Eurasia Group President & Founder, Ian Bremmer, recently joined Adil Cader on ‘Talking Foreign Affairs.

The two discuss Bremmer’s latest book ‘The Power of Crisis: how three threats- and our response- will change the world’. Mr. Bremmer also reflects upon several global issues. He opens up with addressing how the world order has been fragmenting, which is the geopolitical thought behind his idea of a ‘g-zero’ world, “where you don’t have any global leadership or capabilities”. “With the end of the free market, the rise of China as a state capitalist economy is leading to a global hybrid economy that we don’t have institutions or architecture for”. He further hints towards the “us vs them” populist narrative accompanying the failure of globalism and how it is undermining democratic institutions all around the world.

The host Adil Cader then follows up with a question on the idea behind a goldilocks crisis. To this, Mr. Bremmer responds- “a goldilocks crisis is a geopolitical equivalent of a human in a flow state, where we understand if we aren’t challenged by our environment, we don’t give our best. But if the environment is excessively challenging, we’ve got no chance”. The Russian invasion of Ukraine or climate change in particular, he adds, have strong aspects of a goldilocks crisis. Reflecting on the issue of nuclear disarmament, Mr. Bremmer explains how even during the cold war, the two powers understood the damage that nuclear weapons could cause and therefore restrained from using them. When it comes to nuclear proliferation, the world has done a great job in ensuring that rogue states and non-state actors such as terrorist groups do not acquire them.

Mr. Bremmer further opens up on the BRI and the Sino-US rivalry. “With the Soviets, we had a nuclear world with mutually assured destruction, which made sure that the two powers didn’t fall into a hot war.” With China, he continues, the US has a massive economic interdependence, which helps insulate from a cold war. The level of cooperation with China is much deeper and more resilient than with the Soviets. With regards to the reforms within the United Nations, Mr. Bremmer agrees with Adil Cader that UN should include multi-stakeholders and provide them a say within the larger systemic processes.

Ian Bremmer is the president of Eurasia Group, a leading global political risk research and consulting firm. He has published over ten books (which includes a New York Times Best Seller) and is the foreign affairs columnist for Time Magazine. He is considered one of the world’s most influential foreign affairs commentators.

‘Talking Foreign Affairs’ seeks to educate young people on key international issues and analyse key themes of foreign policy and current global affairs.