Geopolitical Economy Hour

Geopolitical Economy Explainer: Whatever Happened to the Donroe Doctrine? 01.04.2026 22min

GEOPOLITICAL ECONOMY EXPLAINER Just over a month ago, the world was abuzz with talk of the Donroe Doctrine? Radhika explains what the so-called "Donroe Doctrine" was supposed to be, what it really was, how it lined up with the Monroe Doctrine and the Roosevelt Corollary, and why it is hardly surprising that it was barely proclaimed before it was violated. The explanation may surprise you.

Reading Capital with Radhika Desai: 1. Mandel Introduction and Marx & Engels Prefaces 25.03.2026 1h

Starting Sunday, 22 March 2026, Radhika Desai is leading a Capital Reading Group on line. It will consist of an hour’s lecture followed by at least an hour’s discussion.In her lectures, Radhika will be presenting an interpretation of Capital that she arrived at in the course of developing Geopolitical Economy, the Marxist approach to understanding the international relations of the capitalist world, which placed imperialism and anti-imperialist resistance at its centre and has required rescuing Marx’s original analysis of capitalism as contradictory value production from more than a century and a half of misinterpretation by Marxists themselves.In this first episode, Radhika analyses an Introduction by Ernest Mandel as well as two Prefaces by both Marx & Engels.

The West Couldn't Break North Korea And Now They're Afraid | Keith Bennett and Radhika Desai 16.06.2026 1h 4min

President Xi Jinping followed up his summits with Presidents Putin and Trump with his first foreign trip of the year. The destination – North Korea, or the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, a nation of some 26 million normally portrayed in the Western media as a dangerously authoritarian state, an economic basket case, worthy of attention only for its nuclear weapons – may seem a surprise to many. However, as veteran Korea observer, Keith Bennett and Radhika Desai discuss, neither the destination nor the timing should surprise anyone with a sense of the intertwined histories of the Chinese and Korean revolutions (not to mention the Soviet) and the continuing cooperation between the two countries, founded on socialist solidarity. Nor should it surprise them that, amid the chaos unleashed on the world by a declining West, China and North Korea are quietly renewing their relations for a new phase of history, and their common history. Keith and Radhika discuss the socialist foundations of one of the most enduring international relationships of the modern era, the myths Western journalists and scholars perpetuate about North Korea, and the unexpected twist the matter of Korean reunification has taken.

(Blocked) Paths to Dedollarization | GEH with Paolo Nogueira Batista 01.06.2026 55min

What does the future look like for Dedollarization? How does BRICS play a role? Radhika takes a deep dive with co-founder of New Development Bank, Paolo Nogueira Batista.

Mohammad Marandi Reveals Iran's True Nuclear Power Goal 21.05.2026 52min

In this interview, Radhika Desai speaks with Mohammad Marandi about Iran’s nuclear programme, the latest escalation with the United States, and the wider geopolitical struggle behind the so-called “Iran nuclear threat.” Is Iran really trying to build a nuclear weapons, or is the nuclear issue being used once again as a pretext for sanctions, pressure and imperialism? Professor Marandi explains how Iran views its nuclear rights, why Western governments continue to portray Iran as a danger, and how the confrontation fits into the broader decline of US power and the crisis of the Western-led order.

Is NATO Falling Apart? Trump, Ukraine, Russia and the Crisis of the West | GEH w Kees Van der Pijl 20.05.2026 45min

German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz says, before an audience of schoolchildren, that Iran has humiliated the US. Donald Trump announces the withdrawal of 5000 of its troops from his country. Meanwhile, Minister DonaldTusk, Prime Minister of the most loyal of East European states loyal to the US and the Atlantic alliance, told the Financial Times that Europe's "biggest, most important question is if the United States is ready to be as loyal as it is described in our (NATO) treaties. The question is if NATO is still an organisation ready, politically and logistically, to react - for example, against Russia if they try toattack." The trouble is not recent but in the first year and a half of Donald Trump’s second administration these strains now seem to be building up to breaking point. The two sides of the Atlantic find themselves on opposite sides of both the major conflicts of our time, that in Ukraine and that against Iran. Tariffs on the European Union are hurting its economy. There is increasing discussion particularly in Brussels, on how that body should seek an autonomous defence infrastructure. Europe and Canada are ramping up defence expenditure and if such an infrastructure were to be built, notwithstanding the interminable squabbles of EU member countries, it would represent a major reversal of the foundation of the post Second World War North Atlantic alliance, the security umbrella that the United States provided to Europe in acceptance of US leadership. Radhika Desai and Kees van der Pijl, foremost critical international relations scholar of the Atlantic Alliance discuss

Trump’s China Trip Was A Disaster — And It’s Getting Worse | Michael Hudson And Radhika Desai 19.05.2026 39min

Trump had hoped to go there in triumph after an easy victory over Iran. He actually went there in despair, hoping for China’s help in cleaning up the mess he made there. Last year, he had hoped to cow China into submission with his tariffs, only to push himself in a submissive position.In Beijing, the very tone of his comments – what a great leader Xi is, how wonderful China, is, how well he gets on with everyone, and how the US and China are going to have a ‘fantastic future together’ shows that for all his grandiose plans to project US power, he has ended exactly where China wanted him, having to accept parity with China. How else did he manage to expose the reduction of US power in Beijing? Given that the meeting was initiated by the Chinese, how well did they realise what they wanted? Who budged or blinked on all the major issues: tariffs, investment, Hormuz, Taiwan, Iran’s nuclear programme? How will this summit re-shape the contest between China and the US that has shaped the 21st century? Will the retinue of CEO’s that went there get what they want? Where will it leave the Iran war? and, above all, where will it leave the world which the Trump regime, shall we call it that, has landed in chaos of one sort or another since Trump’s election, let alone his inauguration….. With me to discuss all this is the most regular of regulars, Professor Michael Hudson.

Turning Point in the West's Century of War: Geopolitical Economy Interview with Laith Marouf 30.04.2026 47min

In this collaboration between Radhika Desai – Geopolitical Economist and Free Palestine TV, its founder, Laith Marouf discuss the historical conjuncture of Trump and Netanyahu’s war on Iran, how it is the culmination of the West’s 100-year war, itself hundreds of years in preparation, on the West Asian region. The many questions we range over include the following: What gives Iran and the Axis of resistance its strength?How are we to understand the role of religion, particularly Shia Islam in itHow does it contrast with the instrumental use of synthetic religion in the West, whether by Hegseth or Trump or Netanyahu or Zionism?How have sanctions on Iran boomeranged even more spectacularly than those on Russia, giving that country a military confidence and autonomy few countries have enjoyed?When and how might the war on Iran end?

The US Is Trying To Save The Dollar Ponzi Scheme With This... Swap Lines Explained w Michael Hudson 08.05.2026 45min

In this episode, I am joined by Michael Hudson to discuss how the United States is attempting to defend dollar hegemony at a time when its global financial power is facing mounting pressure. We examine the role of swap lines, dollar liquidity, sanctions, oil politics, and the Iran crisis in sustaining a world economy still organised around the US dollar. Although swap lines may appear to be a technical instrument of central banking, they reveal something much larger about who has access to liquidity in moments of crisis, who remains dependent on Washington, and how the United States continues to use the dollar as a tool of geopolitical power. As more countries search for alternatives to the dollar system, this conversation asks whether these new financial arrangements are signs of strength or signs that the old order is beginning to crack.

Geopolitical Economy Hour: Dedollarization and the War On Iran 11.04.2026 59min

The illegal, criminal US-Israeli war on Iran is now almost three weeks old. There are new twists and turns by the hour. However, some things are clear. The US and Israel are not winning, Trump is desperately looking for an off ramp and even the most delusional one is not available to him given that it is not up to the US-Israeli side to end the war, only up to Iran, which is willing to fight for months, even a year, and is seeking nothing less than the exit of the US from the middle eastern region, ending a more than century long engagement. Meanwhile, the war has already had significant economic and financial effects The price of oil and gas have risenSo have prices of associated products, like fertilizerInflation and food inflation are rising.Expected cuts to interest rates are now on hold and may even turn into hikesStock markets are falling on expectations of a recessionand dollar denominated asset markets, vulnerable to higher interest rates could soon be tottering on the brink of collapse While there is a lot of commentary on all this, there is hardly any discussion of that the war on Iran means for the dollar system and to the prospects of de-dollarization? In this Geopolitical Economy Hour, Radhika Desai discusses the ins and outs of this question with Paulo Nogueira Batista Jr, who has served, inter alia, with the IMF, the New Development Bank and the Brazilian government.

