The Bottom Line: Recent Episodes
The Bottom Line
Every year hundreds of books are removed from school reading lists and public libraries across the United States.
Since the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement, books dealing with racism are increasingly the target of conservative parents and lobbying groups.
Even more insidious are efforts to ban freedom of thought on issues such as Palestine. Author Golbarg Bashi faced death threats, cancelled speaking engagements, and financial and social pressures after writing a children’s book, P is for Palestine, in 2017.
Join Steve Clemons and his panel for this conversation about the future of intellectual freedoms in the US.
The White House is hosting leaders from more than 100 countries in a virtual conference to discuss human dignity, accountability, fair elections and the political leadership of women. But around the world, the governments supported by the United States's national security establishment are some of the worst human rights abusers and kleptocracies. And domestically, US democracy continues to suffer from the outsized influence of money in politics, runaway polarisation among Americans, and even the violent contestation of elections without evidence of fraud. Host Steve Clemons asks Senator Sheldon Whitehouse about the prospects and contradictions in US efforts to fight corruption.
US President Joe Biden had been in office for a few days when he announced that he would hold a virtual “Summit for Democracy” to “push back authoritarianism’s advance” worldwide.
But after the world watched the disregard for rule of law, expansion of executive power and mistrust of elections spread throughout the United States, the question is: What moral authority does Washington have to lecture the rest of the world about democracy?
Host Steve Clemons speaks with former US diplomat Daniel Fried, Foreign Policy magazine columnist Elise Labott, and Progressive International Coordinator David Adler about the prospects for the summit.
Straddling the Syria-Iraq border, Baghuz was one of the last holdouts of the ISIL (ISIS) group.
Thousands of family members, refugees and prisoners were there when fighting erupted between ISIL fighters and American forces in March 2019; the United States called in an enormous air attack.
Recently, US Central Command acknowledged that 80 people, including civilians, were killed. But all internal procedures to investigate the potential war crime have been quashed, according to a report by The New York Times newspaper.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with the reporters that pieced together the investigation over a span of months, Eric Schmitt and David Philipps.
When President Joe Biden unseated Donald Trump and received the most votes of any US leader in history, liberals believed America was ready for real change towards more socialism.
But in reality, the Democrats have razor-thin margins in Congress, and the internal tug of war between progressives and conservatives has paralysed the party's agenda.
The schism became apparent as Biden tried to push his plans for US society and the environment through Congress, where they remain stuck.
Host Steve Clemons talks to Washington Post newspaper columnist David Von Drehle and Politico reporter Tara Palmeri about the recent shifts in US politics.
Americans have been debating the role of the police for decades, but the debate was energised last year during nationwide Black Lives Matter protests.
For many in the white majority, the police must be defended at all costs. If there are proven cases of abuse, they can be resolved on a case-by-case basis. For the rest, the police are seen as the main mechanism that enforces the status quo on society, including racial inequality.
Brooklyn College professor Alex Vitale tells host Steve Clemons that Americans should rethink policing, especially when dealing with schools, the homeless, and mental health cases.
For centuries, there was no significant challenge to the supremacy of white people in the United States.
White nationalists speak of “saving America” - but who are they saving it for? And who are they saving it from?
In the last few years, demographic shifts and changing attitudes have brought a sense of anxiety among whites, who fear they will lose their majority status, become “replaced” by minorities and face all kinds of hostilities.
Host Steve Clemons asks Kathleen Belew, author of A Field Guide to White Supremacy, and Wes Bellamy, author of When White Supremacy Knocks, about the future of race in American society.
When he retired from the military in the early 1990s, the former United States Secretary of State Colin Powell was one of the most trusted and admired leaders in the country.
But by the time he died on October 18, 2021, the role he played in selling the Iraq War to the American public had severely tarnished his reputation.
Powell’s biographer Karen DeYoung, a top editor at The Washington Post newspaper, tells host Steve Clemons that Powell regretted his role in the war but never admitted that he peddled lies in his infamous speech to the United Nations in February 2003.
Many world leaders made lofty environment-friendly promises at the United Nations General Assembly last month, and many more promises are expected next month during the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow.
But is the planet getting closer to net-zero emissions? Are governments and huge corporations making the investments and changes needed to slow the trends of global warming, carbon emissions, pollution and extreme weather?
