Departures Podcast featuring Susan L. Shirk, author of ‘Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise’

Formulated by PRC think tanks in the mid-1990s, China’s official slogan of the “peaceful rise” sought to calm Western fears regarding its blossoming economic, military, and political power as the nation resumed an outsized role in global affairs. However the mood did not last long, as in the later years of President Hu Jintao’s administration, […]

Departures Podcast featuring Dawn Murphy, author of ‘China’s Rise in the Global South’

As China and the U.S. increasingly compete for power in key areas of U.S. influence across the Middle East and African continent, competition has grown in linear succession, and is increasingly adversarial. Often cynical of Chinese involvement and intentions, the U.S. points to blunders of the Belt and Road initiative, fears of neocolonialism, and the […]

Departures Podcast featuring Charles Dunst, author of ‘Defeating the Dictators: How Democracy Can Prevail in the Age of the Strongman’

Democracy, in terms of its branding, has had a fairly rough decade. Numerous authors we have had on this podcast have highlighted and explained its global decline, discussed the expansion of nationalist movements which have eaten away at rule of law and institutional integrity, and the frustrating resilience of some of the world’s most established […]

Departures Podcast featuring Gregory Poling, author of ‘On Dangerous Ground: America’s Century in the South China Sea’

It may just be a smattering of insignificant rocks and reefs along the Nine-dash line between the Philippines and China, but in recent years this area has become the focus of the world’s most complex and dangerous maritime dispute. China’s growing influence and willingness to project its will against smaller neighbors and US allies has […]

Departures Podcast featuring Kimberly Kay Hoang, author of ‘Spiderweb Capitalism: How Global Elites Exploit Frontier Markets’

In international finance, the difference between what is legal and normal and what is criminal and corrupt is often unclear, a disparity made worse by an overlapping series of laws and regulations which in some cases can put U.S. competition at a disadvantage. These networks of illicit finance, shell corporations, and offshore structures used by […]

Departures Podcast featuring Raffaello Pantucci, author of ‘Sinostan: China’s Inadvertent Empire’

Though we often view China’s increasingly activist foreign policy in its trade wars, territorial disputes, and frequent collisions with Western states, less attention is paid to its gradual and quiet expansion of influence in the ‘Stans of Central Asia. But it is here, among the populations of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan […]

Departures Podcast featuring Jeremy L. Wallace, author of ‘Seeking Truth and Hiding Facts: Information, Ideology, and Authoritarianism in China’

China’s recent political history has taken place at breakneck speed. A historic economic transformation, the consolidation of centralized power not seen since Mao, and the eager but then later truculent participation in the global economy. How do we measure this progress and its costs, and how do we measure its shortcomings? The numbers matter, and […]

Departures Podcast with Stefan Aust and Adrian Geiges, authors of ‘Xi Jinping: The Most Powerful Man in the World’

As Xi Jinping concludes the 20th Party Congress and becomes the first Chinese leader to secure a third term, there is arguably no one in a position quite so powerful and influential in global politics. But who is Xi Jinping and what does he really want?  This is the question tackled by two veteran German […]

Departures Podcast featuring Frank Dikötter, author of ‘China After Mao: The Rise of a Superpower’

Is Xi Jinping the most powerful political figure in the world? Or are his efforts to secure tighter control at home and project influence abroad more a sign of underlying weakness? As Xi sails toward an unprecedented third term at the 19th Party Congress in China, Departures is pleased to feature special guest author Frank […]

Departures Podcast with Joseph Torigian, author of ‘Prestige, Manipulation, and Coercion’

To rise to power within the rigidly authoritarian party bureaucracies of the Soviet Union and China is a feat accomplished only with great strategic acumen, backhanded political maneuvering, and, sometimes, with a certain level of violence. On this week’s episode of Departures with Robert Amsterdam we are very pleased to feature Joseph Torigian, an assistant […]