The Coming Battles Over American Foreign Policy: A Conversation With Kori Schake and Thomas Wright

The Democrats’ sweeping victory in the midterm elections this week marks not only the start of a new phase for Donald Trump’s foreign policy. It also kicks off a more intensive discussion among both Democrats and Republicans about the future of American foreign policy beyond Trump.
 
Dan Kurtz-Phelan spoke with two foreign policy veterans who have participated in these debates inside and outside government, including in Foreign Affairs. Kori Schake, the director of foreign and defense policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute, served in the State Department and on the National Security Council under George W. Bush. Tom Wright was senior director for strategic planning at the National Security Council under Joe Biden and is now a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution.
 
All of these debates will have to contend with big questions about specific policies, from China and the Middle East to AI and defense spending. They also involve deep and often bitter fissures between and within parties. Meanwhile, the war in Iran is far from resolved and the specter of an already unpredictable president’s lame-duck period introduces even more uncertainty about what the world will look like when Trump leaves the White House for good in January 2029.

You can find sources, transcripts, and more episodes of The Foreign Affairs Interview at https://www.foreignaffairs.com/podcasts/foreign-affairs-interview.