Gideon Rachman

Thursday

Gideon Rachman

Putin’s trap, the decline of shame & holiday rental hell

50 min listen

First: Putin has set a trap for Europe and Ukraine ‘Though you wouldn’t know from the smiles in the White House this week… a trap has been set by Vladimir Putin to split the United States from its European allies,’ warns Owen Matthews. The Russian President wants to make a deal with Donald Trump, but he ‘wants to make it on his own terms’. ‘Putin would like nothing more than for Europe to encourage Ukraine to fight on… and lose even more of their land’. But, as Owen writes, those who count themselves among the country’s friends must ask ‘whether it’s time to choose an unjust peace over a just but never-ending war’. Have European leaders walked into Putin’s trap? Owen joins the podcast alongside Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times.

Thursday

Gideon Rachman

The age of the strongman, Tesla under attack & matinee revivals

35 min listen

This week: welcome to the age of the strongman ‘The world’s most exclusive club… is growing,’ writes Paul Wood in this week’s Spectator. Membership is restricted to a very select few: presidents-for-life. Putin of Russia, Xi of China, Kim of North Korea and MBS of Saudi Arabia are being joined by Erdogan of Turkey – who is currently arresting his leading domestic political opponent – and Donald Trump, who ‘openly admires such autocrats and clearly wants to be one himself’. ‘This is the age of the strongman,’ Wood declares, ‘and the world is far more dangerous because of it.’  Despite their bombast, these ‘are often troubled characters’, products of difficult childhoods.

Thursday

Gideon Rachman

How will Trump change the world? With Gideon Rachman

42 min listen

Americano is nominated in the Political Podcast Awards 2025. Vote for it to win the People's Choice category here. Freddy Gray is joined by Gideon Rachman of the Financial Times to discuss what Donald Trump’s revisionist America could mean for the world order. Trump is a sworn enemy of what he calls ‘globalism’, which raises questions about whether America will remain the world’s most powerful country in 2025 and beyond. Gideon has described five ways in which Trump's America First strategy would play out, from a great new power bargain, to war by accident and anarchy in a leaderless world.

Wednesday

Gideon Rachman

Gideon Rachman: The Age of the Strongman

45 min listen

My guest in this week’s Book Club podcast is the FT’s foreign affairs columnist Gideon Rachman. In his new book The Age of the Strongman, he takes a global look at the rise of personality-cult autocrats. He tells me what they have in common, what’s new about this generation of strongman leaders – and why his book places Boris Johnson in a cast including Putin, Orban, Bolsonaro and Duterte.

Thursday

Gideon Rachman

Planet Corona: is this the tipping point for globalisation?

38 min listen

As the coronavirus sweeps across the globe, it's causing businesses, consumers, and governments to rethink their globalised lives. Is this a tipping point for hyper-globalisation (1:00)? Plus, is the government slimming down its Budget plans (13:40)? And last, is it harder to be eco-friendly if you are a woman (26:35)?

Saturday

Gideon Rachman

Diary – 26 March 2011

With the Middle East in flames and Japan in meltdown, I decided to head for Brazil. As somebody who makes a living commenting on international politics, I was worried that my choice of destination might seem eccentric. But President Obama evidently sees the world the same way. While American cruise missiles rained down on Libya, he was giving a speech in Rio, as part of a five-day tour of Latin America. There is method behind this apparent madness. The President and his advisers think that, over the past decade, the US has wasted too much time, energy, money and blood on the Middle East. They are determined to focus on new global powers. Brazil, which will soon be the world’s fifth-largest economy, is clearly near the top of the list.

Thursday

Gideon Rachman

Playing with fire | 11 November 2010

As the G20 summit begins in Seoul, the emphasis in much of the papers is on the economic hostility between America and China. The FT's Gideon Rachman wrote a cover piece on this matter for The Spectator two weeks ago, which we've reprinted here for the benefit of CoffeeHousers: In a couple of weeks’ time, David Cameron and George Osborne will arrive in China and witness at first hand an economic boom that is shaking the world. The British duo will doubtless receive a polite and outwardly respectful reception. But, as I discovered on a visit to Shanghai last week, Chinese diplomats and academics have noted the deep cuts in British spending — and they are drawing the obvious conclusions about the relative fortunes of the two nations.

Saturday

Gideon Rachman

Playing with fire

In a couple of weeks’ time, David Cameron and George Osborne will arrive in China and witness at first hand an economic boom that is shaking the world. The British duo will doubtless receive a polite and outwardly respectful reception. But, as I discovered on a visit to Shanghai last week, Chinese diplomats and academics have noted the deep cuts in British spending — and they are drawing the obvious conclusions about the relative fortunes of the two nations. As one of my colleagues in China put it to me, ‘Nobody spots blood in the water faster than the Chinese.’ The contrast between the boom in China and the gloom in Britain is part of a bigger story of the shift in economic and political power from the West to the East.