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Written interviews
It’s Time to Talk About World War III
William & Mary
Global Research Institute, June 14, 2023 (interview with Adriana Shi)
The vast majority of Americans alive today are unused to paying
significant costs for foreign policy choices, and they are used to foreign
policy choices seeming to be cost free, at least if you’re not a service member
or one of their family or community members. That really makes it hard to know
what the United States would actually do in the event
of a confrontation with China over Taiwan.
Wertheim: Raste rizik od trećeg
svetskog rata
Radio Free Europe, March 22, 2023 (interview with Dragan Štavljanin)
Uspon Kine, agresija Rusije i dugoročni bezbednosni izazovi sa Iranom i
Severnom Korejom — pokazuju da projektovanje američke moći izaziva otpor.
Vingt ans après la guerre
en Irak, «les Etats-Unis n’ont pas voulu en retenir les leçons»
Libération, March 22, 2023, 12-13 (interview with Julien Gester)
La guerre en Irak
a eu un impact profond sur
la politique étrangère américaine
et la perception par le pays de son rôle dans le monde : lancée pour affirmer le rôle planétaire de l’Amérique, elle se fondait sur la conviction que les Etats-Unis
étaient en droit d’envahir un pays et d’en renverser le gouvernement, quand bien même celui-ci ne représentait aucune menace pour nous. Alors que les dirigeants américains voudraient l’oublier, l’héritage de cet élan unilatéraliste continue d’affecter leur politique étrangère.
The Case for U.S. Restraint in Ukraine and Taiwan
Foreign Policy, August 24, 2022 (interview with Ravi Agrawal)
The direction in which we seem to be heading is on one level a continuation of U.S. global primacy. But on another level, it’s something qualitatively different, where the United States faces real risks of a great-power conflict for the perpetual future.
USA bør trække sig, før oprustningen ender i en kæmpe katastrofe
Politiken, May 21, 2022, 3 (interview with Jacob Pedersen)
Min bekymring
er, at mange i Washington, DC, har
den forkerte reaktion på krigen og
konkluderer, at USA skal forblive Vestens ledende militære aktør til at balancere
og inddæmme Rusland og Kina. I min verden er krigen en strategisk mulighed
for USA til at stoppe sin
vane fra tiden efter den kolde krig, hvor man har undertrykt europæiske forsvarsinitiativer, og i stedet
omfavne Europas militære opvågning, koncentrere sig om sikkerheden i Asien og
sine egne presserende hjemlige behov
Clarín, March 31, 2022 (interview with Juan Décima)
Creo que es muy riesgoso tener
sanciones que se estiren por décadas, con la vaga esperanza de que tal vez impulsen
alguna mejora en el comportamiento
internacional de Rusia.
The Dangers of a ‘New Cold War’ with Russia
Jewish Currents, March 24, 2022 (interview with David Klion)
if military competition continues to intensify, another danger is that we might start to see a messy economic decoupling from China that dwarfs the one that has suddenly occurred between the West and Russia. Then the world would start to more closely resemble that of the original Cold War, and the risk of armed conflict would probably increase, because the value of bringing new territory under one’s control would rise.
How to Do What’s Right Without Starting World War
III
The Ink, March 17, 2022 (interview with Anand Giridharadas)
The West should absolutely not give the impression that the goal of sanctions is to cause regime change in Russia. If Putin believes he might fall, he would become far more willing to use nuclear weapons or launch a conventional war with NATO. During the Cold War, the United States learned that it would be suicidal to make the leaders of a nuclear-armed superpower think they had nothing left to lose. The time to remember that lesson is right now.
Retaliação Russa a Sanções Pode Ampliar o Conflito
O Globo, February 25, 2022, 20 (interview with Eduardo Graça)
Agora, claramente foi um erro jogar com a possibilidade da entrada da Ucrânia na Otan. A política de portas abertas da Otan, uma invencionice recente do ponto de vista histórico, deveria ser abandonada.
