24. Is the U.S. Sleeping on Threats from Russia and China?

The Freakonomics Radio Book Club

John J. Sullivan, a former State Department official and U.S. ambassador, says yes: “Our politicians aren’t leading — Republicans or Democrats.” He gives a firsthand account of a fateful Biden-Putin encounter, talks about his new book Midnight in Moscow, and predicts what a second Trump term means for Russia, Ukraine, China — and the U.S.

• SOURCES:
  • John Sullivan, former U.S. Deputy Secretary of State and former U.S. Ambassador to Russia.

• RESOURCES:
  • Midnight in Moscow: A Memoir from the Front Lines of Russia's War Against the West, by John Sullivan (2024).
  • "The ‘Deathonomics’ Powering Russia’s War Machine," by Georgi Kantchev and Matthew Luxmoore (The Wall Street Journal, 2024).
  • War, by Bob Woodward (2024).
  • "On the Record: The U.S. Administration’s Actions on Russia," by Alina Polyakova and Filippos Letsas (Brookings, 2019).
  • "Why Economic Sanctions Still Do Not Work," by Robert A. Pape (International Security, 1998).

• EXTRAS:
  • "The Suddenly Diplomatic Rahm Emanuel," by Freakonomics Radio (2023).