Trump v China: How Oil Is Defining Great Power Politics (Professor Helen Thompson)

The capture of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro by the United States
feels like confirmation that we are in a new era of global
politics, but what has caused this shift and where does it leave
Europe?


Amol speaks to Professor Helen Thompson, an expert on the history
of globalisation and author of Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st
Century, about how oil is fuelling competition between the US and
China.


They explore how it’s reshaping global power politics, whether
it's possible for Europe to decouple from the US and why high
levels of national debt threaten to undermine Western economies.


And Helen, who is Professor of Political Economy at the
University of Cambridge, explains why she thinks there is a case
for potentially reversing the independence of central banks like
the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of England to give
politicians more control.


(00:05:11) What is the Western Hemisphere? (00:07:45) The
importance of Venezuela (00:11:05) How and why Washington is
putting pressure on China (00:19:30) Why Trump is inspired by the
US in the late 19th century (00:25:08) The rules based
international order (00:29:00) Where does Europe fit into this
new world? (00:30:52) Can Europe break away from the US?
(00:33:30) Oil and the Western Economic Crisis (00:37:40) How is
oil effecting power politics today? (00:40:40) What about
renewable energy? (00:43:58) The coming debt emergency (00:46:30)
Helen's RADICAL ideas (00:56:02) Amol's reflections


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Amol Rajan is a presenter of the Today programme on BBC Radio 4.
He is also the host of University Challenge on BBC One. Before
that, Amol was media editor at the BBC and editor at The
Independent.


Radical with Amol Rajan is a Today Podcast. It was made by Lewis
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Purcell-Davis. Technical production was by Jonny Hall. The editor
is Sam Bonham. The executive producer is Owenna Griffiths.