New York Review of
Books, February 12, 2022
(interview with Matt Seaton)
The ultimate purpose is to change U.S. foreign policy, not just the debate about it. That will take a generational effort. To me, the real achievement to date has been to lay a foundation, intellectual and institutional, for the long haul.
Strategieexperte zum Ukraine-Konflikt: «Die USA bluffen mit der Verteidigung aller Nato-Verbündeten»
Tages
Anzeiger, February 11,
2022 (interview with Fabian Fellman)
Die USA blieben nach dem Kalten Krieg die do‐ minierende Militärmacht
in Europa, weil Kosten und Risi‐ ken als gering erschienen und das postsowjetische Russland nicht bedrohlich war. Jetzt verursacht ein selbstbewusste‐ res und aggressiveres Russland
für
die USA reale Kosten und Risiken.
Le Grand Continent, December 3, 2021 (interview with Louis de Catheu)
Dans les années 1990, les responsables de la politique étrangère et les intellectuels américains avaient perdu le lien avec une tradition plus ancienne combinant le nationalisme américain et l’internationalisme pour conclure que les États-Unis n’avaient pas grand intérêt à projeter leur puissance militaire à l’échelle mondiale et qu’ils ne provoqueraient que des dommages en le faisant.
How the U.S. Decided to Lead the World
Review of Democracy, June 16, 2021 (interview with Ferenc Laczó)
Americans need only look a little into their past to recover insightful warnings against becoming entangled militarily in conflicts. I would be one of the least surprised people in Washington if the United States does end up significantly reducing its military role in the world in the next decade or two.
Stephen Wertheim: “La OTAN debería
haberse disuelto cuando desapareció la Unión Soviética”
El Diario, May 29, 2021 (interview with Hernán Garcés)
Desde la Segunda Guerra Mundial los líderes estadounidenses se han dicho a sí mismos, al país y al mundo, que Estados Unidos era profundamente reacio a tomarse el poder y que si lo hacía era por ser inevitable o debido a la identidad del país. Sin embargo, esa no es en absoluto la realidad si examinas a las personas que decidieron la política militar de supremacía mundial.
Die Zeit, March 25, 2021, 10 (debate with Franziska Brantner, moderated by Jochen Bittner and Jörg Lau)
I worry that “America is back” means a return to the United States putting its global military dominance at the center of its foreign policy. This quest for dominance divides the world into subordinate allies and permanent adversaries.
Stephen Wertheim: «Amerika sollte
die Welt nicht mehr militärisch dominieren»
NZZ am
Sonntag, February 7,
2021, 4-5 (interview with Andreas Mink)
Bauen die USA die eigenen Sicherheitsverpflichtungen stetig aus. Der Fachbegriff hierfür lautet: imperiale Überdehnung. Und damit schafft sich Amerika Feinde, statt sich zu schützen.
How Military Superiority Made Americans Less Safe
Vox, December 29, 2020 (interview with Alex Ward)
If America’s postwar planners from World War II — had they been around today or even in the 1990s — they would say, “Wait a minute.” They would’ve realized how fraught it is to take on a world-ordering role by force, akin to what we understood the British Empire had done in the previous century. After all, they worried to themselves that what they were planning contained a measure of imperialism in it.
Plus une volonté
de restauration que de réforme
Le Courrier, December 10, 2020 (interview with Alexis Rapin)
Ma crainte est que l’administration Biden n’aille pas assez loin et échoue à prioriser l’engagement pacifique plutôt que la domination armée.
American Military Supremacy is Not Inevitable
The
Politics of Everything, The New Republic, December 2, 2020 (interview with Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene)
The original argument
for U.S. military primacy was premised on the idea that totalitarian powers
might conquer much of the world. But once totalitarian conquerors disappeared,
U.S. armed dominance came to be, in my view, something like an end unto itself.
When America Decided to Rule the World
The
Washington Post, November 2, 2020
(interview with Ishaan Tharoor)
The trouble is that the
United States now conflates its vital interests with its power position in the
world. In effect, armed dominance has become an end unto itself. As many
Americans once recognized, that is an imperialistic cast of mind.
It also corrupts strategy.
