical Minerals [PDF], U.S. Geological Survey, Department of the Interior
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/critical-minerals-and-china-morgan-bazilian

Apr 18, 2023
Apr 18, 2023
42 min
Christopher Nichols, professor of history and Wayne Woodrow Hayes chair in National Security Studies at The Ohio State University, Emily Conroy-Krutz, associate professor of history at Michigan State University, and Jay Sexton, professor of history and Rich and Nancy Kinder Chair of Constitutional Democracy at the University of Missouri, sit down with James M. Lindsay to discuss how ideology has historically influenced and shaped U.S. foreign policy.
This episode originally aired on November 1, 2022.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Emily Conroy-Krutz, Christian Imperialism: Converting the World in the Early American Republic
Kathryn Gin Lum, Heathen: Religion and Race in American History
David Hollinger, Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed America
Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
Karl Marx, The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte
Karl Marx, The German Ideology
Melanie McAlister, The Kingdom of God Has No Borders: A Global History of American Evangelicals
Christopher McKnight Nichols, Promise and Peril: America at the Dawn of a Global Age
Christopher McKnight Nichols and David Milne, eds., Ideology in U.S. Foreign Policy: New Histories
Jay Sexton, A Nation Forged by Crisis: A New American History
The White House, Biden-Harris Administration's National Security Strategy: October 2022

Apr 11, 2023
Apr 11, 2023
34 min
Jenny Town, a senior fellow at the Stimson Center and the director of Stimson’s 38 North program, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss North Korea’s nuclear advances and their consequences for the security situation in Northeast Asia.
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/north-koreas-nuclear-program-jenny-town

Apr 4, 2023
Apr 4, 2023
34 min
Esther Brimmer, The James H. Binger Senior Fellow in Global Governance at The Council on Foreign Relations, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss a recent multilateral agreement reached at the United Nations to protect biodiversity in the world’s oceans.
Mentioned on the Podcast
“What’s Cracking in The Arctic,” Why It Matters
UN General Assembly, Draft Agreement Under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction [PDF]
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/the-un-high-seas-treaty-with-esther-brimmer

Mar 28, 2023
Mar 28, 2023
34 min
Paul Scharre, the vice president and director of Studies at the Center for a New American Security, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping great power competition and intensifying the geopolitical rivalry between China and the United States.
Mentioned on the Podcast
“Killer Robots and Autonomous Weapons With Paul Scharre,” The President’s Inbox
Paul Scharre, Army of None: Autonomous Weapons and the Future of War
Paul Scharre, Four Battlegrounds: Power in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/artificial-intelligence-and-great-power-competition-paul-scharre

Mar 21, 2023
Mar 21, 2023
35 min
Edward Alden, the Bernard L. Schwartz senior fellow at CFR and Ross Dist Visiting Professor at Western Washington University, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the crisis at the U.S. southern border and the domestic debates over U.S. immigration policy.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Edward Alden, Failure to Adjust: How Americans Got Left Behind in the Global Economy
Edward Alden, “When Goods Move but People Don't,” Barron’s
Edward Alden, When the World Closed Its Doors: The COVID Pandemic and the Future of Border Control [Forthcoming]
Edward Alden and Tess Turner, “More Lost Chances for Immigration Reform,” CFR.org
Jeb Bush, Thomas F. III McLarty, and Edward Alden, U.S. Immigration Policy
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/us-immigration-policy-edward-alden

Mar 14, 2023
Mar 14, 2023
34 min
Shannon K. O’Neil, vice president, deputy director of Studies, and Nelson and David Rockefeller senior fellow for Latin America Studies at CFR, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss Mexico’s new electoral law and other developments that may be eroding the country’s democratic governance.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Shannon K. O’Neil, “More Soldiers Won’t Curb Mexico’s Rampant Violence,” CFR.org
Shannon K. O’Neil, The Globalization Myth: Why Regions Matter
Shannon K. O’Neil, Two Nations Indivisible: Mexico, the United States, and the Road Ahead
“The Globalization Myth with Shannon K. O’Neil,” The President’s Inbox
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/mexicos-democratic-backsliding-shannon-k-oneil

Mar 7, 2023
Mar 7, 2023
34 min
Ebenezer Obadare, the Douglas Dillon senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss the results of Nigeria’s presidential election and their consequences.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Africa in Transition, CFR.org
Ebenezer Obadare, “A Chance to Consolidate,” CFR.org
Ebenezer Obadare, Pastoral Power, Clerical State: Pentecostalism, Gender, and Sexuality in Nigeria
Ebenezer Obadare, “What’s at Stake in Nigeria’s General Elections?,” CFR.org
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/nigerias-general-election-ebenezer-obadare

Feb 28, 2023
Feb 28, 2023
36 min
Fiona S. Cunningham, assistant professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, sits down with James M. Lindsay to discuss China’s expanding nuclear weapons program and the likelihood of an arms race with the United States.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Fiona S. Cunningham, “Cooperation Under Asymmetry? The Future of U.S.-China Nuclear Relations,” The Washington Quarterly
Fiona S. Cunningham, “Strategic Substitution: China's Search for Coercive Leverage in the Information Age,” International Security
Taylor Fravel, Active Defense: China's Military Strategy Since 1949
Taylor Fravel and Evan S. Medeiros, “China’s Search for Assured Retaliation: The Evolution of Chinese Nuclear Strategy and Force Structure [PDF],” International Security
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/chinas-nuclear-forces-fiona-s-cunningham

Feb 21, 2023
Feb 21, 2023
33 min
Samuel Charap, a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, and Miranda Priebe, director of the Center for Analysis of U.S. Grand Strategy and a senior political scientist at the RAND Corporation, sit down with James M. Lindsay to discuss where the war in Ukraine is headed and how U.S. foreign policy should respond.
Mentioned on the Podcast
Samuel Charap and Miranda Priebe, Avoiding a Long War: U.S. Policy and the Trajectory of the Russia-Ukraine Conflict
For an episode transcript and show notes, visit us at: https://www.cfr.org/podcasts/long-war-ukraine-samuel-charap-and-miranda-priebe
