Thomas Friedman on the Future of America and the World: The Post-Election Dissection, Part Two

Welcome to Intelligence Squared. Where great minds meet. I'm Producer Layla Ishmael. For this episode, we're rejoining for part two of our conversation with Thomas Friedman, the multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, author, and New York Times columnist. In his books, such as From Beirut to Jerusalem and more recently, Thank you for being late, Friedman covers topics ranging from the political picture in the Middle East to globalisation and tech. He was live on stage recently at London's Emanuel Centre on the 19th of November for our Intelligence Squared live event. Discussing the outcome of the US election and the future of America in the world. Joining him to discuss it all was the journalist and broadcaster Ritter Shaw.

This is the second installment of our in-depth discussion. Intelligence Grad Premium subscribers can get access to the full length conversation, including content that isn't available anywhere else. Head to intelligencequad.com forward slash membership to find out more, or hit the IQ2 extra button on Apple. Now let's rejoin our host, Rittilla Shah, live on stage in conversation with Thomas Friedman. Isn't the context the decline of American power? I mean, one, we can talk more fundamentally, and I know from some of the questions that have come in, which I've looked at already, that people do want to discuss what has been happening in the Middle East. But what we've seen is since October the seventh is Biden very supportive of Israel. But appearing to have no leverage whatsoever on Netanyahu. the limits of American power are on full display. So in the scenario you've just described, what we're also seeing is American power

uh American ability the American ability to shape the world in whichever way it chooses. Declining. Yeah, I think that's um uh that is true. Um and uh as a result, I think the only way to shape the world is with more allies. Um Unfortunately, we have a president who actually wants to abjure allies and and His attitude toward allies is like they're a you know a dim sum restaurant in Trump Tower, you're not paying enough rent, you know?

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