This is Jacobin Radio, I'm Susie Weissman. On today's program we talk to Nick Cox about his forthcoming article in Critique. It's called In the Shadow of the Russian Revolution.

Putin, Xi, and the Long War in Ukraine. Nick looks at the shock to the world system that Putin's war has provoked, stated the war with Ukrainian resistance beating back Russia at enormous cost to human life and infrastructure and the nature of the relationship between Russia and China in the world order and process of becoming. Nick argues that this war is not only wreaked havoc with energy prices and destabilize the financial system worldwide,

but it's also created strange bedfellows who view the world through the prism of the U.S. and NATO, denying agency not just to Ukrainians but also to Russians and Chinese. We don't know how it will turn out, but Putin's war has already changed the trajectory of the 21st century. We'll get Nick Cox's analysis when our program returns in just a moment.

But first, listeners, take note and write this down. I'm excited to announce that I'm creating an online companion to this podcast. On my new site you'll find regularly updated articles and interviews of mine. It's going to be packed with information you'll love and it'll be free.

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And now let's go to the program.

This is Jacobin radio. I'm Suzy Weisman. Very pleased to have Nick Cox joining us again now in an extended conversation about Russia's war on Ukraine and the meaning of war in the 21st century.

The war isn't going well for Russia, but it features or at least shows some horrible features and that is unthinkable savagery on the ground, forced Russian conscripts as cannon fodder, the unified resistance of Ukrainians fighting to prevent being swallowed by Putin's ambitions and thievery and a shock to the world system which gigantic global consequences.

As Nick writes among other consequences is a blow to any liberal optimism there may once have been about the international system becoming less anarchic boy boy is that right in particular he notes and will discuss the relationship between China and Russia.

Nick Cox also argues that Putin's war has not only destabilized the financial system worldwide divided left and right north and global south he sees Putin's war as one against the shadow of the Russian revolution as much as it is against Ukraine.

And it's changing China as well as China reasserts a more what should we say Stalin or Maoist politics reaffirming the power of authoritarian bureaucratic command in both economies and politics and in this way Russia's war is changing the trajectory of the world order.

We're going to get mixed view and we're also going to ask him since he's in London about the churning in British politics where the new prime minister Liz truss has resigned and I guess has broken all records global instability indeed well let me just before I say hi Nick let me tell the listeners who you are Nick is an emeritus professor of international relations at the LSE or the London School of Economics where he helped establish the Cold War study center.

He previously taught at Queens University belt fast and also the Department of International politics and Aberyst within well he served as a fellow at the Nobel Institute in Oslo lectured in Peking University and he's currently about to start a visiting professor ship at the Catholic University in Milan he's offered many books on international politics the Cold War US foreign policy and the behavior of superpowers most recently a new addition.

Of each cars the 20 years crisis canes is the economic consequences of the peace and cars long out of print classic nationalism and after all very important for the moment we're living in and the post cold war world and he has one book coming out this year maybe two but this one that I'm going to mention is agonies of empire US power from Clinton to Biden mix also on the editorial board of critique.

And what we're going to talk about is an article he's written that will appear enough forthcoming issues it was all that make welcome to the program.

Thanks very much for that generous introduction I when I was listening to you so I wanted to do you describing and then I realize you were describing me but anyway thanks again you're welcome well I just have to start about the situation in the country you're living in at the moment so we've got this Liz trust right.

And she's been the butt of many jokes including let us jokes and cabbage jokes and all of that but I saw a great tweet yesterday and that says trust resigned after 44 days maybe 45 but managed to preside over the deaths of the queen the pound and the conservative party the sort of record thousands of would be revolutionary spent their entire lives hoping to achieve and got nowhere near and she pulled it off in a mere six weeks.

So of course there's that and I'd love you to talk about it and then the prospect of Bojo Redux well thanks Susie was starting with the pain in my backyard as I call it.

Look at me and this is why I always think they always say don't you in states my good friends in the states say the British have a sense of humor well I think now you need one because in some sense is there is something deeply humorous and almost.

Monty Python as sure much of this you know there is a kind of an element about it you couldn't make up if you're a script writer for a comedy program.

But digging beneath the surface going behind the headlines which I think you want me to do I think the sign far more serious going on here which I do think we need to address the first thing to remember is all the United Kingdom no longer runs the world it did after the first world war.

It's still the fifth six largest economy in the world.

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