The Rachman Review
Episodes
Can Turkey help end the Ukraine grain crisis?
21 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been working hard to help open up an export route for Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea. But as he wins...
Russia’s future: a giant Iran of Eurasia
14 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Alexander Gabuev, senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, tells Gideon why he believes Russia is destined to become a giant I...
Ukraine: a view from the Baltics
07 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Kersti Kaljulaid, former president of Estonia, about the policy failures that led to the war in Ukraine. A weak response to Russia’s...
Introducing: Hot Money
04 Jul 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The FT just launched a new podcast on porn, power and profit. When FT reporter Patricia Nilsson started digging into the porn industry, she made a sho...
Wirecard: the investigation that brought down a German tech giant
30 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
It took years of digging and a lucky break to uncover the fraud at the heart of Wirecard. Gideon talks to Dan McCrum about the strange netherworld of ...
Can EU unity on Ukraine hold?
23 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
European leaders have been united in their support for Ukraine against Russia’s aggression. But as costs mount they could face growing calls to comp...
Where money and power collide
16 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to the billionaire investor Ray Dalio about the connections he's found between the rise and fall of markets and the rise and fall of nati...
Putin’s energy power play
09 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia’s global power has rested in large part on its oil and gas reserves. Will Vladimir Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine and Europe’s decisi...
Poverty and inequality drive change in Latin America
02 Jun 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Venezuelan economist Moisés Naím about the reasons for the collapse of the political centre in Latin America, and about the tactics ...
Ukraine and the global food emergency
26 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia’s blockade of the port of Odesa is preventing Ukraine from exporting vital supplies of grain to a hungry world. A failure to resolve the prob...
Ukraine’s nationalists and the Azov battalion
19 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
The roots of Ukrainian nationalism go back to the second world war, when one prominent group sided briefly with Hitler against the Soviet Union. Gideo...
Why do some countries remain poor?
12 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Why do some countries stay poor while others find a rapid path towards growth and development? Economist Stefan Dercon thinks it’s all about the wil...
Why the global south won’t take sides on Ukraine
05 May 2022
Contributed by Lukas
When Russia invaded Ukraine, a group of countries in the global south, including India and South Africa, held back from the chorus of condemnation led...
Putin’s nuclear threat and China ‘friendship’
28 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia raised the spectre of nuclear war this week as it struggles to make headway in Ukraine. How seriously should this threat be taken and can Vladi...
Le Pen, patriots and the anti-globalist movement
21 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to former World Trade Organization chief Pascal Lamy about the French election and what political trends in France tell us about national...
“That was frightening as hell”: Ukrainian MP on working in a warzone
14 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
In a country besieged by war, Ukrainian politicians continued to meet in their parliamentary building, despite the clear threat of attack from Russian...
French presidential election too close to call
07 Apr 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen has put in an unexpectedly strong showing and looks set to go head to head with Emmanuel Macron in the second round of ...
Putin and his entourage
31 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Catherine Belton, author of the bestselling book Putin’s People, about who is likely to be influencing the Russian president as he d...
How Putin’s war is reshaping Europe’s alliances
24 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Europe has been united by opposition to Putin’s war in Ukraine, but will this new found unity last and will Russia be permanently isolated? Gideon t...
What would a Ukraine peace deal look like?
16 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Hall talks to Rose Gottemoeller, an American diplomat who was deputy secretary-general of Nato from 2016 to 2019, about the kind of deal Russian a...
Where is the Ukraine conflict heading?
10 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
How long can the Ukrainians hold out? Will Vladimir Putin be stuck in a never-ending war and how would Russians tolerate that? Might western powers be...
Ukraine failures tarnish Putin’s aura of invincibility
03 Mar 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Putin’s war in Ukraine is not going to plan, but it’s as yet unclear how the Russian leader will react to these failures. Gideon talks to strategi...
Russia invades Ukraine
24 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia has confirmed what western powers had long predicted and invaded Ukraine. On the eve of war, Gideon spoke to Sabine Fischer of the German Insti...
How Russia’s Ukraine threat galvanised western alliances
17 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
After a week of frenetic diplomacy, the Ukraine crisis has yet to be resolved. But it has had a significant impact on reshaping western alliances. Gid...