Join host Steve Clemons in a wide-ranging conversation on climate change with the chief sustainability officer at General Electric, Roger Martella; and the energy and environment reporter at The Hill, Rachel Frazin.
President Joe Biden’s $3.5 trillion “Build Back Better” plan aims to tax the rich, fight global warming, and make healthcare and education cheaper in the United States.
With such a social agenda, it would be expected for the Republican Party to block the plan, but instead, it faces pressure from within the Democratic establishment. The party’s moderates say the plan goes too far, costs too much, and alienates American voters who are scared of the "S" word (socialism).
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Faiz Shakir, the political adviser of Senator Bernie Sanders, and Jonathan Kott, a former adviser to Senator Joe Manchin.
Over its short lifespan, the World Bank’s Doing Business annual report was a big hit with investors.
But some governments, eager to attract direct investment and worried about their reputation, pressed the World Bank to boost their scores, according to a recent investigation.
Other countries found themselves dropping in the rankings due to the personal animus of World Bank officials or politics.
Host Steve Clemons asks Judith Kelley, a Duke University professor and author of Scorecard Diplomacy, and Fabrice Houdart, former World Bank senior officer, about the repercussions for the credibility of the World Bank and efforts to fight corruption worldwide.
After hitting all-time lows, relations between Turkey and the United States have been on the mend since June, when Turkey offered to take up a security role in Afghanistan after the US withdrawal. Now US diplomats are calling Turkey “an invaluable partner in the region”.
This, after years of mistrust due to the US refusal to sell its air defence system to Turkey which led to the purchase of a similar system from Moscow and Washington’s support for Kurdish fighters in Syria.
Join Steve Clemons as he asks Turkey experts Galip Dalay and Howard Eissenstat about the future of Turkey-US relations.
Canadian-American anthropologist Wade Davis holds a mirror up to the United States and sees a society in decline.
Davis argues that the US dominated the world in the post-WWII era because Americans came out of the war with a sense of common purpose. A vibrant, educated middle class dominated.
But now America’s social fabric is damaged, according to Wade. The top 1 percent have greater wealth than the bottom 90 percent and the promise of a decent life for a working family is shattered.
Join host Steve Clemons in a conversation that looks at today's America, inside out.
In the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, US leaders painted the so-called “global war on terror” as an epic battle between civilisation and barbarism.
But instead of spreading democracy worldwide, 20 years later the world is sliding more towards illiberal security states and radicalised populations.
For many people, xenophobia and paranoia became justified. For many politicians, fear-mongering was an easy way to win votes. And for the rich and powerful, the trillions spent on national security equals major business opportunities.
Host Steve Clemons asks David Rothkopf, former editor of Foreign Policy magazine, about the effects of 9/11 on society and politics, and the US's role in the world.
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While COVID-19 deaths and lockdowns have become less frequent in certain parts of the world, the coronavirus still looms large over humanity.
Every year for 20 years, United States officials justified the war in Afghanistan as worthy and winnable. But after the deadline to withdraw was made, the same officials watched in shock and awe as the Taliban retook their country within days.
Former national security adviser John Bolton and other conservative critics of the Joe Biden administration argue that the US should have stayed in Afghanistan indefinitely, and warn against making any deals with the Taliban.
Host Steve Clemons asks Bolton what the US could ever hope to achieve with a perpetual presence in Afghanistan.
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Despite scepticism from many people, the appetite for cryptocurrencies has grown to a market valuation of $2 trillion. There is no going back, according to South African internet entrepreneur Vinny Lingham.
Lingham tells host Steve Clemons that crypto could “decimate” the traditional banking system if they were on a level playing field.
No amount of government crackdown, whether from China or the United States, can stop people from using the internet to innovate and cut out the middlemen, Lingham says. And it is inevitable that cryptocurrencies force banks to rethink their purpose, just as the internet forced newspapers to rethink their business models.
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The United States leaves Afghanistan as the Taliban seem to be retaking control of the entire country, city by city.
So what becomes of the government that Washington propped up and the military that it trained?
Andrew Bacevich, president of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft and a retired colonel in the US Army, tells host Steve Clemons that Washington was blinded by its imperialistic notions that Afghanistan was in dire need of American intervention. And Afghanistan analyst Hashim Wahdatyar warns that Pakistan’s alliance with the Taliban does not bode well for the future of the region.
