Opinion Has It: Stephen Wertheim on US foreign policy since 9/11

Stephen Wertheim discusses the grim legacy of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The PS Say More Newsletter | [View this message in a web browser]( In this week's newsletter, we present the newest episode of our podcast, Opinion Has It. Every other week in Opinion Has It, host Elmira Bayrasli is joined by a leading expert to examine a critical and timely issue. The End of the Indispensable Nation [The End of the Indispensable Nation]( In this episode, Elmira Bayrasli talks with Stephen Wertheim, a senior fellow in the American Statecraft Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Listen now on [PS]( [Acast]( [Apple]( [Google]( or [Spotify](. [The End of the Indispensable Nation]( Twenty years ago, the September 11 terrorist attacks invigorated America’s sense of itself as the “indispensable nation.” But its actions since then have failed to improve global security and have endangered those who it claimed to be helping. This week on the podcast, [Stephen Wertheim]( considers how American power lost its purpose, and what should come next. [Listen now]( Opinion Has It is also available on your favorite listening app. Listen now on [Acast]( [Apple]( [Google]( or [Spotify](. In this episode... Elmira Bayrasli: America’s rapid withdrawal from Afghanistan went even worse than many had predicted. But Stephen maintains that the only alternative was more war. Stephen Wertheim: Now, there are two questions here that are somewhat separate, though they’re also deeply connected. The first question is: Was Biden correct to decide to withdraw all US ground troops this year, more or less pursuant to the agreement that his predecessor had negotiated with the Taliban as part of the Doha agreement? That, I think, is the fundamental choice. To my mind, Joe Biden made... [Read the transcript]( Listen now on [PS]( [Acast]( [Apple]( [Google]( or [Spotify](. [PS. Take 50% off a new subscription with the code SUMMER21]( Previously in Opinion Has It [Toward Bretton Woods 2.0?]( [Toward Bretton Woods 2.0?]( with [Harold James]( Professor of History and International Affairs at Princeton University, and [Paola Subacchi]( Professor of International Economics at the University of London’s Queen Mary Global Policy Institute In 1971, President Richard Nixon closed the gold window, effectively ushering in a new global monetary non-system with a single pillar: the US dollar. Fifty years later, that pillar is showing signs of strain. Can the world muster the cooperation needed to manage whatever comes next? Listen now on [PS]( [Acast]( [Apple]( [Google]( or [Spotify](. Or [read the transcript](. [Check out the Opinion Has It archive]( Previously in Say More [An Interview with Sigmar Gabriel]( [An Interview with Sigmar Gabriel]( [Sigmar Gabriel]( puts the lie to the narrative that Germany is a net contributor country in the EU, proposes how Europe should deal with China, and explains what is wrong with the German election campaign. Gabriel is a former foreign minister and vice chancellor of Germany, and Chairman of Atlantik-Brücke. [Check out the Say More archive]( [Special-Edition Magazine: Back to Health]( [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [LinkedIn]( Project Syndicate publishes and provides, on a not-for-profit basis, original commentary by the world's leading thinkers to more than 500 media outlets in over 150 countries. This newsletter is a service of [Project Syndicate](. [Change your newsletter preferences](. Follow us on [Facebook]( [Twitter]( and [YouTube](. © Project Syndicate, all rights reserved. [Unsubscribe from all newsletters](.