Shadi Hamid: American power and the post-woke age

Dec 26, 2025

Shadi Hamid, a political analyst and author focused on democracy and American foreign policy, shares insights from his new book, The Case For American Power. He discusses the cultural shifts since the 'woke' era and how the Israel-Palestine conflict has reshaped his political identity toward a more progressive stance. Hamid argues for a balanced use of American power in promoting democracy, emphasizing the moral implications of intervention and engagement in global affairs.

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INSIGHT

Gaza Reordered Left Politics

October 7th and the Gaza War reshaped left politics and pulled energy away from 'wokeness'.
Shadi Hamid says this shift made him comfortable reclaiming a progressive, left-populist identity.

INSIGHT

Wokeness Blocked Hard Conversations

Wokeness often shut down harder conversations and appeared intellectually unserious to critics.
Hamid felt anti-woke skepticism freed space for more substantive debates once its dominance faded.

INSIGHT

U.S. Influence Remains Indispensable

Hamid views Trump's intervention to pressure Israel for a ceasefire as proof U.S. power still matters.
He calls America 'indispensable' because no other country could have forced that outcome.

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On this episode of Unsupervised Learning Razib talks again with Washington Post columnist and repeat guest Shadi Hamid (listen to previous episodes). A native Pennsylvanian of Egyptian ethnic background and Islamic faith, Hamid completed his Ph.D. in politics at Oxford University. He is co-host of the Wisdom of Crowds podcast and website with Damir Marusic, and now the author of his own Substack and a recent book, The Case For American Power. Hamid is also the author of The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea. , Temptations of Power: Islamists & Illiberal Democracy in a New Middle East and Rethinking Political Islam.

Before moving the discussion to The Case For American Power, Razib asks Hamid about his current positioning on the American political landscape with the emergence of the hard-right during the second Trump administration. Hamid admits that during the "woke era" he wasn't sure about his place on the Left as a progressive due to his misgivings with racial identarianism, but with the rise of white nationalism on the Right and the executive decisions of the Trump administration Hamid finds himself more comfortable saying he is a progressive. Racism and the passions unleashed by the Israel-Palestine conflict since 10/7 have made Hamid reevaluate the virtues of some level of wokeness.

Pivoting to foreign policy, Razib and Hamid discuss his new book, and its positioning within a political landscape that ranges from neconservatism, liberal internationalism and isolationism of all sorts. Despite Hamid's misgivings of some aspects of American culture and the nation's past political sins, he asserts (unlike the far Left) that overall America is a force for good, and that it should exercise its power to spread its vision of morality across the world. The Case For American Power is an attempt to articulate a liberal and progressive internationalist vision for 2025, decades after the failed Iraqi intervention. Hamid also addresses the sea-change on the progressive side of American politics when it comes to Israel, admitting he feels much freer to express skepticism or critiques of Israeli policy than he had in previous eras.