The
National Interest, October 31, 2020
(by Zach Brown)
The United States has
acquired more and more enemies around the world. We’ve seen endless wars across
the Greater Middle East. We’ve seen hatreds unleashed by those wars turned
inward against immigrants, against political opponents, possibly against
democracy itself.
Los problemas actuales de EEUU están muy relacionados con sus guerras interminables
El Confidencial, October 30, 2020 (interview
with Carlos Barragán)
Deberíamos ser capaces de separar la batalla contra los nazis en la II Guerra Mundial, incluso de la Guerra Fría si quieres, de un proyecto más general de la dominación estadounidense que se consideró sin ningún objetivo final. Han pasado ya tres décadas desde el colapso de la Unión Soviética y nuestra política exterior está alejada de lo que realmente quieren los votantes estadounidenses. Con sus acciones, EEUU ha hecho menos seguro parte del mundo.
How the U.S. Became the World’s Police
Teen Vogue, October 19, 2020 (interview with Sarah Souli)
The project of American supremacy has corrupted its own original purposes. It was originally instituted in a situation where it seemed like the way to have the freest, most liberal, most engaged world was, tragically, to have the United States enforcing decent terms of world order. Now the U.S. and its use of force seems to stand in the way of free exchange, of decent international rules and norms.
Stephen Wertheim: “No se puede
descartar la posibilidad de
un conflicto armado entre
EE.UU. y China”
Clarín, September 22, 2020 (interview with Juan Décima)
La crisis y la disfuncionalidad que actualmente
se ve en EE.UU. se retrotrae en parte
a la década del 90 y a una cuestión que nunca se resolvió tras la caída de la Unión Soviética. Básicamente, que a partir de ese momento la fuerza militar de Estados Unidos se
convirtió en un obstáculo para la libertad que
en un principio decía
defender.
Can We Democratize Foreign Policy?
Dissent, December 18, 2019 (interview with Daniel Bessner)
Free-floating
intellectuals can speak truth to power. Then what? What will power do with
truth? Probably deny it or ignore it. It takes power to beat power, and in
today’s United States, it takes institutions to organize power.
Did We Take Trump Too Seriously?
The New
York Times, July 26, 2017 (interview with
Max Strasser)
We need to take him seriously
— especially his administration and supporters. He wouldn’t be president today
if he hadn’t tapped into a powerful politics, what I called the “politics of
civilization.” In fact, he is dangerous precisely because he makes it hard to take his politics
seriously. He inspires a Pavlovian ridicule. But that reflex to ridicule is
allowing some people to avoid trying to understand his policies and to avoid
developing a real critique of them.
TV/Audio Interviews
Should Ukraine Join NATO? A Historian and Former
NATO Chief Debate
Amanpour, CNN and PBS, June
29, 2023 (interview with Christiane
Amanpour)
How the War in
Ukraine Might End
DW News, June 13, 2023 (interview with Phil Gayle)
Uncle Sam Has to Let the European Eaglets Fly from
the Nest
Crashing
the War Party, June 16, 2023
(interview with Daniel Larison and Kelley Vlahos)
Torn in the USA: How Important is the War in
Ukraine for the United States?
Bear Market
Brief, Foreign Policy Research Institute, March 23, 2023 (interview with Aaron Schwartzbaum)
Our Historical Memory Lapse on the 20th Anniversary
of the U.S. Invasion of Iraq
Background
Briefing, March 19, 2023
(interview with Ian Masters)
Brazil and Biden’s Foreign Policy
In Time of
Monsters, The Nation, January 11, 2023 (interview with Jeet Heer)
The Un-Diplomatic
Podcast, January 10, 2023
(interview with Van Jackson and Kate Kizer)
Biden’s Foreign Policy Promises
Power
Problems, Cato Institute, January 10, 2023 (interview with John Glaser)
The Crisis in Progressive Foreign Policy
American
Prestige, September 20,
2022 (interview with Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison)
Is Progressive Foreign Policy Really in Crisis?
