This week, our guest is Fyodor Lukyanov, Editor-in-Chief of Russia in Global Affairs, Professor at the Higher School of Economics, and Research Director of the Valdai Discussion Club. What is it like to sit on stage with Putin? When did relations with the West go wrong? And what in the world is the “world majority”?

• 00:53 Moderating Putin’s Q&A sessions
• 06:24 Perestroika and the unresolved debate about Russia’s role
• 14:18 When did relations with the West go wrong?
• 20:58 How has your professional life changed since February 2022?
• 23:32 “World majority,” “multipolar world,” and “civilization state”
• 32:31 Islam, immigration, and downward demographic trends

*The Trialogue Podcast is hosted by the Stimson Center and produced by University FM.

**The first twelve episodes of this podcast were published by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

This week, our guest is Andrew Roth, Global Affairs Correspondent at The Guardian. We discuss the twists and turns of Andrew’s ten-year career as a reporter in Moscow.

• 03:12 Arrival in Russia in 2011
• 08:04 The 2012 protests
• 12:39 Foreign journalists in Moscow
• 23:02 Reporting in East Ukraine in 2014-16
• 35:25 Covering Zelensky
• 45:30 Edward Snowden
• 49:19 Evan Gershkovich
• 57:27 Washington’s China obsession

*The Trialogue Podcast is hosted by the Stimson Center and produced by University FM.

**The first twelve episodes of this podcast were published by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

This week, our guest is Zhou Bo, a retired senior colonel in the PLA and a senior fellow in the Center for International Security and Strategy at Tsinghua University. We discuss China’s military presence in Africa, the Houthis, Ukraine, Taiwan, and the South China Sea.

• 00:44 Zhou Bo’s studies in England and Australia
• 03:23 Chinese military relations with Africa
• 07:04 The Houthis and the Red Sea
• 09:44 How many military bases does Beijing need?
• 21:19 Ukraine
• 26:31 Trump’s approach to China in his second term
• 30:03 Taiwan
• 39:20 The South China Sea

*The Trialogue Podcast is hosted by the Stimson Center and produced by University FM.

**The first twelve episodes of this podcast were published by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

This week, our guest is Philani Mthembu, Executive Director at the Institute for Global Dialogue in Pretoria. We discuss the South African perspective on the war in Ukraine, China, and BRICS.

• 01:19 How many languages do you speak?
• 01:58 What is the purpose of the Institute for Global Dialogue?
• 03:29 What has changed since the ANC lost its majority?
• 05:12 To what extent are relations with the US and Russia shaped by the legacies of the liberation movement?
• 14:09 South African reaction to Ukraine’s rejection of its Soviet past
• 15:36 What is the South African attitude toward the war in Ukraine?
• 28:00 How is China perceived in South Africa?
• 36:46 Philani’s experience as a student in China
• 42:12 South Africa’s vision for BRICS
• 48:26 What is the logic of BRICS expansion?
• 53:20 How does BRICS seek to reform the international financial architecture?

*The Trialogue Podcast is hosted by the Stimson Center and produced by University FM.

**The first twelve episodes of this podcast were published by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

This week, our guest is Dmitry Stefanovich, a research fellow at the Center for International Security at the Russian Academy of Sciences. We discuss recent revisions to Russia’s nuclear doctrine, deterrence during the war in Ukraine, Russian red lines, and the evolution of Chinese nuclear policy.

• 00:01:39 Dmitry’s Odesa origins and involvement in the Sochi Olympics
• 00:04:08 Deterrence during the Ukraine war
• 00:08:39 When were we closest to nuclear use?
• 00:11:30 Russia’s revised nuclear doctrine
• 00:20:05 US nuclear doctrine in the first Trump administration
• 00:26:05 What is the point of nuclear doctrines?
• 00:29:27 Karaganov and the Russian domestic debate about nuclear use
• 00:33:32 US and Russian mutual misperceptions
• 00:36:10 Russian red lines
• 00:40:42 China’s nuclear policy

*The Trialogue Podcast is hosted by the Stimson Center and produced by University FM.

**The first twelve episodes of this podcast were published by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

This week, our guest is Daniel Bessner, Associate Professor in American Foreign Policy in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies at the University of Washington and non-resident fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft. We discuss Trump, American empire, Washington’s Asian fixation, and the possibility of “mutual ruin of the contending classes” among other subjects.

• 00:01:12 Childhood interest in history
• 00:03:45 The US foreign policy ecosystem and the effectiveness of the Quincy intervention
• 00:06:48 Progressive foreign policy during Trump part two
• 00:09:30 Marxism and other influences
• 00:10:58 Origins of the American empire
• 00:11:56 The US was never isolationist
• 00:13:32 The US v other British settler colonies
• 00:14:54 Trump isn’t fascist, he’s a 1980s New Yorker
• 00:17:37 Has the state become too complex to control?
• 00:20:00 Why the US is an empire
• 00:21:34 American imperial decline and the “Pivot to Asia”
• 00:25:48 How are Russia and China seen from DC
• 00:27:23 Climate change and mutual ruin

*The Trialogue Podcast is hosted by the Stimson Center and produced by University FM.

**The first twelve episodes of this podcast were published by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

This week, our guest is Zhang Xin, Deputy Director of the Center for Russian Studies at East China Normal University. We discuss the history of Russia studies in the PRC, the Sino-Russian border area, and the logic of the US-China-Russia triangular relationship, among other subjects.

• 00:00:51 Grad school at UCLA and interest in Russia
• 00:02:45 First visit to Moscow in 2005
• 00:05:04 History of Soviet/Russia studies in PRC
• 00:12:24 Impressions from most recent trip to Russia
• 00:14:35 Russian interest in creating new partnerships in China
• 00:17:47 Sino-Russian border area
• 00:24:10 Harbin
• 00:27:24 Resolution of Sino-Russian border disputes
• 00:31:33 The US-China-Russia Triangle
• 00:37:21 Difference in Chinese and Russian conceptions of Eurasian space
• 00:40:10 Global West - Global East - Global South

*The Trialogue Podcast is hosted by the Stimson Center and produced by University FM.

**The first twelve episodes of this podcast were published by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.

This week, our guest is Akram Umarov, First Vice Rector at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy and Deputy Director of the Institute for Advanced International Studies in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. We discuss Central Asian politics, Uzbekistan’s attitude toward the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, and the country’s relations with Russia, China, and the USA, among other subjects.

• 00:01:00 Fluency in four languages as a child in Samarkand
• 00:02:54 Graduate studies in the West
• 00:06:43 Institute for Advanced International Studies
• 00:09:47 Japan’s interest in Central Asia
• 00:11:30 Relations among Central Asian countries
• 00:18:54 Shanghai Cooperation Organization
• 00:24:09 Uzbekistan’s relations with Russia
• 00:36:26 Uzbekistan’s relations with China
• 00:45:03 Will China and Russia compete in Central Asia?
• 00:48:03 Uzbekistan’s relations with the US

*The Trialogue Podcast is hosted by the Stimson Center and produced by University FM.

**The first twelve episodes of this podcast were published by the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey.