Geopolitical Economy Hour
As dizzying yet historically deeply-rooted developments transform the political economy of key countries and the world's geopolitical economy, we provide ongoing analyses of the foundations being laid for a multi-polar world beyond capitalism.
Episodes
Geopolitical Economy Explainer: Whatever Happened to the Donroe Doctrine?
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
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 worl
The West Couldn't Break North Korea And Now They're Afraid | Keith Bennett and Radhika Desai
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
(Blocked) Paths to Dedollarization | GEH with Paolo Nogueira Batista
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
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
Is NATO Falling Apart? Trump, Ukraine, Russia and the Crisis of the West | GEH w Kees Van der Pijl
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
Trump’s China Trip Was A Disaster — And It’s Getting Worse | Michael Hudson And Radhika Desai
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
Turning Point in the West's Century of War: Geopolitical Economy Interview with Laith Marouf
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
The US Is Trying To Save The Dollar Ponzi Scheme With This... Swap Lines Explained w Michael Hudson
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 tech
Geopolitical Economy Hour: Dedollarization and the War On Iran
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 m
The West's International Civil War at the Munich Security Conference with K.J. Noh
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
Michael Hudson: Trump Is Desperate To Save The Dollar Ponzi Scheme | GEH W/ Radhika Desai
Is Washington's rescue of the yen an act of friendship, or a sign that the dollar system itself is beginning to crack? I am joined by economist Michael Hudson to unpack the US intervention to save a collapsing yen and why the official story of "solidarity" masks a far more desperate calculation. Michael explains how the yen's weakness threatens the carry trade and capital inflows the dollar system
China Expert: Has Beijing Betrayed Palestine? Why The Left Is Asking The Wrong Question | Carlos Martinez & Radhika Desai
Is China betraying the world's oppressed nations, or is it playing a longer, harder game than its critics understand? Carlos Martinez, author of The East is Still Red and co-editor of Friends of Socialist China, joins me to confront the charge, common even on parts of the left, that Beijing does far too little for Palestine, Iran, Cuba, and Venezuela. Martinez traces China's foreign policy from th
Ivana Hughes: Capitalism Is Driving Us Toward Climate Collapse & Nuclear War | GEH W/ Radhika Desai
Are nuclear war and climate catastrophe two separate crises, or one civilizational threat with two faces? I'm joined by Ivana Nikolić Hughes to discuss why both dangers have faded into public apathy even as they grow more acute. Ivana walks through the isotope evidence that traces rising CO2 directly to fossil fuels, and the physics of nuclear winter, where soot from even a regional nuclear war co
America's AI Boom Is Science Fiction Funding Financial Fiction | Warwick Powell & Radhika Desai
Is the AI boom just the latest chapter in a stock market story that was already fiction? I'm joined by Warwick Powell to trace the line from China's Kimi and DeepSeek shock through what I've called America's "sci-fi/fin-fi" model — science fiction promises like AGI dressed up to justify financial fiction, a bubble with roots in the dot-com crash and Reagan's fabricated Star Wars program. Warwick e
Mohammad Marandi: Trump Folds & Iran Strikes Gulf | W/ Radhika Desai
Is Trump's Iran war a bluff, or has the empire simply run out of moves? Professor Seyed Mohammad Marandi, Iranian political analyst, joins me to explain why each retreat only strengthens Iran, whose indigenous defense doctrine and Axis of Resistance have outmatched a US military still fighting last century's wars, leaving Gulf assets battered and the initiative, per the Financial Times, now with T
Ben Norton: The US Is Manufacturing Consent For New War On Nicaragua | GEH W/ Radhika Desai
Did Nicaragua really just abolish elections, as headlines from the New York Times to the BBC to the UN claimed last week? I am joined by journalist Ben Norton, host of the Geopolitical Economy Report YouTube channel, and fresh from Managua's 47th anniversary celebrations of the Sandinista Revolution, to separate fact from a deliberately distorted quote. Ben explains that Co-President Daniel Ortega
Michael Hudson: The Democratic Party Must Die For Workers To Win | GEH W/ Radhika Desai
Do the Democrats and Republicans really differ, or are they two wings of the same corporate machine? I am joined by economist Michael Hudson to examine why no progress can be made for American wage earners until the whole electoral system is changed. Michael Hudson argues that the DNC's dependence on Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and AIPAC financing has made it as captured by capital as the Republi
Cockroach Revolution: India's Jobless Generation Declares War On Modi | Rohit Azad, Utkarsh Bhardwaj
Is India's youth uprising the beginning of the end for Modi's twelve-year rule? I am joined by Rohit Azad, economist at Jawaharlal Nehru University, and Utkarsh Bhardwaj, Delhi-based activist and former Vice President of the Students Federation of India, Delhi, both of whom have been on the ground throughout the protests, to examine the true scale and character of the movement now sweeping India.
