Geopolitical Economy Hour

How Can a $1.5 Trillion Military Keep Losing? | US Military Analysis By KJ Noh & Radhika Desai

Is the US military worth the $1.5 trillion being spent on it? President Biden called the US militarily ‘the most powerful nation in the history of the world.’ On the campaign trail Kamala Harriss called it the ‘strongest most lethal fighting force in the world. President Trump has called it ‘the strongest military on the face of the earth’. Events, however, have belied this cross-party consensus. The Iran is clearly failing. The international relations specialist Stephen Walt today called on Trump to ‘just admit defeat’. And this most recent failure is not an exception. The ignominious defeat in Afghanistan recalled that in Vietnam, Iraq became a quagmire within a couple of years. Apart from overrunning tiny countries like Grenada and Panama, the US has no military successes to name. Before Vietnam, Korea ended in stalemate. How can such an astronomically expensive military fail so abysmally? That is the question I discuss with K J Noh, the superbly informed scholar, journalist and activist with a knack for excellent analogies…..

The End of NATO? The West Is Splitting Over War and Empire | Interview With Werner Rügemer

The relationship between the United States and Europe is often portrayed as a partnership of equals. But has Europe instead become subordinate to American financial, political and military power? In this interview, German left-wing intellectual Werner Rügemer examines the historical foundations of U.S. dominance over Europe, drawing on his book Fatal Friendship: How the USA Conquered Europe. The conversation explores Wall Street’s role in reshaping Europe after the world wars, the growing influence of firms like BlackRock and Vanguard over European capitalism, NATO and EU expansion, the confrontation with China, and the deeper crisis of the transatlantic order. At a moment of intensifying geopolitical conflict and economic instability, this discussion asks whether Europe still acts in its own interests or increasingly in Washington’s.

Russia's Economy Isn't What the West Told You | Michael Hudson, Alan Freeman & Radhika Desai

Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman discuss observations from their recent trip to Russia with Michael Hudson, analyzing the political economy of Russia today and situating its place in the shifting world order. The discussion covers Russia's efforts at Eurasion integration, the Chinese development model, prospects for multi-polarity, the connection between fascism and imperialism, and popular and political sentiment around the Ukraine War.

Capitalism Has Entered its Most Dangerous Stage | GEH with Clara Mattei

Today, as capitalism takes ever more volatile, dangerous, destructive, environmentally devastating, unequal, racist, mysogynist, exploitative, and war-like dimensions, there has been renewed critique and, inevitably, it comes from many directions. In this Geopolitical Economy Hour, Radhika, who is among these critics, is joined by a prominent representative of a different tradition of critique, someone who has spoken about escaping from capitalism, underlined its fundamentally anti democratic character, insisted on its fascistic tendencies, and criticized the fairy tales of neoclassical economics that are decreasingly able to camouflage the ills of capitalism, Clara Mattei, author of The Capital Order and Escape from Capitalism, President of the Foundation for Real Economic Emancipation (FREE) and Professor of Economics at the University of Oklahoma, Tulsa.

(Blocked) Paths to Dedollarization | GEH with Paolo Nogueira Batista

What does the future look like for Dedollarization? How does BRICS play a role? Radhika takes a deep dive with co-founder of New Development Bank, Paolo Nogueira Batista.