Immigration was a top issue among voters in the 2024 U.S. election, with President-elect Donald Trump calling for the “largest deportation operation in American history.” And with the incoming administration expected to take action as soon as Trump returns to office, what are the possible ramifications of this policy? Edward Alden, author of the recent book When the World Closed its Doors: The COVID-19 Tragedy and the Future of Borders, joins host Ravi Agrawal to share his insights.

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):

Transcript: Will Trump Actually Deport Millions of Undocumented Workers

Edward Alden: When the World Closed Its Doors

Edward Alden: The Great Deportation of 2025

Howard W. French: The U.S. Can’t Afford to Be a Bad Neighbor

Christina Lu: What Trump’s Mass Deportations Would Mean for the U.S. Economy

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FP Live is joined by Comfort Ero, the president and CEO of the International Crisis Group, as she details the 2025 edition of “10 Conflicts to Watch.” From Sudan to Myanmar, Haiti, Ukraine, Iran, and beyond, why is the world facing so many crises at once, and how can it solve them?

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):

Comfort Ero and Richard Atwood: 10 Conflicts to Watch in 2025

Aaron David Miller and Lauren Morganbesser: Why the Gulf States Might Feature Prominently in Trump’s Foreign Policy

Raphael S. Cohen: China and North Korea Throw U.S. War Plans Out the Window

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Pundits love calling President-elect Trump’s leadership “transactional.” But is that true? FP editor in chief Ravi Agrawal shares his take in this audio essay from the upcoming print issue of Foreign Policy’s magazine. Take a listen.

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):

Kori Schake: Why Biden’s Foreign Policy Fell Short

Raghuram Rajan: Isolationism Won’t Make Anyone Great Again

Adam Tooze: America Is Locked in a New Class War

Daniel W. Drezner: Does the Madman Theory Actually Work?

Ravi Agrawal: Trump Is Ushering In a More Transactional World

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Fareed Zakaria, host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and the author of Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, sits down with host Ravi Agrawal to look ahead to 2025. 

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): 

Fareed Zakaria Looks Back at 2024

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National security analyst and former Trump administration official Elbridge Colby joined FP Live earlier this year to share his take on what a second Trump term could mean for foreign policy. He was recently tapped to be the under secretary of defense for policy in the incoming administration. As such, he will be an integral part of Trump’s decision-making—making this episode newly relevant. 

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):

Transcript: Decoding Trump’s Foreign Policy

Elbridge Colby, Mackenzie Eaglen, and Roger Zakheim: How to Trim the Defense Budget Without Harming U.S. Security (2020)

Elbridge Colby and David Ochmanek: How the United States Could Lose a Great-Power War (2019)

Elbridge Colby: How to Win America’s Next War (2019)

FP Staff: The Trump Transition Begins

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This year closed out with ongoing conflicts in Gaza, Ukraine, and Sudan, and numerous incumbents forced out after a record year of elections around the world. Fareed Zakaria, author of Age of Revolutions: Progress and Backlash from 1600 to the Present, joins FP Live to reflect on the year and share his insights on what these trends could mean for our liberal global world order. Zakaria is also the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS.

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free): 

Transcript: The End of Left Versus Right

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Top humanitarian aid official and longtime diplomat Samantha Power discusses lessons learned from her post at USAID and what she’d like to share with the next administration in this bonus episode.

This conversation was taped before the passage of last week's Continuing Resolution.

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):

Walter Kerr and Amanda Arch: U.S. Foreign Aid Is Broken but Fixable 

Agathe Demarais: Aid Is the Next Battleground Between China and the West

Laura Thornton: How a Second Trump Term Will Redefine Foreign Aid

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The incoming Trump administration is expected to gut a key piece of President Biden’s climate legacy: the Inflation Reduction Act. How will rolling this law back shape energy policy in the future? And what does this mean for the Paris Climate Accords? The Biden administration’s top climate diplomat, John Podesta, joins FP Live to discuss. 

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):      

Transcript: Will Trump Dismantle Biden’s Clean Energy Initiative

Cameron Abadi and Adam Tooze: The Complicated Legacy of Biden’s Climate Legislation

Tim Hirschel-Burns: On Climate, Paying Now Is Cheaper Than Paying Later

Jason Bordoff and David R. Hill: The Key to a Successful Trump Energy Agenda Is Electricity

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Inside a nontraditional war: the chip wars. Can Trump’s tariffs stop China’s efforts to catch up on semiconductor production? How will the AI boom change the game? The leading expert on semiconductor competition, Chris Miller, joins FP Live to discuss the state of the tech race and the impact of a second Trump administration. 

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):

Rishi Iyengar: Everyone Wants a Chip Factory

Chris Miller: Biden Opens Sneaky New Front in Trade War Against China

Vivek Chilukuri: America Needs Clear Standards for China Tech Decoupling

Chris Miller in the Financial Times: The global chip war could turn into a cloud war

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For most Middle East watchers, the big news last week was that after nearly 14 months of war, Israel and Hezbollah signed a cease-fire agreement. But before the ink on that agreement was dry, another big shift was afoot: Rebel groups in Syria took control of the country’s second-largest city, Aleppo, in less than four days of battle. Middle East expert Fawaz Gerges joins FP Live to discuss the regional and global implications.

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):

Jeremy Hodge and Hussein Nasser: A Weak Assad Benefits Turkey—and Is a Headache for Trump

Hamidreza Azizi and Nicole Grajewski: What the Fall of Aleppo Means for Russia

The Guardian: One year on from 7 October, our panel considers: what next for the Middle East?

Nathan J. Robinson: Biden Didn’t Really Try to End the War in Gaza

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The global target of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius looks increasingly unlikely. What approaches to solving the climate crisis can best provide solutions? FP deputy editor Cameron Abadi joins FP Live to debut his new book: Climate Radicals: Why Our Environmental Politics Isn’t Working, which compares the policies of Germany and the United States. He shares what he has learned with Ravi Agrawal.

Suggested reading (FP links are paywall-free):

Cameron Abadi and Adam Tooze: Is Climate Activism Working?

Christina Lu: COP29 Kicks Off Under Trump’s Shadow

Cameron Abadi: Hard Truths Come for Germany’s Climate Prophet

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