In this episode of Ripple Effect, Michael and Steve are joined by Rick Hasen, professor at the University of California, Los Angeles School of Law and director of its Safeguarding Democracy Project, to talk about the risks of subversion and violence surrounding the U.S. elections. They discuss former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept the election results in 2020, and his multi-pronged effort to overturn the result, which culminated in his supporters attacking the U.S. Capitol on 6...

In this episode of Ripple Effect, Michael and Steve are joined by Daniel Kurtz-Phelan, Editor of Foreign Affairs, to talk about where U.S. foreign policy might be headed after the November elections as conflicts and crises swirl around the world. They take a look at Donald Trump and Kamala Harris’ competing views about Washington’s role in global affairs and who either presidential candidate might choose to fill their national security cabinet. They assess how a Democratic and Republican...

In this episode of Ripple Effect, Michael and Steve are joined by Shivshankar Menon, Crisis Group trustee and former Indian National Security Adviser and Foreign Secretary, to talk about India’s perspective on the U.S. election, what a second Trump presidency would mean for relations between New Delhi and Washington, how bilateral relations have evolved under President Biden’s administration and how India is carving out its place in a changing world order. They discuss how India views the...

In this episode of Ripple Effect, Michael and Steve are joined by Gérard Araud, who represented France at both the United Nations and in Washington, DC and currently serves as a Crisis Group Trustee, to talk about how European leaders are preparing for a potential return of Donald Trump to the White House, and what the implications of a Trump win would be for Ukraine, the trans-Atlantic partnership, and the prospects for Europe to achieve “strategic autonomy”. They discuss the rise of...

In this episode of Ripple Effect, Michael and Steve talk with Rachel Kleinfeld, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, about the state of U.S. democracy and the risk of political violence as the U.S. heads toward the November elections. They break down how we should understand polarisation in U.S. society. They assess the potential risk factors that could contribute to political violence in the run-up and aftermath of the November elections and how they compare to...

In this episode of Ripple Effect, Michael Hanna is joined by Leslie Vinjamuri, U.S. and Americas programme director at Chatham House, and Richard Gowan, Crisis Group’s UN director, to talk about how the November elections will affect Washington’s approach to multilateralism and its engagement with the UN. They assess how Washington’s relations with the UN and its partners might change should Donald Trump return to the White House. They also discuss how Trump and Biden might differ in how they...

In this episode of Ripple Effect, Steve and Michael talk with Ambassador (ret.) Norm Eisen, senior fellow in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and expert on law, ethics and anti-corruption, about the legal challenges facing Donald Trump in the run-up to the November elections and their potential impact on the ballot. They unpack what’s behind each of the four criminal trials and other litigation currently underway against Trump and whether any of them has the potential to derail...

In this episode of Ripple Effect, Steve and Michael talk with Kori Schake, Director of Foreign and Defence Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute. A veteran of the George W. Bush administration and Republican critic of Donald Trump, Kori shares thoughts with Michael and Steve about why Trump’s landslide victory in the Iowa caucuses was not a referendum on Republican foreign policy; how to sell “conservative internationalism” to Trump Republicans; what she finds most worrying...

In the first episode of Ripple Effect, Steve and Michael talk with Colin Kahl, former under-secretary of defence for policy in the Biden administration, about the United States’ relations with the rest of the world as it moves toward a high-stakes election in November 2024. They discuss the foreign policy that the Biden administration inherited from Donald Trump in 2021, the kinds of changes Trump might make should he return to the Oval Office, and how the United States’ friends and...