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Dissidents, politicians, journalists, business leaders - all have been targeted by intelligence agencies using Pegasus, Israeli spyware that can extract all data from phones without the users’ knowledge.
A global investigation called the Pegasus Project is shedding light on the scope and tactics of the hacking software.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with one of the co-authors of the project, Washington Post journalist Dana Priest, along with one of the main sponsors of the project, Amnesty International Secretary General Agnès Callamard, and John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher with Citizen Lab, which first exposed the work of Pegasus five years ago.
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One nuclear bomb can wipe out almost half a million people, yet the United States and Russia have thousands of these weapons. And seven other countries have created atomic bombs as well.
There is no way to reverse time and get rid of these weapons, and countries will spend billions to maintain and upgrade their arsenals, but to what end?
Steve Clemons talks about US nuclear strategy with former Congressman John Tierney, the executive director of the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, and Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of The National Interest.
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For more than 20 years, Chris Matthews made a name for himself on the nightly TV show, Hardball on MSNBC, where he became famous for grilling American politicians and breaking down the country’s politics.
Less known is that he was a politician himself once, running for Congress in the mid-1970s, and working for former President Jimmy Carter.
From his front-row seat to decades of American history, Matthews tells host Steve Clemons about a different time in US politics. But has politicking changed much between the presidency of Richard Nixon and Donald Trump? Decide for yourself after watching this wide-ranging conversation.
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"The Conservation Game" dives deep into the trafficking of exotic animals, especially big cats like lions, tigers and leopards, across the United States.
For decades, TV personalities have trotted cute “ambassador animals” onto morning and late-night talk shows to talk about conservation and animal protection. But this documentary by Michael Webber shows us what happens afterwards when the animals are sold off at auction or kept in back yard cages on private property.
Host Steve Clemons asks about this largely unregulated trade in the US with Webber, Big Cat Rescue founder Carole Baskin, and legal expert Carney Anne Nasser.
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This year “meme stocks”, like GameStop and theatre chain AMC, brought attention to market manipulation tactics and financial instruments such as "short selling" in the stock market.
Individual investors banded together online, especially on Reddit, and shot up the share price of several companies for a while.
Are we witnessing a new era when huge corporations and funds will have to pay attention to retail investors, known as "the little guy"?
Host Steve Clemons talks to wealth manager Lee Munson and Pennsylvania State Secretary of Banking and Securities Richard Vague about the forces at play on Wall Street.
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Former President Donald Trump launched his “revenge tour” against Republican politicians who have not sufficiently supported him, repeating his claims that he won the 2020 elections, and attacking the media and Democrats.
Months after leaving office, Trump is still a commanding presence in the Republican Party. But is it a winning strategy for the GOP to indulge Trump and tie its future to him? But also, is it safe for the Democrats to ignore him?
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Democratic pollster Celinda Lake and University of Pennsylvania political science professor Dan Hopkins about how Trump factors into both parties' tactics.
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Businesses in the United States say they are desperately looking for new employees; there are more than nine million available jobs across the country, and the labour crisis is slowing down economic recovery.
So, are people reassessing their lives because of the global pandemic, and deciding that low-paying jobs are simply not worth the cost and effort, especially when child care or elder care is involved? Or are they simply content to stay at home and receive an unemployment cheque and other government benefits?
Host Steve Clemons talks to employment experts Melissa Swift and Jeremy Robbins about transformations in the post-pandemic workplace.
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United States President Joe Biden has spent the week meeting with European leaders, including his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.
It can be called his “I’m not Trump” tour, in which many European leaders indicated relief that the “America First” agenda of Biden’s predecessor is over - for now.
A looming cloud is the fear that all Biden’s talk about a new era of Transatlantic cooperation and alliance could subside again, if the Republican Party makes a comeback in the coming years.
Join host Steve Clemons’ conversation with Russia expert Matthew Rojansky of the Wilson Center and German Marshall Fund pollster Bruce Stokes.
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When former US President Donald Trump talked about the possibility that the pandemic was hatched in a lab in Wuhan, it was generally dismissed as a conspiracy theory tinged with racism. Now President Joe Biden is asking his intelligence agencies to look into it seriously.
