State of Power

We live in an age of empire and resistance - a shifting geography of global power. The military, political and financial support of one country, the US, above all others has allowed a small country - Israel - to commit genocide in Gaza, to the horror of the vast majority of people worldwide. The US military, its corporations, its digital giants, its banks, and its culture continue to dominate globally. Yet at the same time, US-led imperialism has never felt more fractured and resisted. The heavily-resourced US army has been forced out of Afghanistan and was recently expelled from Niger. Nations such as Nicaragua and South Africa are taking powerful former colonial countries to court. Other international institutions, long seen as vehicles for exporting or enforcing US-led neoliberalism, such as the World Trade Organisation have seemingly run out of steam. The US is also increasingly isolated globally: Brazil, China, India, Russia and other nations are directly challenging its hegemony, and the US' dysfunctional democracy is less and less cited as a model by other countries. There is a growing popular sense that the post-Cold War neoliberal globalised order is in crisis. Is US hegemony really fading? Does any other nation, including China, pose any real challenge to US power, let alone offer a political or economic alternative?  Has the heralded hope of a BRICS bloc collapsed amidst its contradictions?  What would it take to build a more equitable and just new international political and economic order? In this episode, to properly examine where geopolitical or geoeconomic power lies today – and how it is being exercised and how that might be changing, TNI's Nick Buxton speaks to  Adam Tooze, and Walden Bello.  Adam Tooze holds the Shelby Cullom Davis chair of History at Columbia University and serves as Director of the European Institute. In 2019, Foreign Policy Magazine named him one of the top Global Thinkers of the decade. Walden Bello is a TNI associate and author of more that 20 books,  a human rights and peace campaigner, academic, environmentalist and journalist who has made a major contribution to the international case against corporate-driven globalization.

History in Action Part 1 delves into the founding of the Transnational Institute (TNI) and its origins with the Institute for Policy Studies. We look at the roots of TNI in opposition to the Vietnam War and other global liberation movements. We explore TNI's evolution and its sustained resistance against neoliberal ideologies, its tragedy with the assassination of Orlando Letelier, and its early work on debt, food and alternatives. Narrator: Shaun Matsheza Interviews conducted by: Denis Burke, Daria Gorshenina and Shaun Matsheza Music: Aleksey Chistilin [https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PMzQeFSIXHTJH2X79EsZg?si=kQFX9oJeQpygatHNOsa6-A] Interviews with: Susan George, Cora and Peter Weiss, John Cavanagh, Achin Vanaik, Anthony Barnett, Susan Buck-Morss, Ariane van Buren, Manuel Pérez-Rocha Archival audio with: John Berger, Isabel Letelier, Orlando Letelier, Eqbal Ahmad, Basker Vashee, Fred Halliday Find out more about TNI at tni.org [http://www.tni.org] Please consider making a contribution to support our vital work at tni.org/donate [https://www.tni.org/en/support-tni] With thanks to the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam

History in Action Part 5 guides us through the multifaceted impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, underscored by increasing corporate power and social injustices—from healthcare privatization and vaccine disparities to the militarization of borders. We talk about green colonialism and the people hijacking the transition to renewable energy for their own profits. We talk about Gaza. Insights from diverse activists and scholars emphasize the need for a collective, just transition and highlight the historical and ongoing struggles for social justice, for international solidarity and for systemic change. Narrator: Shaun Matsheza Interviews conducted by: Denis Burke, Daria Gorshenina and Shaun Matsheza Music: Aleksey Chistilin [https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PMzQeFSIXHTJH2X79EsZg?si=kQFX9oJeQpygatHNOsa6-A] Interviews with: Arun Kundnani, Niamh Ni Bhriain, Katie Sandwell, Lucía Bárcena, Walden Bello, Sol Trumbo Vila , Achin Vanaik, Dorothy Guerrero, John Cavanagh, Achin Vanaik, Lyda Fernanda Forero, Manuel Pérez-Rocha, Fiona Dove Archival audio with: Abir Kopty, Hamza Hamouchene, Susan George Find out more about TNI at tni.org [http://www.tni.org] Please consider making a contribution to support our vital work at tni.org/donate [https://www.tni.org/en/support-tni] With thanks to the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam

History in Action Part 4 talks about the fallout of the financial crises, the rise of new forms of authoritarianism, the new movements that shook the world, and the work against transnational corporate impunity.  Narrator: Shaun Matsheza Interviews conducted by: Denis Burke, Daria Gorshenina and Shaun Matsheza Music: Aleksey Chistilin [https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PMzQeFSIXHTJH2X79EsZg?si=kQFX9oJeQpygatHNOsa6-A] Interviews with: Walden Bello, Sol Trumbo Vila , Niamh Ni Bhriain, Achin Vanaik, Dorothy Guerrero, Lucía Bárcena, Martin Jelsma Archival audio with: Susan George, Howard Wachtel,  Brid Brennan Find out more about TNI at tni.org [http://www.tni.org] Please consider making a contribution to support our vital work at tni.org/donate [https://www.tni.org/en/support-tni] With thanks to the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam

History in Action Part 3 discusses the disastrous war on terror, the rise of China, and the convergence of social movements around the climate crisis, land, and essential public services. Narrator: Shaun Matsheza Interviews conducted by: Denis Burke, Daria Gorshenina and Shaun Matsheza Music: Aleksey Chistilin [https://open.spotify.com/artist/3PMzQeFSIXHTJH2X79EsZg?si=kQFX9oJeQpygatHNOsa6-A] Interviews with: Arun Kundnani,  Lyda Fernanda Forero, Jun Borras, Walden Bello, Dorothy Guerrero, Fiona Dove Archival audio with: Howard Wachtel, Brid Brennan, Satoko Kishimoto, Fred Halliday Find out more about TNI at tni.org [http://www.tni.org] Please consider making a contribution to support our vital work at tni.org/donate [https://www.tni.org/en/support-tni] With thanks to the International Institute for Social History in Amsterdam