This week on Alternate Shots, John Ellis and Richard Haass take stock of a world where institutions, summits, and alliances are showing their age. They begin with UN week in New York, where Haass argues the United Nations has become less an institution than a venue: useful for speeches and side meetings, but largely irrelevant when the major powers disagree. From there, they turn to the Trump-Xi summit, a quiet affair that may be preferable to the wrong kind of grand bargain. They also discuss Haass’s Foreign Affairs essay on Iran, where diplomacy is now the least bad option after months of war, higher oil prices, and diminishing U.S. leverage. Also on the agenda: China’s role in sustaining Iran, Russia’s temptation to test NATO, AI and cyber vulnerability, Trump fatigue, and the tragedy of the New York Giants.

Hosted by John Ellis and Richard Haass

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Produced by Dale Eisinger

This week on Alternate Shots, John Ellis and Richard Haass look ahead to the Trump-Xi summit and ask whether, in this instance, an uneventful meeting would be preferable to a consequential one. Haass worries not about failure, but about the wrong kind of success: a commercial deal purchased at the expense of Taiwan, American allies, or U.S. leverage on Russia and Iran. From there, they turn to AI, where the United States and China dominate the field but lack the trust, process, and perhaps urgency required to build meaningful guardrails. They also assess the Houthis’ expanding role in the Red Sea, the widening maritime crisis, Saudi Arabia’s diminishing options, and America’s munitions shortfall, which points to a deeper conceptual failure in U.S. defense planning. Finally: press access, a possible blue wave, the Giants, and the Jets.

Hosted by John Ellis and Richard Haass

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Home and Away on Substack

Produced by Dale Eisinger

This week on Alternate Shots, John Ellis and Richard Haass consider a world in which old assumptions no longer hold. They begin with 9/11, what it did and did not change, and the danger that AI, drones, and biotechnology could make terrorism newly consequential. From there, they turn to diplomacy done backward: envoys courting Moscow before Kyiv, money offered where nationalism is the real currency, and the spreading crisis at sea as the Houthis threaten the Bab el-Mandeb. Also on the table: Iran, Saudi Arabia, oil prices, Treasury overreach, AI dread, the Giants, late-night tennis, and the Walker Cup.

Hosted by John Ellis and Richard Haass

News Items on Substack

Home and Away on Substack

Produced by Dale Eisinger