Bikrum Gill: The West Refuses To Admit Iran Already Won | GEH With Radhika Desai
Iran's four-month war with the US and Israel has entered a new, lower-intensity phase. But is this exhaustion, or Iran's most decisive victory yet? I am joined by Dr. Bikram Singh Gill, lecturer in international relations at Cardiff University, to examine the strategic reversals defining this war. Gill explains how the campaign meant to disarm Iran has instead disarmed US deterrence itself, with I
Russia Expert: The West Is Deliberately Boiling The Frog Toward Nuclear War | Oleg Barabanov
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 intens
Trump Wants Iran Destroyed — He Won't Get It | Interview With Dimitri Lascaris
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
Historian Richard Sakwa: The West Chooses Self-Destructive War Over Peace | GEH With Radhika Desai
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 wan
Michael Hudson: We're Headed for a Depression Worse Than 2008 | | GEH W/ Radhika Desai
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 de
Is NATO 3.0 Leading Us Straight Into Nuclear War? Biljana Vankovska & Radhika Desai
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
From 1776 To The Pentagon: 250 Years Of US G*nocide & Imperialism | KJ Noh & Radhika Desai
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
The West Is Scared Of China... So They Lie About It | Warwick Powell And Radhika Desai
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.
He Ran The Fed For 18 Years And Left An Economic Time Bomb | Michael Hudson & Radhika Desai
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 bubbl
Reading Capital With Radhika Desai 5: Money, Value & The Commodity Form
Reading Capital With Radhika Desai 5: Money, Value & The Commodity Form
Everyone Says WW3 Is Coming. Is this true? | Radhika Desai Geopolitical Economy Explainer
Are we entering World War III? As conflicts spread across multiple regions and tensions rise among major powers, many commentators warn that a new world war is already underway. In this explainer, I argue that while today's conflicts are serious and dangerous, they are fundamentally different from the world wars of the twentieth century. Those wars emerged from the rivalries of competing imperial
Nuclear Scientist: They Are Pushing For Nuclear War | Ivana Hughes And Radhika Desai
Are we living through the most dangerous nuclear moment since the dawn of the atomic age? The evidence suggests we are, and yet nuclear weapons have all but disappeared from public discourse in the West. I am joined by Professor Ivana Nikolić Hughes, president of the Nuclear Age Peace Foundation and senior lecturer in chemistry at Columbia University, to explore why the Nuclear Non-Proliferation T
Israel's Worst Nightmare Just Came True | Iran Deal Interview With Dimitri Lascaris
this Geopolitical Economy interview, I speak with Dimitri Lascaris about the implications of the new US-Iran agreement and what it reveals about the changing balance of power in the Middle East. We examine why the deal represents a major strategic setback for Israel, how Iran emerged from the conflict in a stronger position than many expected, and what this outcome tells us about the limits of mi
The Deal Israel Feared Most Came To Life | Interview With Mohammad Marandi
As more information about the content of the Memorandum of Understanding between the US and Iran emerges, the full scale of Iran’s resounding victory is becoming clear. This interview with the renowned Professor Marandi, we explore the scale of the defeat of the US and Israel, the vindication of the Islamic Republic’s historic support for the oppressed and downtrodden of the world, the direct resu
Iran Defeated The US Empire. What Happens Next? Michael Hudson and Radhika Desai
Trump’s ‘deal’ with Iran represents the end of Trumps’ futile search for an off ramp from the conflict that can be tarted up to look like a victory, at least to the most credulous and loyal of his dwindling following. Michael Hudson and Radhika Desai assess this defeat and its implications for the US economy, for US politics, the dollar system and on how it will accelerate the construction of more
How Can a $1.5 Trillion Military Keep Losing? | US Military Analysis By KJ Noh & Radhika Desai
Is the US military worth the $1.5 trillion being spent on it? President Biden called the US militarily ‘the most powerful nation in the history of the world.’ On the campaign trail Kamala Harriss called it the ‘strongest most lethal fighting force in the world. President Trump has called it ‘the strongest military on the face of the earth’. Events, however, have belied this cross-party consensus
The End of NATO? The West Is Splitting Over War and Empire | Interview With Werner Rügemer
The relationship between the United States and Europe is often portrayed as a partnership of equals. But has Europe instead become subordinate to American financial, political and military power? In this interview, German left-wing intellectual Werner Rügemer examines the historical foundations of U.S. dominance over Europe, drawing on his book Fatal Friendship: How the USA Conquered Europe. The
Russia's Economy Isn't What the West Told You | Michael Hudson, Alan Freeman & Radhika Desai
Radhika Desai and Alan Freeman discuss observations from their recent trip to Russia with Michael Hudson, analyzing the political economy of Russia today and situating its place in the shifting world order. The discussion covers Russia's efforts at Eurasion integration, the Chinese development model, prospects for multi-polarity, the connection between fascism and imperialism, and popular and po
Capitalism Has Entered its Most Dangerous Stage | GEH with Clara Mattei
Today, as capitalism takes ever more volatile, dangerous, destructive, environmentally devastating, unequal, racist, mysogynist, exploitative, and war-like dimensions, there has been renewed critique and, inevitably, it comes from many directions. In this Geopolitical Economy Hour, Radhika, who is among these critics, is joined by a prominent representative of a different tradition of critique,
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