GZERO World with Ian Bremmer

President Trump and China’s Xi Jinping traded handshakes, toasts, and pandas at a diplomatic summit at the White House last week, but beneath all the pageantry, the rivalry between the world’s two most powerful countries is only getting more intense. Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Elizabeth Economy joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World podcast for a look at what’s really driving the relationship between the US and China right now, where each side has leverage, and whether the US is falling behind in the race for global influence and technological dominance.
From Beijing's perspective, the second Trump administration has handed China some useful opportunities as well as challenges. On one hand, Washington is no longer pressing Beijing about human rights issues and has stepped back from its leadership role in global institutions, giving China an opening. On the other, the Trump administration still views China as its biggest strategic competitor, both in terms of tech competition and national security. Bremmer and Economy look at the state of the US-China rivalry—from computer chips to AI to space dominance—and where it goes from here.
Host: Ian Bremmer
Guest: Elizabeth Economy

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This week on the GZERO World Podcast, Ian Bremmer sits down with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the sidelines of the General Assembly for the final time in his official capacity as UN chief. After a decade as the UN’s top diplomat, the former Portuguese Prime Minister is leaving his position at a moment of great global instability. Wars grind on in Ukraine and Iran with no end in sight. Humanitarian crises in Gaza and Sudan have exposed how little leverage the international system has when powerful states and their partners act with impunity. With faith in global institutions at an all-time low, does the world’s most ambitious experiment in multilateralism still have a place?
While Guterres will be the first to acknowledge that the UN is weakened, he says it is far from obsolete. The old superpowers are discovering their limits, while middle and rising powers are demanding more influence. Those countries need a place to negotiate rules, build coalitions, and keep competition from becoming confrontation. For all its failures, the United Nations is still the only table where all 193 member states still have a seat. Guterres and Bremmer discuss all of that, as well as the erosion of international law, limits of superpowers, and why he believes AI is the most urgent challenge facing humanity.
Host: Ian Bremmer
Guest: António Guterres

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For decades, nuclear war has represented the ultimate doomsday scenario. But investigative journalist and author Annie Jacobsen says biological warfare may pose an even greater overall threat. Unlike nuclear weapons, which require tightly controlled materials, enormously expensive delivery systems, and specialized expertise, the barriers to developing biological weapons can be far lower. And artificial intelligence could lower them further.
Ian Bremmer sits down with Jacobsen to discuss how AI is changing the landscape of catastrophic risk. As increasingly powerful models make sophisticated scientific knowledge easier to access, they could allow bad actors to bypass years of specialized training and dramatically shorten the path from an idea to a potentially dangerous capability.
They also explore the struggle to govern a technology developing faster than regulators can respond, the gaps in existing AI safeguards, and what governments and tech companies could do to identify dangerous vulnerabilities before they are exploited. And they step back to a larger question at the heart of Jacobsen’s work: Why does humanity keep developing technologies with the potential to threaten its own survival – and can our ability to manage those risks ever catch up with our ability to create them?

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This week marks 25 years since 9/11—the deadliest terror attack the world has ever seen and a defining moment in American history. The attacks transformed US politics and national security. The war on terror became the organizing principle of American foreign policy. Former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper joins Ian Bremmer on the GZERO World Podcast to reflect on the day that forever changed how Americans thought about national security, and how the United States wielded its enormous power around the world.
How much did we learn from the post-9/11 era and do we risk repeating the same mistakes? 25 years after the US launched its war on terror, America is once again fighting a war in the Middle East without a clear endgame or exit strategy. The United States is on the back foot in its war with Iran, Esper says. The original goal of getting Tehran to the negotiating table about its nuclear program isn’t even being discussed anymore. And meanwhile, the United States is dropping the ball on countering its biggest existential threat: China.
Host: Ian Bremmer
Guest: Mark Esper

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More than half a century after humans last walked on the Moon, the next era of space exploration is taking shape. Getting there is cheaper, private companies are playing a much bigger role, and discoveries like vast reserves of lunar water have made the prospect of establishing a permanent presence on the Moon far more realistic.

Ian Bremmer sits down with Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield to talk about what this new space age could look like. They discuss the growing competition between the US and China, whether rivals can cooperate on the lunar surface, and who gets to write the rules as governments and companies begin looking beyond simply planting a flag.

Hadfield also breaks down the practical challenges of living on the Moon – from powering a settlement through long lunar nights to the unanswered question of whether humans can develop normally in low gravity. He explains how private companies are turning space into a commercial marketplace, why regulation will inevitably struggle to keep pace, and why robots alone can never satisfy humanity’s drive to explore Mars.

And drawing on nearly six months aboard the International Space Station, Hadfield reflects on the surprisingly wonderful experience of sleeping in zero gravity, circling Earth 2,600 times, and how seeing the planet from above fundamentally changed his perspective on humanity and our place in the universe.

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