The West's International Civil War at the Munich Security Conference with K.J. Noh 22.03.2026 1h 8min

For the Second Year Running, the Munich Security Conference became the theater of a battle in the West’s international civil war that stretches far beyond it, turning increasing insecurity rather than managing security around the world. This war – in which the stakes seem to be not only Greenland but also regime change in Europe – pits the establishment ‘globalizing’ neoliberals against the ultra neoliberal right wing forces represented by Trump, Farage, the Alternative für Deutschland and other such forces and is waged between and within countries. In this relaunch of Geopolitical Economy Hour, Radhika Desai, Geopolitical Economist discusses the outcomes of Munich with K J Noh, one of the best informed journalists and activists on international relations and military affairs. Where does Munich leave the Atlantic Alliance? What about the US equation with China, and, for that matter Russia?

Russia Expert: The West Is Deliberately Boiling The Frog Toward Nuclear War | Oleg Barabanov 24.07.2026 1h 3min

Is Ukraine's battlefield momentum actually pushing Europe closer to war with Russia? I am joined by Dr. Oleg Barabanov, Program Director of the Valdai Discussion Club and Deputy Director of the Eurasian Studies Institute at MGIMO, to examine the true state of the war and why Ukraine's tactical successes may be increasing, not decreasing, the risk of wider escalation. Barabanov describes how intensifying Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil refineries have driven up gas prices and disrupted daily life, yet have consolidated Russian public opinion behind the Kremlin rather than eroding it, while Ukraine's own political crisis, triggered by the firing of Mykhailo Fedorov, exposes a parallel struggle between a new generation of drone-focused commanders and the old military establishment. We examine why the drone has rendered classical territorial warfare all but obsolete, replacing large-scale offensives with a grinding war of small infiltration units, and why this same dynamic is playing out in the US war on Iran, where a resurgent Iran has shown that middle powers can now inflict serious costs on great powers who can no longer win quickly or decisively. The West's strategy, Barabanov argues, has been to boil the frog slowly, but the danger is that the frog may yet jump out of the pot.

Trump Wants Iran Destroyed — He Won't Get It | Interview With Dimitri Lascaris 24.07.2026 49min

Dimitri Lascaris, one of Canada's most prominent lawyers and an intrepid journalist, has just returned from Iran, where he attended the extraordinary funeral of Ayatollah Khamenei and witnessed the final collapse of the so-called Memorandum of Understanding. I am joined by him to examine the true stakes of the US-Israeli war on Iran, centred on the struggle for control of the Strait of Hormuz, and why Trump, far from being trapped by circumstance, is choosing to pursue Iran's destruction regardless of the cost. Dimitri describes standing among millions of mourners in Tehran and Mashhad, where grief for Khamenei ran deeper than for a father and support for negotiation with Washington had all but vanished. We also examine how Iran's capacity to render the Gulf autocracies uninhabitable, by targeting their near-total dependence on desalinated water, has left Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE trapped between an unforgiving Washington and a resurgent axis of resistance. The real question is not whether this war can be won, but how much pain the American public, and Trump's own political fortunes, can absorb before it ends.

Historian Richard Sakwa: The West Chooses Self-Destructive War Over Peace | GEH With Radhika Desai 24.07.2026 1h

Richard Sakwa and Radhika Desai examine why Europe's leaders continue to escalate a war that most Europeans no longer support. They show that the firing of Ukraine's defense minister for being "too honest," alongside protests in Kyiv and Lviv, exposes a Zelensky government that has abandoned even the pretense of democratic accountability, while Gallup polling finds two-thirds of Ukrainians now want negotiations to end the war. NATO's Ankara summit revealed a alliance divided 31 to 1, yet European elites keep deepening their commitment to a war they cannot win against a nuclear-armed power, treating negotiation itself as capitulation rather than a path to peace. This refusal comes as the war escalates both horizontally, with drone and missile strikes now reaching deep into Russia, and vertically, with hardliners in Moscow openly discussing nuclear deterrence. Sakwa argues that Russia is entering a genuinely post-Western but not post-European phase, rejecting the Atlantic system while still identifying with European civilization, and that Europe's elites are choosing economic and civilizational self-harm over acknowledging any of Russia's legitimate security concerns.

