For decades, US allies have slept soundly under the protection of America’s overwhelming military might. Donald Trump — with his threats to ditch NATO, seize Greenland, and abandon Taiwan — seems hell-bent on shattering that comfort.
But according to Hugh White — one of the world's leading strategic thinkers, emeritus professor at the Australian National University, and author of Hard New World: Our Post-American Future — Trump isn't destroying American hegemony. He's simply revealing that it's already gone.
These highlights are from episode #218 of The 80,000 Hours Podcast: Hugh White on why Trump is abandoning US hegemony – and that’s probably good, and include:
- America has been all talk, no action when it comes to China and Russia (00:39)
- How Trump has significantly brought forward the inevitable (05:14)
- Westerners always underestimate what China can achieve (10:32)
- We live in a multipolar world; we've got to make a multipolar world work (15:47)
- Trump is half-right that the US was being ripped off (19:06)
- Europe is strong enough to take on Russia, except it lacks nuclear deterrence (22:27)
- A multipolar world is bad, but better than the alternative: nuclear war (28:50)
- Taiwan's position is essentially indefensible — and the rest of the world needs to be honest with them about that (33:24)
- AGI may or may not overcome existing nuclear deterrence (39:16)
These aren't necessarily the most important or even most entertaining parts of the interview — so if you enjoy this, we strongly recommend checking out the full episode!
And if you're finding these highlights episodes valuable, please let us know by emailing podcast@80000hours.org.
Highlights put together by Ben Cordell, Milo McGuire, and Dominic Armstrong