Crashing
the War Party, September 16,
2022 (interview with Daniel Larison and Kelley Vlahos)
The Case for U.S. Restraint in Ukraine and Taiwan
FP Live, August 24, 2022 (interview with Ravi Agrawal)
The Liberal International Order
John Quincy Adams
Society Events, July 28, 2022 (interview
with John Allen Gay)
South Korea’s
Vision to Become a Global Pivotal State
Arirang News, June 26, 2022
Why Joe Biden Should Be Supporting Sovereignty and
Not Democracy in Ukraine
Keen On, Lithub, June 19,
2022 (interview with Andrew Keen)
The Fight in Ukraine is Not Just for Democracy But for Sovereignty
Background
Briefing, June 12, 2022
(interview with Ian Masters)
DW News, April 22, 2022 (interview with Brent Goff)
In Time of
Monsters, April 6, 2022
(interview with Jeet Heer)
How Will the
Next Phase in Russia’s War in Ukraine Look
DW News, March 30, 2022 (interview with Brent Goff)
Radio Open
Source, March 17, 2022
(discussion with Emma Ashford, David Kang, and Christopher Lydon)
Cato Daily
Podcast, Cato Institute, March 17, 2022 (discussion with Caleb O. Brown and Ted Galen Carpenter)
Russian Invasion, Western Response, Historic
Significance
Politics +
Media 101, March 16, 2022
(interview with Justin Higgins)
A NATO No-Fly Zone in Ukraine Would Be ‘Direct
Involvement in the War Against Russia,’ Experts Warn
Democracy Now!, March 16, 2022 (interview with Amy Goodman)
U.S. Hits
Russia with New Sanctions
The Mehdi
Hasan Show, MSNBC, February 22,
2022 (interview with Mehdi Hasan)
Finding A Path to Back Away from Brinkmanship Over
Ukraine
Background
Briefing, February 6, 2022
(interview with Ian Masters)
Recent Events
in Russia and Ukraine
Majority
Report, January 21, 2022
(interview with Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland)
The Battle of Ideas over America’s Role in the
World
Power
Problems, Cato Institute, September 21, 2021 (interview with John Glaser)
Biden’s Foreign Policy of Pragmatism and Realism
Background
Briefing, September 9,
2021 (interview with Ian Masters)
9/11’s Legacy on U.S. Foreign Policy
The World
Unpacked, September 9,
2021 (interview with Doug Farrar)
9/11, Afghanistan, and Failed Foreign Policy
Reason, September
1, 2021 (interview with Nick
Gillespie)
The End of the Indispensable Nation
Opinion Has
It, Project Syndicate, August 31,
2021 (interview with Elmira Bayrasli)
As We Approach the Afghanistan Deadline: Looking
Back and Looking Ahead
Deep State
Radio, August 30, 2021
(discussion with Max Boot, Rosa Brooks, and David Rothkopf)
Senior Policy Fellow Argues Terror Attack Should
Not Lead To More War
All Things
Considered, NPR, August 27,
2021 (interview with Audie Cornish)
Was U.S. Failure in Afghanistan Inevitable?
The
Minefield, ABC Radio National, August 26, 2021 (interview with Waleed Aly and Scott Stephens)
Stephen
Wertheim on Recent Events in Afghanistan
In Lieu of
Fun, August 20, 2021 (interview with
Genevieve DellaFerra and Scott Shapiro)
The Michael
Smerconish Program, SiriusXM, August 2, 2021 (interview with Michael Smerconish)
American
Prestige, July 9, 2021
(interview with Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison)
Liberals
Should Stop Loving NATO
Majority
Report, June 21, 2021
(interview with Sam Seder)
Stephen Wertheim and Sara Moller on the Past,
Present and Future of NATO
Lawfare, June 21, 2021 (discussion with Sara Moller and Alan Rozenshtein)
NATO Ramps Up Rhetoric Against China & Russia. Is
Biden Leading the U.S. into a New Cold War?