Drone warfare and the battle to control the skies
10 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Governments and militias around the world, from Ukraine to Ethiopia, have a new and powerful weapon at their disposal: armed drones. Gideon talks to U...
Is the Orban era coming to an end?
03 Feb 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Hungary’s opposition leader Peter Marki-Zay about his chances of overcoming the powerful political machine created by Viktor Orban a...
The Ukraine crisis: a view from Moscow
27 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Russia’s military build-up on its border with Ukraine has set off alarm bells and led to a flurry of transatlantic diplomacy. Gideon talks to Dmitri...
What would a Ukraine conflict look like?
20 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Diplomacy has so far failed to defuse the crisis in Ukraine and many fear that war is imminent. Gideon discusses the remaining diplomatic possibilitie...
The rising toll of famine and conflict
13 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to David Miliband, president of the International Rescue Committee, about the organisation’s 2022 watchlist, which reveals that people ...
Sudan’s painful struggle for democracy
06 Jan 2022
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/c2a23023-df6b-49ed-af06-149bb0b35237Three years of demonstrations have proved th...
Gideon and his team review 2021
23 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/03234d8d-0548-4e84-b7c9-5ed87b2b7a57For the last podcast of 2021 and to review t...
The underside of globalisation
16 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/ce91ffd7-0549-4187-8dda-61b20548d2c8Gideon talks to Mark Leonard, director of th...
Cyber power: a moment of reckoning
11 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/402578f3-6ad6-45f8-8340-cb1e809fe95bIn this special interview, Sir Jeremy Flemin...
Is Russia on the brink of war with Ukraine?
02 Dec 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/34bb8aee-612e-4b2e-ab59-0d11518e1d82Gideon talks to Kadri Liik, a senior policy ...
China and the US: competition or conflict?
25 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/c40abc3c-5a4b-4ebe-9f24-82241f2939f5Gideon talks to former White House official ...
COP26: success or failure?
18 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/f1dbd73c-381c-475b-8b22-fa07abd6d92fGideon talks to Simon Mundy, author of Race ...
Poland’s challenge to the EU
11 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/e66fa8b7-7b92-4497-8585-cf43e8cd41fcPoland’s judicial reforms have put it on a...
COP26: climate goals at stake in Glasgow
04 Nov 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/07579093-643e-4300-87c3-3b3e6b36526bGideon talks to Leslie Hook, the FT’s envi...
Israel’s new political landscape
28 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.comhttps://www.ft.com/content/7dd6de54-58d0-4a5f-9c74-d599b513a668Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-servi...
Great power rivals of the 21st century
21 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to historian Paul Kennedy about how long America’s period as the world’s most powerful nation can last in the face of a rising China....
American democracy under pressure
14 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon discusses the strength of America’s political system with Jacob Heilbrunn, editor of the foreign policy magazine The National Interest. Are ...
Populations on the move
07 Oct 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Parag Khanna, founder and managing partner of FutureMap, a global strategic advisory firm, and author of a new book on mass migration ...
Germany’s traffic light coalition
30 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Ulrike Franke of the European Council on Foreign Relations about Olaf Scholz’s election win, his Social Democratic party’s likely ...
The Biden administration and the world
23 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Joe Biden says "relentless diplomacy" will be at the heart of American foreign policy. But the Aukus pact with Britain and Australia, reached without ...
Trudeau's future on the line in Canada's election
16 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Darrell Bricker, author of several books on Canadian politics and CEO of Ipsos Public Affairs, about Canada’s upcoming federal elect...
Covid and the end of the post 9/11 era
09 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Thomas Wright, director of the Center on the US and Europe at the Brookings Institution, about the aftermath of a global crisis when ‘...
America’s Afghan legacy
02 Sep 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Sarah Chayes, a writer and former journalist who worked as a special adviser to the US military leadership in Afghanistan, talks to Martin Sandbu abou...
Peru’s triple crisis
26 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Years of political instability, the world’s highest coronavirus death rate, and the recent election of leftwing President Pedro Castillo have plunge...
Iran under Raisi
19 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
How will Iran’s new president tackle growing disillusionment at home, a potentially hostile regime on its eastern border and negotiations to re...
Can climate damage be repaired?