Johns Hopkins University immunologist Gigi Gronvall says the “lab accident” hypothesis is much weaker than the “natural introduction” theory, which holds that the virus jumped from animals to humans.
Technology and healthcare futurist Jamie Metzl says China should not be afraid to open up and allow researchers to explore every possible scenario without quashing the debate.
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Reverend William Barber, president of the Repairers of the Breach social justice movement, tells host Steve Clemons that the US needs a “third Reconstruction” to really break free of its racist past.
The debate on how to teach US racial history rages in classrooms across the country.
Progressives believe Americans should know more about white supremacy and modern-day discrimination against Black and brown Americans in everything from housing to healthcare.
Conservatives believe that “critical race theory” pits Americans against each other and challenges the idea that the US is the greatest country in the history of the universe.
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Almost 30 years ago, a Norwegian power couple decided to bring together Palestinian and Israeli officials in Oslo with the aim of reaching a peace treaty. This led to a historic deal signed by the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israel at the White House in 1993.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with Bartlett Sher, the director of Oslo, a new HBO drama telling the story of the secret talks.
And former Palestinian negotiations adviser Diana Buttu and former Israeli adviser Daniel Levy explain that as long as the ongoing occupation of Palestinian lands comes at “no cost,” the future for both sides is bleak.
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While unquestioning support for Israel is still the name of the game in Washington, DC, a growing number of Democrats are demanding political rights for Palestinians.
University of Michigan Professor Juan Cole is the founder of Informed Comment, a blog on US foreign policy in the Middle East. He tells host Steve Clemons that people are making the connection between Black Lives Matter and Palestine.
And while the “Arab street” has become divided and muted by Arab dictatorships, solidarity with Palestinians has shifted online globally.
Watch this wide-ranging conversation on the shifting dynamics of the Palestinian narrative.
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Fulfilling a campaign promise to “free the vaccine”, US President Joe Biden said he would support lifting patent protection on coronavirus vaccines, to make it easier for vaccines to get to people around the world who need them quickly.
But several Western governments and most drug manufacturers opposed his stance, arguing that Big Pharma would have little incentive to produce a vaccine in record time the next time a new global health emergency arises.
Host Steve Clemons speaks to Dr Michelle McMurry-Heath, president of the trade group Biotechnology Innovation Organization; and Ed Luce, a US columnist for the Financial Times.
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Dimitri Simes has been in the thick of United States-Russia relations for the past five decades. Born in Moscow, he arrived in Washington in the 1970s and never left. He has advised US Presidents Richard Nixon and Donald Trump, and met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Simes says relations will not “reset” between the two countries unless they compromise on Ukraine, which both consider part of their “backyard”. Until then, they can only talk about cooperating on climate change and nuclear proliferation.
Join host Steve Clemons in a wide-ranging interview with Simes, the CEO of the Center for the National Interest in Washington.
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As a presidential candidate, Joe Biden made all sorts of campaign promises in the run-up to the 2020 US election.
Some, like the $1.9 trillion stimulus package and the accelerated COVID-19 vaccination programme, have come to pass. Others, like police reform, gun control, and the federal minimum wage, are unchanged. On immigration, the Biden White House has adopted a softer tone, but nothing to remove the complications enforced by Donald Trump.
Host Steve Clemons speaks with pundits Liz Mair, a former spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, and Josh Marshall, the founder and editor of Talking Points Memo, to gauge the performance of the new administration.
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As Americans watched the murder trial of Derek Chauvin unfold, after the killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd last year, several new cases of the police killing minorities – one as young as 13 years old – were unfolding.
The United States is in the middle of an honest debate about the intersection of racism and policing, but reform for the sake of better race relations and more stable communities is elusive.
In this episode, host Steve Clemons speaks with Nana Gyamfi, the president of the National Conference of Black Lawyers, and James Forman, Jr, a professor of law at Yale University, and finds that change is happening - slowly but surely.
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President Joe Biden faces resistance to key immigration policy reform in the United States, not only from “secure border” Republicans but from politicians in his own Democratic Party.
Lorella Praeli arrived in the US with her family from Peru as a child and lived as an undocumented immigrant for years. Today, she advocates for immigration as a co-president of Community Change.
