Henry Farrell is the SNF Agora Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, the 2019 winner of the Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Politics and Technology, Editor-in-Chief of The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post, and co-founder of the popular academic blog, Crooked Timber. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Farrell has written for publications such as The New York Times, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Monthly, The Boston Review, Aeon, New Scientist, and The Nation.
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Episode 495
Henry Farrell
Bessent’s Wager and Why the World is Calling America’s Bluff | Henry Farrell
Henry Farrell is the SNF Agora Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, the 2019 winner of the Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Politics and Technology, Editor-in-Chief of The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post, and co-founder of the popular academic blog, Crooked Timber. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Farrell has written for publications such as The New York Times, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Monthly, The Boston Review, Aeon, New Scientist, and The Nation.
In Episode 495 of Hidden Forces, Demetri Kofinas speaks with political scientist Henry Farrell, co-author of Underground Empire, about how the United States built its empire, why the hidden infrastructure underwriting American hegemony is now buckling under a compounding series of domestic and foreign policy errors, and what the collapse of the liberal, rules-based order means for the global economy and international security.
The first hour examines two recent and consequential events—Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech announcing the breakdown of trade negotiations with the United States, in which he claimed his country was under attack by Washington, and US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s Financial Times op-ed declaring an “Economic D-Day,” which reads more like a veiled threat to America’s allies than a defense of the world Washington sought to liberate in 1944. They then explore the implications of both announcements, how they fit a pattern of behavior by an administration intent on converting the once liberal, rules-based international order into a more overt and darker form of American imperial power, why that process is failing, and what its failure means for the global economy, international security, and the lives of billions of people.
The second hour explores the hidden infrastructure that underwrites US hegemony—the financial messaging systems, dollar-clearing networks, and internet surveillance architecture that quietly became instruments of American coercion. They trace how this “underground empire” was slowly built and eventually adopted by much of the world, when it began to be weaponized first against America’s enemies and then against its own allies and partners, how that weaponization has corroded American power, and where the evidence of its decline is now unmistakable. They also examine how a world once held together by an establishment of lies and hypocrisies is giving way to one organized around clans, cartels, and naked self-interest, the role technologies like AI and social media play in breaking down and refashioning traditional political coalitions, the deeper sources of Western insecurity—including the risk of a new kind of world war that may arrive embedded in our systems of communication and control—and where Henry still finds grounds for optimism in an otherwise frightening new world.
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Henry Farrell is the SNF Agora Professor at Johns Hopkins SAIS, the 2019 winner of the Friedrich Schiedel Prize for Politics and Technology, Editor-in-Chief of The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post, and co-founder of the popular academic blog, Crooked Timber. A member of the Council on Foreign Relations, Farrell has written for publications such as The New York Times, the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Washington Monthly, The Boston Review, Aeon, New Scientist, and The Nation.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
Demetri Kofinas is a media entrepreneur and financial analyst whose mission is to help uncover the hidden forces and pivotal patterns shaping our lives. His contrarian perspective and critical-thinking approach has helped hundreds of thousands of people make smarter, informed decisions. This same methodology has helped guide Demetri’s decision-making as an early-stage investor and as a creator of several innovative media properties and live events.