Democracy Now!, June 15, 2021 (interview with Amy Goodman and
Juan González)
Supremacy, Neutrality, Isolationism
Encounters, May 11, 2021 (interview with Jonathan Askonas)
Majority
Report, April 23, 2021
(interview with Sam Seder)
Stephen Wertheim
Serve to
Lead, March 19, 2021
(interview with James Strock)
Stephen
Wertheim on America and the World
In Lieu of
Fun, December 29, 2020 (interview
with Kate Klonick and Benjamin Wittes)
Know Your
Enemy, December 26,
2020 (interview with Sam Adler-Bell)
Why America Chose Global Hegemony
Departures, December
23, 2020 (interview with Robert
Amsterdam)
Truman Book Talk:
‘Tomorrow, the World’ with Stephen Wertheim
Truman
National Security Project, December 8,
2020 (interview with Rachel Rizzo)
Radio Open
Source, December 3, 2020
(interview with Christopher Lydon)
Why
Biden Can’t Go Back to the Foreign Policy Status Quo
Majority
Report, December 2, 2020
(interview with Sam Seder and Emma Vigeland)
Tomorrow, The World: The Birth of U.S. Global
Supremacy
Cato Daily
Podcast, Cato Institute, December 2, 2020 (interview with Caleb O. Brown)
American Military Supremacy is Not Inevitable
The
Politics of Everything, The New Republic, December 2, 2020 (interview with Laura Marsh and Alex Pareene)
What Comes After WTF? The Future of American
Leadership in the Biden Era
Deep State
Radio, November 30,
2020 (discussion with Rosa Brooks, Ed Luce, David Rothkopf, and Kori
Schake)
Can the U.S.
Restore Its Place on the Global Stage?
The Mehdi
Hasan Show, Peacock, November 25, 2020 (interview with Mehdi Hasan)
Joe Biden’s Foreign Policy Team
The Big
Picture, SiriusXM, November 25, 2020 (interview with Olivier Knox)
Stephen Wertheim on the Decision to Rule the World
Talk Nation
Radio, November 17,
2020 (interview with David Swanson)
The
Roots of U.S. Global Hegemony
The Wright
Show on Bloggingheads.tv, November 17, 2020 (interview with Robert Wright)
The
Berggruen Institute, November 19, 2020
(interview with Nils Gilman)
Tomorrow, the World: A Book Talk with
Stephen Wertheim
The German
Marshall Fund, November 17, 2020
(interview with Martin Quencez)
A Whole New World (Order)
War on the
Rocks, November 16, 2020
(discussion with Doyle Hodges, Rebecca Lissner, and
Mira Rapp-Hooper)
Tomorrow, the
World: A Discussion with Stephen Wertheim and Andrew Bacevich
The Quincy
Institute, November 10, 2020
(interview with Andrew Bacevich)
The Empire
Has No Clothes, November 2, 2020
(interview with Daniel Larison, Matt Purple, and
Kelley Vlahos)
Press the
Button, October 27, 2020
(interview with Michelle Dover)
The Lawfare
Podcast, October 27, 2020
(interview with Jack Goldsmith)
Stephen Wertheim and Afroditi
Giovanopoulou
Digging a
Hole: The Legal Theory Podcast, October 27, 2020 (interview with Samuel Moyn and
David Schleicher)
Tomorrow:
Tomorrow, the World
Foreign
Exchanges, October 26, 2020
(interview with Derek Davison)
The Origins
of U.S. Military Supremacy and How to End It
Majority
Report, October 20, 2020
(interview with Sam Seder)
The End of America’s Forever Wars
New
Statesman World, October 16, 2020
(interview with Emily Tamkin and Jeremy Cliffe)
American Supremacy: Stephen Wertheim on the
Decision for Military Dominance
None of the
Above, October 14, 2020 (interview with
Mark Hannah)
The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy and Whether the
Republic Will Survive the Empire
Background
Briefing, October 13, 2020
(interview with Ian Masters)
Future
Hindsight, December 6, 2019 (interview with
Mila Atmos)
The Open
Mind, PBS, September 30,
2019 (interview with Alexander Heffner and Trita
Parsi)
Challenging the Friends of Endless War
Cato Daily
Podcast, Cato Institute, September 11, 2019 (interview with Caleb O. Brown)
Diplomacy and U.S. Foreign Policy
Washington
Journal, C-SPAN, July 29,
2019 (interview with John McArdle and viewers)
Foreign
Exchanges, July 26, 2019 (interview with
Derek Davison)
Can
‘Radically Anti-War’ Democrats Beat President Donald Trump in 2020?