12 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon Rachman talks to Professor Sir David King about the string of environmental disasters across the globe this summer. With the IPCC report this w...
Is Lebanon a failed state?
05 Aug 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon Rachman talks to Chloe Cornish, the FT’s Middle East correspondent, on how decades of misgovernance have led to Lebanon’s current political...
Ecocide: a new weapon in the fight to save the planet
29 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pilita Clark talks to Philippe Sands, human rights barrister, professor, author and an expert in international law who recently co-chaired a panel tha...
India, China and the contested border
22 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The foreign ministers of India and China have held talks amid an enduring standoff that has opened up new fault lines over Asia’s future. Meanwhile,...
How much trouble is Bolsonaro in?
15 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Oliver Stuenkel, a professor of international relations at the Getulio Vargas foundation in São Paulo about Brazil’s president...
South Africa’s pivotal moment
08 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Judith February, South African lawyer and journalist, about the case against former president Jacob Zuma. His refusal to cooperate wit...
Can Germany atone for its colonial-era genocide?
01 Jul 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon speaks to Esther Muinjangue, a former chair of the Ovaherero Genocide Foundation, and Franziska Boehme, a professor of political science, about...
Coming to terms with Putin's Russia
24 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Fiona Hill of the Brookings Institution about the recent US-Russia summit and what the former presidential adviser sees as the best wa...
Martin Wolf on G7 opportunities missed
17 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Martin Wolf, the FT’s chief economics commentator, about the pressing problems requiring international co-operation, and asks him if...
Can Asian prosperity survive US-China rivalry?
10 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
South-east Asia has enjoyed a long period of sustained economic growth. But is this endangered by rising tensions between the US and China? Gideon put...
Belarus: more than a moral dilemma
03 Jun 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The decision by Belarus to divert a plane to Minsk to arrest a dissident journalist was intended to send a message to opponents of President Alexander...
Washington’s will to find a Middle East solution
27 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
A ceasefire is in place and an 11-day war is over, but that may not move Israelis and Palestinians closer to a two-state solution according to Martin ...
Myanmar on the brink
20 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The military coup in Myanmar threatens to roll back a decade of democratisation. In the months since the February coup, there have been strikes and pr...
A crisis in the Middle East
13 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Protests in Jerusalem at the beginning of the week have escalated to rocket launches, retaliatory airstrikes and civilian deaths. Gideon talks to Dian...
Why we should all give up meat
06 May 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to the FT’s Henry Mance about why he became a vegan. He says it's not just about preserving wildlife and the environment, it’s also a...
India’s wake up call to the world
29 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon Rachman talks to Abraar Karan, a physician at Harvard Medical School and a specialist in global health, about the current surge in coronavirus ...
Leaving Afghanistan
22 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Tom Tugendhat, head of the UK parliament’s foreign affairs committee, about the US decision to finally withdraw from Afghanistan. Ho...
Britain's legacy of empire
15 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Sathnam Sanghera about his book Empireland and the legacy of racism and nostalgia that Britain has yet to come to terms with.Warning: ...
Are the US and China entering a Cold War?
08 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The US president has promised that, after four years of retreat from the global stage, “America is back”. Over the past few years, ...
Britain shifts its military focus
01 Apr 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The UK’s defence forces are slimming down and harnessing the power of AI and satellites to meet the emerging threats of the 21st century. Helen Warr...
Europe's Mr Normal
25 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Hall, the FT’s Europe editor, talks to Dutch historian Luuk van Middelaar about Mark Rutte’s re-election as prime minister of the Netherlands ...
Spying in the digital age
18 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Helen Warrell, the FT’s defence and security editor, talks to cybersecurity expert Dmitri Alperovitch about the SolarWinds and Microsoft hacks. How ...
Could this year mark a turning point for climate?
11 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Britain is hosting this year’s UN climate summit, COP26, in Glasgow. Pilita Clark discusses what these summits have achieved over the past three dec...
Italy’s make or break moment
04 Mar 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Ben Hall, the FT’s Europe editor, discusses Italy as former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi takes on the premiership. How Draghi decides to...
Michael Mann on the politics of global warming
25 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Pilita Clark talks to Michael Mann, distinguished professor of atmospheric science at Penn State university, and one of the world’s best-known clima...
