Hal Brands: Allies, Autocrats, and AI
Tue Nov 11 2025
Today on Political Economy, I’m chatting with Hal Brands about America’s place in the changing global order. Under the Trump administration, the US has acted less as an “ordering power,” as Brands puts it, than it has over the past century. We talk about the evolving relationship between the US and its allies, in addition to the role of emerging technology in the competition with China.
Brands is a senior fellow here at AEI, where he researches US foreign policy and defense strategy. He is also the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His newest book, The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World, is available now.
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Today on Political Economy, I’m chatting with Hal Brands about America’s place in the changing global order. Under the Trump administration, the US has acted less as an “ordering power,” as Brands puts it, than it has over the past century. We talk about the evolving relationship between the US and its allies, in addition to the role of emerging technology in the competition with China. Brands is a senior fellow here at AEI, where he researches US foreign policy and defense strategy. He is also the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. His newest book, The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World, is available now.