And Francisco E González, who teaches about the political economies of Latin America at the Johns Hopkins University, argues that there is no indication that the US will ever invest enough money and time in Central America to fix the “root causes” of immigration.
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Former French Ambassador Gérard Araud sees the United States-China rivalry as the biggest diplomatic challenge ahead, and his advice for US policymakers is: Don’t force countries to pick sides.
At the same time, he warns against overestimating China’s power or underestimating US power.
Araud warns that Donald Trump’s victory in 2016 was not a fluke, as more people in Western societies consider their political systems “rigged”.
In this wide-ranging conversation with host Steve Clemons, Araud openly questions whether the West's “war on terrorism” in the Muslim world can be won by military means.
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Despite his campaign promises to “bring the vast majority of our troops home from Afghanistan”, US President Joe Biden is finding that ending the 20-year-old Afghan war is easier said than done.
At one point before the elections former President Donald Trump was ready to leave without much regard for the consequences, in fulfilment of his campaign promise to end the “forever wars”.
Political scientist Stephen Walt tells host Steve Clemons that the biggest fear Biden faces is the possibility that the country could break down even further on his watch once all foreign forces are gone.
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Election reform is one of the biggest political battles of the year in the United States after former President Donald Trump and his fans insisted the last election was “stolen".
Republican lawmakers in 33 states are proposing restrictions on voter registration and voting.
Senate Democrats are pushing the “For the People Act” to greatly increase the number of registered voters and make voting easier.
So which way will the United States go? Join host Steve Clemons as he speaks with Sadiqa Reynolds, CEO of the Urban League in Louisville, and John Fund, a columnist for National Review Online.
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Will the United States wind up sharing world domination with China, or will China eventually accept the US as the world’s sole superpower?
The Biden administration - just like the Trump administration before it - hopes to contain China’s growth and influence. President Joe Biden is trying to do the job by creating an alliance of four countries, the "Quad": Japan, India, Australia and the US.
Join host Steve Clemons and his guests, China experts Deborah Lehr and Randall Schriver, as they discuss the range of issues on the table, including Chinese students in US universities, Huawei, TikTok, Hong Kong, Uighur Muslims, and more.
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A Democratic Party-led proposal to raise the minimum wage in the United States would double the income of millions of Americans. But opponents fear that many small business owners would choose to fire some of their employees, outsource labour to other countries, slow down hiring, or decide to shut down if it passes.
Supporters say that the current federal minimum wage does not provide a liveable salary to millions of Americans and should be pushed to $15 an hour in phases.
Host Steve Clemons is joined by Rachel Greszler, an economist at the conservative Heritage Foundation, and Jacobin magazine editor, David Sirota, also the former speechwriter for Bernie Sanders during his 2020 presidential campaign.
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Donald Trump adviser Jason Miller talks to host Steve Clemons about the former United States president's role in politics and the conservative agenda.
Republican leaders are still split on Trump: House Republicans defend his legacy and coordinate closely with him, with their leaders travelling back and forth to see him at his resort in Florida; but Senate Republicans are trying their best to minimise his influence over the party.
In his first major speech after leaving office, given at the Conservative Political Action Conference on February 28, Trump promised to help his party retake the White House and the Senate.
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US President Joe Biden says he wants to restart negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme, and Iran extended its permission for nuclear watchdogs.
This is the most progress the two parties have made since former President Donald Trump tore up the 2015 deal reached after years of negotiations, but there are no guarantees a new deal is imminent.
Cambridge University lecturer Dr Roxane Farmanfarmaian and Bloomberg columnist Eli Lake lay out the possible scenarios for Iran-US relations over the next few months.
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The idea that the United States should be "made great" for white people is as old as the US itself, and today this notion is represented by almost 200 groups around the country.
Michael German was infiltrating white supremacist movements in the 1990s as a special agent for the FBI. His story was made into a film, Imperium, by director Daniel Ragussis.
In this episode, German and Ragussis tell host Steve Clemons about the challenges facing the Biden administration in confronting an ideology that permeates law enforcement, the military and society in general.
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Retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson, former chief of staff to US Secretary of State Colin Powell, sees a number of challenges for the United States worldwide.
President Joe Biden outlined his foreign policy priorities in a speech on February 4, where he said he would like to see more refugees accepted into the United States, an end to the war in Yemen, and more support for LGBTQ rights worldwide.
