The Foreign Policy Conversation Washington Doesn’t Want to Have
About this episode
Klein talks with journalist Robert Wright, founder of Bloggingheads.tv and author of the Nonzero newsletter, about the American withdrawal from Afghanistan and what it reveals about two decades of foreign policy failure. They trace Afghanistan's history from the Soviet invasion through the US-backed anti-Soviet campaign, the corrupt and fragile American-built state, and the civilian costs of the war. Wright argues that the foreign policy establishment has escaped accountability, that sanctions and militarized intervention routinely backfire, and that American interests would be better served by diplomacy, foreign aid, trade, migration and international cooperation — including with China, Russia and Iran — rather than new armed campaigns. The conversation also weighs restraint against isolationism.