Michael Hudson: We're Headed for a Depression Worse Than 2008 | | GEH W/ Radhika Desai 24.07.2026 57min

Michael Hudson and Radhika Desai examine the gap between Trump's promised economic boom and the reality of an economy sustained by asset bubbles rather than production. They show that the stock market's rise reflects cheap credit, buybacks, and speculation rather than profit, a Ponzi-scheme dynamic that cannot survive the oil shock triggered by Trump's war on Iran. His tariffs have not reversed deindustrialization, and his refusal to end that war guarantees the inflation he promised to kill. The result is a starkly K-shaped economy, in which the wealthiest 1% have seen their assets grow from $10 trillion to over $50 trillion in twenty-five years while the bottom half of Americans have gone from nothing to nothing, pushing the US toward a depression as serious as the 1930s and eroding even his own base's faith in him.

Is NATO 3.0 Leading Us Straight Into Nuclear War? Biljana Vankovska & Radhika Desai 24.07.2026 49min

The recently concluded NATO summit in Ankara has been widely hailed by mainstream Western media as a triumph of alliance unity, yet beneath the choreographed family photos lies a deeper, far more fractious reality. In this 79th episode of the Geopolitical Economy Hour, I am joined by Professor Bilyana Vankovska to strip away the distorting narratives of Western media and examine the true political economy of "NATO 3.0". We deconstruct how this new phase of the alliance operates as an aggressive instrument of imperialism, driving a massive transfer of public wealth into the hands of private military corporations under the guise of a "military-industrial revolution".

From 1776 To The Pentagon: 250 Years Of US G*nocide & Imperialism | KJ Noh & Radhika Desai 24.07.2026 58min

As the United States approaches its semi-quincentennial, the contrast between Washington’s triumphalist rhetoric and its material reality has never been starker. Defined by deep precarity at home and centuries of perpetual warfare abroad, this genocidal slaving oligarchy is entering a period of profound systemic decay. Yet, despite decisively losing a major conflict against a middle-tier power like Iran, the Pentagon continues its grandiose, delusional scheme to militarily subdue China. How can a state failing so abysmally still contemplate a war against a peer competitor? The answer lies in a desperate strategy of proxies—attempting to transform Japan and South Korea into the empire's frontline munitions factories, while elite planners increasingly normalize the use of tactical nuclear weapons. Joining me to untangle the deep systemic contradictions of late-stage American empire is regular guest K.J. Noh, a brilliantly informed scholar and journalist. Together, we discuss why the US cannot look itself in its bloodied mirror, how global capital crushes East Asian sovereignty, and why the system is crying out for a complete reboot.

The West Is Scared Of China... So They Lie About It | Warwick Powell And Radhika Desai 24.07.2026 58min

Are the West’s Trade Deficits China’s Fault? Warwick Powell and Radhika Desai blow some holes into the increasingly strident claims of the US and Europe that China is responsible for their trade deficits. This rhetoric is motivated by a desire to divert attention from the real culprit responsible for these deficits, the West’s own neoliberal policy paradigm, by scapegoating China and immigrants. It is also designed to divert attention from the fact that the US and European economies need radical restructuring of a sort that their current ruling classes have no appetite for, and in which they will have to rely on Chinese technology and exports. Not only did long standing deficits with China become a concern only when Chinese enterprises took over from foreign enterprises in exporting to the west, this rhetoric is also responsible for derailing the green transition that China leads in.

He Ran The Fed For 18 Years And Left An Economic Time Bomb | Michael Hudson & Radhika Desai 24.07.2026 57min

Michael Hudson and Radhika Desai trace the origin of the trend towards allegedly independent central banks from the 1990s onwards, showing that, rather than being independent, they have served the interests of a financial elite rather than the people. Rather than abiding by its dual mandate of keeping inflation and unemployment low, it has employed the rhetoric of doing this to inflate asset bubbles. Rather than driving innovation, as he claimed, Greenspan set the Federal reserve on the trend toward a bubble driven economy. Rather than his pretense of independence, Warsh is as much a weathervane as Greenspan can be relied on to keep money easy for fear of pricking the various asset bubbles of which the US economy is today composed. Finally, rather than just easy money, what ordinary people in the US need is a well-regulated financial system aiming at productive, not speculative investment.

Reading Capital With Radhika Desai 5: Money, Value & The Commodity Form 24.07.2026 1h 3min

Reading Capital With Radhika Desai 5: Money, Value & The Commodity Form