The world in review
18 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
In a special retrospective episode, Gideon Rachman looks at some of his favourite podcast conversations that illuminate the state of geopolitics today...
Britain’s post-Brexit role as ‘global broker’
11 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s diplomatic skills will be tested as host of both the G7 and UN COP26 climate change summit this year. Gideon talks to...
Navalny’s crusade against the Kremlin
04 Feb 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to journalists Arkady Ostrovsky and Max Seddon in Moscow about why Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny decided to return home after ...
António Guterres on the United Nations in a fractured world
28 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The pandemic, climate change and peacekeeping are all priorities for the UN in 2021, but these challenges require multilateral solutions at a time whe...
Germany after Merkel
21 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
Germany’s ruling Christian Democratic Union has chosen Armin Laschet to replace Angela Merkel as party leader ahead of September’s federal electio...
America’s political meltdown
14 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
After the storming of the Capitol, can America recover its democratic values? Gideon discusses what the recent lawlessness means for the US and its pl...
David Miliband on the global leadership vacuum
07 Jan 2021
Contributed by Lukas
The former British foreign secretary championed the UK to remain in the EU. As head of the International Rescue Committee, David Miliband has seen the...
The best and worst of 2020
17 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Roula Khalaf, FT editor, and Martin Wolf, chief economics commentator, about the extraordinary events of 2020 - from Covid-19 to the U...
EU at a turning point
10 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
EU leaders are facing showdowns on several fronts this week, with the UK over Brexit, and with Hungary and Poland over the rule of law. Gideon di...
Thai students call for change
03 Dec 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon talks to Thai opposition leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and John Reed, the FT’s Bangkok bureau chief, about the student protests that h...
Ethiopia’s struggle with ethnic nationalism
26 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
A country that enjoyed decades of economc growth and stability now risks being torn apart by ethnic divisions. Gideon discusses what’s behind the ou...
Macron's world
19 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon discusses the international ambitions, and problems, of the French president with Sylvie Kauffmann, editorial director of Le Monde. Are Emmanue...
Biden’s global goals
12 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ivo Daalder, president of the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, served as US ambassador to Nato during the Obama years. He joins Gideon Rachman ...
An American chasm
04 Nov 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Americans woke on November 4 to find that the result of their presidential election remained unclear. President Donald Trump’s statements about...
Susan Glasser on the pandemic election
29 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The columnist has written about life in Trump’s Washington for The New Yorker magazine for almost four years. As voters head to the polls to elect t...
Bringing history back to Burma
22 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Western nations have tended to regard the recent history of Myanmar, formerly Burma, as a struggle between democracy and dictatorship. But the country...
Why humans wage wars
15 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon Rachman talks to historian Margaret MacMillan about her study of warfare through the ages and why she fears that, while the manner in which we ...
American entanglement in the Middle East
08 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Philip Gordon, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, is a long-time Washington insider who worked on Middle East policy for the Obama a...
China’s second world war obsession
01 Oct 2020
Contributed by Lukas
China’s authorities have started to celebrate the country’s role in the second world war after long regarding it as a subject best forgotten. ...
Mexico's populist president
24 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
When Andrés Manuel López Obrador, also known as Amlo, took office in late 2018 he promised a fourth political transformation of the country. Gideon ...
German diplomacy tested by multiple crises
17 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
From the poisoning of Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny and pressure to cancel the Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia, to the refugee catas...
Netanyahu's diplomatic success
10 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Israel’s new deal to normalise diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates comes without any concessions on the Palestinian peace process. Gi...
Putting existential risk on the agenda
03 Sep 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What are the biggest threats to the future of human existence on the planet? Not nuclear war or climate change as some might think, but man-made patho...
Investigating ‘the doubts’ about the US presidential election
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Rumours about the US presidential election abound: is voting by mail secure, can Donald Trump postpone it, will the United States Postal Service be ab...
What China makes of ‘new cold war’ with US
20 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Gideon Rachman discusses how America’s tech war on China has affected Beijing’s long-held plan to assert its economic and military strength on the...
The future of Lebanon
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Lebanese have survived civil war, decades of rolling blackouts and even managed the influx of 1.5m Syrian refugees, about a quarter of the country...