#60 Sarah C.M. Paine: How Superpowers Self-Destruct: Russian, Chinese & American Grand Strategy

The podcast features Dominik Presl interviewing Professor Sarah C.M. Paine about grand strategy, focusing on how countries, including the US, Russia, and China, often misunderstand their own strengths and repeat strategic mistakes. Paine defines grand strategy as the integration of national power instruments to achieve national goals and argues that democracies are capable of having strategies, despite their chaotic nature. She critiques the idea of the US as a hegemonic power and discusses the evolving rules-based order. The conversation touches on the reactive nature of Western foreign policy, the Cold War, NATO, and the conflict in Ukraine, with Paine asserting that Russia has already lost the war in Ukraine and highlighting the potential for China to exploit Russia's weakened state.