Ukraine, Israel and Cold War II

WSJ Opinion: Free Expression

Gerard Baker, Editor at Large, The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 7 December 2023

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

From Israel to Ukraine, 2023 has been a year of spreading violent conflict, increasing instability and posing stiff challenges to U.S. global strategy, all within the context of the developing new Cold War with China and its allies, Russia and Iran. It seems likely that our adversaries will probe further in 2024, and with a presidential election in the U.S., geopolitical uncertainty will only intensify. On this episode of the Free Expression Podcast, historian Niall Ferguson tells Wall Street Journal editor at large Gerry Baker about the dangers that could come with a Russian victory in Ukraine, why Israel would benefit from a second Donald Trump administration, although it could lead to the end of NATO, and how the election in Taiwan next month will be a time of great danger as China plans its next move. The two also discuss how pro-Hamas protests on campuses have left American universities in a parlous state. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Boardrooms love buzzwords.
0:01.9	AI, climate, resilience.
0:03.7	But what do they actually mean for CFOs and execs trying to survive the next earnings call?
0:08.3	That's where the pre-read comes in.
0:09.8	Real experts and real talk.
0:11.6	Subscribe to the pre-read, presented by Workiba.
0:17.1	From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal.
0:20.2	This is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.
0:24.8	Hello and welcome to Free Expression from the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal.
0:28.8	I'm Jerry Baker, editor at large with the journal. If you're not already a subscriber to Free Expression,
0:33.5	please do sign up at Apple, Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you do, you're listening. This week, as 2023 comes to a close, the world seems to be in a dangerously volatile state.
0:44.6	In Europe, war between Russia and Ukraine drags on, with less and less evidence by the day
0:49.0	that Kyiv, backed by US and NATO arms, money and political support, will actually succeed in pushing Vladimir
0:55.9	Putin out of the country. In the Middle East, after a pause for the trading of Israeli and other
1:00.4	hostages for Palestinian prisoners, the fighting between Israel and Hamas has resumed. Across the region,
1:06.0	US forces and military assets have come under sustained assault from a range of forces mostly
1:10.6	backed by Iran.
1:12.2	At least tensions between the U.S. and China seem to have cooled a little,
1:16.5	following President Joe Biden's meeting with China's Xi Jinping in San Francisco last month.
1:21.6	But no one really believes the strategic challenge that China represents to the U.S. has dimmed in any way.
1:28.7	And with a presidential election next month in Taiwan, the risk of a renewed escalation remains high. And with other familiar
1:34.7	geopolitical hotspots around the world simmering, India and Pakistan, multiple conflicts in Africa,
	...

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