Is U.S. Foreign Policy Trying to Do Too Much? | Foreign Affairs Interview Podcast

Foreign Affairs invites you to listen to its podcast, the Foreign Affairs Interview. This episode with Emma Ashford was originally published on October 6, 2022. As the global balance of power shifts, and in the wake of crises such as the United States’ messy withdrawal from Afghanistan and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, it is an important time to consider the way U.S. foreign policy is made. What are the priorities shaping Washington’s agenda? Can the United States truly restore its leadership on the global stage? And how should the West respond as Russia escalates the war in Ukraine? Emma Ashford is a keen observer of the foreign policy debate in Washington. A senior fellow at the Stimson Center, she consistently offers some of the most trenchant and thoughtful criticism of U.S. strategy and the forces shaping it. She has warned about the dangers of groupthink in Washington—and has made the case for accepting the limits of what U.S. power can achieve. We discuss American foreign policy failures, the Biden administration’s handling of the war in Ukraine, and what great-power competition will look like in the years to come. SOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE “Strategies of Restraint” by Emma Ashford https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2021-08-24/strategies-restraint “In Praise of Lesser Evils” by Emma Ashford https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/praise-lesser-evils-realism-foreign-policy-emma-ashford “How the War in Ukraine Could Get Much Worse” by Emma Ashford https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/ukraine/2022-03-08/how-war-ukraine-could-get-much-worse “Build a Better Blob” by Emma Ashford https://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/build-better-blob “Ukraine Holds the Future” by Timothy Snyder https://www.foreignaffairs.com/ukraine/ukraine-war-democracy-nihilism-timothy-snyder “The New Spheres of Influence” by Graham Allison https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/united-states/2020-02-10/new-spheres-influence