Wilkerson believes domestic concerns, especially confronting the “white supremacist, evangelical” takeover of the Republican Party, will make it difficult for Biden to put energy into foreign policy.
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American labour leader and civil rights activist Dolores Huerta knows a thing or two about the plight of the working poor.
In 1962 she and Cesar Chavez co-founded the first labour union for farmworkers in the United States. Most of its members did not speak English and had never dreamed they had the power to stand up to huge corporations, which had money, political connections, and the local police on their side.
Now in her 90s, Huerta is still teaching America’s poor how to organise themselves and make their voice heard. She tells host Steve Clemons that people power can achieve the impossible: “¡Si. Se Puede!”
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COVID-19. Ebola. Zika. All diseases that started in animals, but spread to humans.
“We’ve created conditions where these pathogens can jump from animals to people,” says Jane Goodall, the British primatologist and one of the world’s most vocal activists for wildlife and habitat preservation.
Goodall says she sees hope for the future of the planet because people are finding new and improved ways to farm, treat animals, and push for social justice.
But she also tells host Steve Clemons that the environment will not get better unless poverty is alleviated. “Because when you’re really poor, you just do what you have to do to live.”
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John Bellinger served as a legal adviser to the White House and State Department during the George W Bush administration.
He was a prominent member of the “never-Trumpers”, the small group of Republicans who opposed Donald Trump’s candidacy in 2015 and voted for Joe Biden in 2020, arguing that Trump was a threat to US security and stability.
Bellinger tells host Steve Clemons that he is surprised by how widespread QAnon and other conspiracy theories are among Republican voters and leaders, including members of Congress. So how does the party move forward? Will it move closer to the centre or further away?
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Misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories have filled the vacuum left by the mistrust of media and politicians, which makes people doubt all information - both good and bad.
This has led to real-world consequences, such as the belief among some Americans that the results of the 2020 election could and should be overturned, and the hesitancy of at least one-third of the global population to take the coronavirus vaccine.
Watch the full interview with Richard Edelman, CEO of the public relations giant Edelman, which has been conducting its annual global survey, the "Edelman Trust Barometer", since 2001.
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On January 6, 2021 - a day that will be marked in the history books - supporters of Donald Trump stormed the United States Capitol in Washington, DC. That morning the outgoing president had fired up his supporters during a rally called Save America, by repeating his promises to “never concede” election defeat and demanding that his devotees “show strength.”
So what do recent events mean for Trump's political future?
Congressman Joaquin Castro (Democrat-Texas) and Republican strategist John Feehery tell host Steve Clemons that it may not be worthwhile to remove him from office in his last days. But will Trump's stranglehold on the Republican Party continue? And is civil disagreement still possible in today's United States?
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Dr Anthony Fauci tells host Steve Clemons that the United States can go back to “normal” in the fall (autumn, which starts in September) of 2021 if 70-85 percent of Americans get vaccinated by the summer.
Warning that “things will likely get worse as we go into January” due to holiday gatherings, the chief medical adviser for President-elect Joe Biden said that more must be done to convince Americans that the global pandemic is a public health issue, not an issue of individual rights.
In this wide-ranging interview, Dr Fauci answers your questions, such as, “Do I need to wear a mask after I get the vaccine?”
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A coalition of 50 grassroots movements across the United States is demanding a “fundamental shift” in US national security and foreign policy.
Progressives are a minority in the Democratic Party and they have been trying to pull the establishment to the left for years. Some progressives have been hired to the Joe Biden administration, along with a majority of traditional bureaucrats.
Yasmine Taeb, a senior fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, tells host Steve Clemons that Biden’s team “understands that we're going to be holding them accountable to some of those campaign promises … that they made to progressives.”
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Daniel Yergin, an expert on energy, geopolitics and the global economy, explains how the advent of US shale oil has changed the dynamics of power, forcing Gulf states to rethink their futures, and how the transition to a zero-carbon world is still far-fetched.
Nations and corporations are increasingly torn between allegiance to the US or China, and this trend will shape the 21st century.
Yergin tells host Steve Clemons that although there is no competitor to US military power or the dollar now, more governments will be attracted to the Chinese model, because it comes without lectures about human rights or peoples’ right to dissent.
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