Morning
Joe, MSNBC, July 3, 2019
(interview with Willie Geist and Mark Hannah)
What’s
a Little Disastrous Foreign Policy Between Friends?
The Wright
Show on Bloggingheads.tv, January
18, 2019 (interview with Robert Wright)
The Trump Doctrine and its Mandarin Detractors
The Dig, June 29, 2018 (interview with Daniel Denvir)
Ain’t No Party Like a World Order Party
War on the
Rocks, May 14, 2018 (interview with
Rebecca Lissner, Mira Rapp-Hooper, and Ryan Evans)
America Was Never Exceptional, but We Used to Think
It Was
The Dig, September 19, 2017 (interview with Daniel Denvir)
Panels and Debates
Remembering and Misremembering
the Iraq War
Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, March
7, 2023 (with Spencer Ackerman, Chris Chivvis, Matthew
Duss Francis Fukuyama, and Vivian Salama)
Sustainability Hub at the Munich Security Conference, BMW Foundation February 19, 2022 (with Nicholas Connolly, Vidar Helgesen, Galyna Mykhailiuk, Orysia Lutsevych)
The Return of
Great Power Politics: America in the 21st Century
Norwegian
Atlantic Committee, February 7, 2022 (with
John Mearsheimer and Asle Toje)
On the
Cutting Edge of Realism and Restraint
Advancing
Security: Realism, Restraint, and the Future of Foreign Policy, Stand Together,
November 3, 2021 (with Emma Ashford,
Eugene Gholz, and John Mearsheimer)
Is It Time
for a Revolution in U.S. Foreign Policy?
Bloggingheads.tv, July 15, 2021 (with Thomas Wright)
Tomorrow, the
World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy
Observer
Research Foundation, June 17, 2021 (with
Varghese K. George, Chintamani Mahapatra, Nikhila
Natarajan, and Meera Shankar)
The First 100
Days: Implications for the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy
Chatham
House, April 20, 2021 (with Susan
Glasser and Gideon Rachman)
Biden’s First
100 Days: Implications for the Future of U.S. Foreign Policy
WGBH Boston
and Suffolk University, March 31, 2021
(with Fiona Hill, Enrique Perret, and Lyric Thompson)
Book Talk:
Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of U.S. Global Supremacy
Saltzman
Institute of War and Peace Studies, Columbia University, January 29, 2021 (with Stuart Gottlieb and Robert
Jervis)
The Foreign
Policy of the Biden Administration
Institut français des relations internationales, December 11, 2020 (with Walter Russell
Mead, Kristin Diwan, Benjamin Haddad, and Alexander Lennon)
Bridging
the Gap, December 1, 2020 (with Rebecca Lissner and
Mira Rapp-Hooper)
Prospects for
Ending America’s Endless Wars
World
Affairs Councils of America, November 17, 2020 (with Rachel Esplin Odell and Trita Parsi)
Is China the
New Enemy? Confront or Cooperate?
Arena Stage
Civil Dialogue, June 22, 2020 (with Elbridge Colby, Rebeccah
Heinrichs, and Rachel Esplin Odell)
Foreign
Affairs issue launch, Council on Foreign Relations, March 9, 2020 (with Kathleen Hicks and
Thomas Wright)
Foreign
Policy-Quincy Institute Forum, February 26, 2020 (with Emma
Ashford, Rosa Brooks, and Thomas Wright)
How Think
Tanks Sustain DC’s Swampy Ecosystem
The
American Conservative Foreign Policy Conference, November 7, 2019 (with Ben Freeman, Carrie Levin, and Christopher
Preble)
America’s
Role in the World: A Debate
Dartmouth
College, May 7, 2019 (with
Eugene Gholz, Jennifer Lind, Constanze
Stelzenmüller, and Jake Sullivan)