614. Is the U.S. Sleeping on Threats from Russia and China?

Freakonomics Radio

John J. Sullivan, a former State Department official and U.S. ambassador, says yes: “Our politicians aren’t leading — Republicans or Democrats.” He gives a firsthand account of a fateful Biden-Putin encounter, talks about his new book Midnight in Moscow, and predicts what a second Trump term means for Russia, Ukraine, China — and the U.S.

  • SOURCES:
    • John Sullivan, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia. 
  • RESOURCES:
    • Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia's War Against the West, by John Sullivan (2024).
    • "The ‘Deathonomics’ Powering Russia’s War Machine," by Georgi Kantchev and Matthew Luxmoore (The Wall Street Journal, 2024).
    • War, by Bob Woodward (2024).
    • "On the Record: The U.S. Administration’s Actions on Russia," by Alina Polyakova and Filippos Letsas (Brookings, 2019).
    • "Why Economic Sanctions Still Do Not Work," by Robert A. Pape (International Security, 1998).
  • EXTRAS:
    • "The Suddenly Diplomatic Rahm Emanuel," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).

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