President Xi and President Biden meet face-to-face for the first time since tensions frayed over a visit to Taiwan by the United States Speaker of the House of Representatives and the shooting down of a Chinese spy balloon enraged Washington. America’s allies in the South China Sea are watching closely—will Biden and Xi patch things up, and what does that mean for Chinese expansionism in the South China Sea, one of the world’s most dangerous flashpoints? Also, One Decision’s Sir Richard Dearlove reacts to the news that former Prime Minister David Cameron, who has been promoting projects for China’s Belt and Road Initiative has made a sudden comeback as the new Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom.

This week, we sit down with Dr. Michael Oren, former Israeli Ambassador to the United States and former member of the Knesset, and Salam Fayyad, the former Prime Minister of the Palestinian National Authority. We hear from both perspectives on the main roadblocks to peace and what needs to happen going forward. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke in a U.S. television interview, saying that Israel must be responsible for security in Gaza. One Decision's resident spymaster, Sir Richard Dearlove shares his thoughts on how the international community needs to get involved in the future of Gaza's security.

The new President of the Council on Foreign Relations, Ambassador Michael Froman, joins One Decision to talk about the China challenge as President Joe Biden prepares to meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping later this month in California. Froman was a key player in the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations while serving as U.S. Trade Representative under President Obama—a massive trade deal which Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of in 2017— something that Froman says will go down as one of the most "significant strategic blunders in American history." One Decision's resident spymaster Sir Richard Dealove shares his thoughts on the latest news on the Israel-Hamas war.

The team behind the top global affairs podcast, One Decision, introduces "Power Decisions," a new energy series that explores the world's energy sources and the politics and power behind the clean transition. This debut episode hosted by CNBC's Mandy Drury examines the globe's next energy conference—COP28 which has been plagued by controversy surrounding the appointment of UAE oil executive Sultan Ahmed Al-Jaber to lead the summit and the conference leadership's attempts to sweep undesirable narratives under the carpet including accusations of greenwashing Al Jaber's image and record through Wikipedia and hundreds of fake social media accounts. Drury is joined by journalists Damian Carrington, Environmental Editor for The Guardian, Zack Colman, Climate reporter for POLITICO and Amy Harder, Executive Editor for Cipher News, a publication supported by Breakthrough Energy to discuss what to expect, whether the summit can succeed as a forum to effectively address climate change and if an oil-rich nation should lead the climate change fight.

Robin Wright from The New Yorker has, on more than one occasion, been granted an audience with the reclusive but fiery leader of the Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah, designated a terrorist group in the United States and most of the Western world. Having spent years observing and reporting on the Israel-Palestinian conflict and its spinoffs in Lebanon and the wider Arab world, how does she view the events of this month, following Hamas’s unprecedented attacks on October 7th, and the shockwaves that have emanated from it? Sir Richard Dearlove argues that while Iran stands to benefit from chaos in the region and a stalling of Saudi-Israel normalization talks, Tehran may be less invested in the Palestinian cause than many might have thought.

After the divisive and controversial storm surrounding an explosion at a hospital in Gaza, President Joe Biden flew on Wednesday to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his Cabinet, and families touched by the October 7th massacre last week. As protests and riots spread like wildfire around not just Arab and Muslim capitals and cities worldwide, but in London, Paris, New York, and Berlin—the diplomatic stakes could not be higher. A four-way summit Biden planned to attend with Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and King Abdullah II of Jordan was abruptly called off. However, all was not lost—before returning to the United States, Biden announced that Israel had agreed to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza and Egypt acceded to let the convoys across the Rafah crossing. Gaza has been without electricity, food, water, and medicine for nearly a week. One Decision speaks to former State Department official and CIA Middle East Analyst Marie Harf, who was in office during the intense Israel-Hamas war of 2014. 

The world is still reeling from the shocking invasion of Israel over the weekend, where Hamas militants staged the most audacious and horrific attacks in Israel resulting in the biggest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. But questions are now being asked, to how the country's high tech military and sophisticated intelligence services missed what Hamas was planning? Did Mossad drop the ball? What responsibility belongs to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu? One Decision's Sir Richard Dearlove, the former Chief of MI6, examines the issues that may have impacted Israeli intelligence agencies' ability to anticipate the worst attack in the state's history. 

Europe today is being tested like never before in its recent memory—war and instability are on the edges of Europe, threatening to spill over into its borders; Russian influence and propaganda are sowing divisions across the continent, and rising inflation and unemployment are giving oxygen to divisive populist politics. One Decision sits down for a sweeping and wide-ranging conversation with Roberta Metsola, the President of the European Union Parliament to discuss the bloc’s biggest security priorities and what needs to happen now to address them, what the EU is doing about Putin weaponizing its energy needs, the migrant crisis and how populists have been exploiting divisions across the continent.

No country quite understands what it’s like to live next to a major power to the extent Mongolia does because it lives between two. For decades, the government had to balance its relations and goals against the actions and ambitions of its neighbors— except one, Russia is now a pariah, and Mongolia is almost entirely dependent on the other—China for trade. In this week's bonus episode, guest host, journalist and Senior Editor at Semafor, Prashant Rao, sits down with Mongolia's former President and Prime Minister, Elbegdorj Tsakhia, who led his country’s transition to democracy after the fall of the Soviet Union. They discuss the relationship that Mongolia has built with China and Russia, what he learned from his interactions with Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping, how he navigated pressure from Beijing during the Dalai Lama's visits to Mongolia, and what the United States should understand about China.

Ambassador John Bolton, former National Security Advisor, discusses the challenges and concerns of a potential second Trump term, the potential impact of a Trump 2.0 presidency on international relations, the dynamics between Taiwan and China, the need for increased military spending, and the exploration of a historical parallel to Donald Trump.