Hello and welcome to Background Briefing, available 24-7 at background briefing. I'm me and

Masters, and today we'll examine a number of stories and issues in the news.

We'll begin on this New Year's Day with an overview of the foreign policy landscape in

2023 and what might be in store in 2024 as wars rage and the search for peace seems daunting.

Joining us is Stephen Walt, a columnist at Foreign Policy Magazine, and the Robert

and René Belfa Professor of International Affairs at Harvard University. He's the author of a number of books,

including The Origins of Alliances, Revolution and War, and Taming American Power, the Global

Response to U.S. primacy. His latest book is The Hell of Good Intentions,

America's foreign policy elite, and the decline of U.S. primacy. And we'll discuss his latest

article at Foreign Policy magazine, a practical guide to perpetual peace, how to take realistic

and realist steps towards a more utopian world order.

Then we'll look into the state of the economy in 2023 and what to expect in 2024

and speak with Robert Hawket, who has had first-hand experience working at the International Monetary Fund

and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and continues to consult to a number of U.S. federal

state and local legislators and regulators. He drafted representative... Reserve Bank of New York and continues to consult to a number of U.S. federal, state,

and local legislators and regulators.

He drafted Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal resolution for the House of

Representatives and officially advises her in economic policy.

He's the Edward Cornell professor of law and a professor of Public Policy at Cornell University and his

latest books are Money from Nothing or Why We Should Stop Worrying About Debt and Learn

to Love the Federal Reserve, financing the Green New Deal, a plan of action and renewal,

and the Citizens Ledger, digitizing our money, democratizing our finance.

...