Scouted

The Once and Future World Order

Welcome to Scouted! Our series highlights new, provocative work in international relations and foreign policy. In this podcast, I sit down with one of the field’s most creative and influential voices, Professor Amitav Acharya [https://www.american.edu/sis/faculty/aacharya.cfm], to talk about his new book, The Once and Future World Order (Basic Books, 2025). Spanning five thousand years of global history, the book challenges our conceptions of world order—and our diagnoses for its future. Acharya shows that ideas often credited to the West—e.g., property rights, democracy, humanitarian values, just war, freedom of the seas, open trade—actually have deep roots in civilizations from Sumer and India to Greece and Mesoamerica. The result? A radically different perspective: aspects of world order have deep intellectual and normative roots in non-Western civilizations. World order isn’t a Western creation, but a shared inheritance with global foundations. And history shows it need not be fragile. As U.S. leadership ebbs, many observers predict chaos; Acharya argues instead that order will adapt and endure, supported by a large cast of actors. In our conversation, we explore: * Key aspects of world order with roots in ancient non-Western civilizations; * The 15th century Indian Ocean trading system as precursor to globalization; * Why the West’s imperfect contributions (think democracy in Athens or the Magna Carta) are viewed as foundational, while equally imperfect precursors in non-Western civilizations are overlooked; * What previous world orders teach us about order without hegemony; * And how the future of world politics looks more like a “multiplex” stage, with many consequential state and non-state players shaping the script. Sweeping and provocative, the book challenges many core ideas in international relations. Welcome to the conversation! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blueblaze.substack.com [https://blueblaze.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]

How Countries Get Security Assistance from Both Beijing and Washington

Welcome! This is the first episode in our Scouted series, where we spotlight cutting-edge work in international relations and foreign policy. In this episode, we explore how countries around the world are navigating great power competition not by choosing sides between the United States and China—but by playing both. We’ve heard warnings about a new Cold War and a world hardening into rival blocs. But not so fast. From Hungary to Vietnam, Papua New Guinea to the UAE, governments are forging relationships with both Washington and Beijing—getting external security guarantees from the United States and internal security support from China. To help us understand this trend, host Jennifer Lind talks with Sheena Chestnut Greitens [https://lbj.utexas.edu/greitens-sheena-chestnut], an expert on authoritarian politics and East Asian security, and Isaac Kardon [https://carnegieendowment.org/people/isaac-b-kardon?lang=en], a leading scholar of China’s global strategy and influence. They’ve coauthored several important pieces—including a new report for the Carnegie Endowment on International Peace—on what they call security hybridization. In this episode, we discuss: * What does security hybridization look like in practice? * How do these trends differ from superpower patronage during the Cold War? * What happens when a country’s military works with the Americans, but its police and internal security services work with the Chinese? What are the implications of this for internal security? (hey, grad students: dissertation topic alert!) * And what does it mean for the United States when a treaty ally looks to China to help manage dissent at home? Welcome to the conversation! Guests: Sheena Chestnut Greitens [https://lbj.utexas.edu/greitens-sheena-chestnut] (Ph.D., Harvard University) is an Associate Professor at the Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, where she directs the Asia Policy Program. She also serves as Editor‑in‑Chief of the Texas National Security Review. Isaac B. Kardon [https://carnegieendowment.org/people/isaac-b-kardon?lang=en] (Ph.D., Cornell University) is a Senior Fellow in China Studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS. He previously taught at the U.S. Naval War College as part of the China Maritime Studies Institute. Publications referenced in the podcast: * (with Cameron Waltz) “A New World Cop on the Beat? China’s Internal Security Outreach under the Global Security Initiative,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, July 2025. * “Security without Exclusivity: Hybrid Alignment under U.S.‑China Competition [https://direct.mit.edu/isec/article-abstract/49/3/122/128038/Security-without-Exclusivity-Hybrid-Alignment?redirectedFrom=fulltext].” International Security 49, no. 2 (Winter 2024/25): 122–163. * “Playing Both Sides of the U.S.‑Chinese Rivalry: Why Countries Get External Security from Washington—and Internal Security from Beijing [https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/playing-both-sides-us-chinese-rivalry].” Foreign Affairs, March 15, 2024. Not yet a subscriber? Click here for a free subscription to Blue Blaze. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit blueblaze.substack.com [https://blueblaze.substack.com?utm_medium=podcast&utm_campaign=CTA_1]