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The dangerous new nuclear arms race
Is the world entering a new, dangerous nuclear era? China is expanding its stockpile of nuclear warheads at an alarming rate. Russia continues to rattle its nuclear saber in Ukraine. Even US allies are publicly and privately questioning whether they need their own nuclear deterrent.
On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer and Admiral James Stavridis, former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, discuss the growing nuclear threat and what we can do to stop it. With new existential threats like AI and bioweapons, the question now isn’t just who gets the bomb. It’s whether systems designed to prevent catastrophe still work in a world where the weapons (and the rules) are changing. The good news is we aren’t yet at crisis point. Stravridis says the best way to counter the growing nuclear risk is to reopen arms limitation talks, modernize military tech and to reinvest in strong alliances, to prevent Russia and China from drawing even closer together.
“People are less trusting of the US as a nuclear umbrella,” Stavridis says, “If nations like Iran and North Korea can obtain nuclear weapons, which one has and the other has been very close, other countries start to think maybe it looks pretty good to get one.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Latest Episodes
Iran was the clear loser of its war with Israel and the US. So, what happens next?
Less than a month after Iran’s stunning defeat in a brief but consequential war with Israel and the United States, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has emerged politically stronger—at least for now. But as New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman notes to Ian in the latest episode of GZERO World, that boost may be short-lived unless Bibi finds a credible way to resolve the crisis in Gaza. “The people who won this war for Israel...were, for the most part, the very same people who were in the streets of Israel for nine months against Netanyahu and his judicial coup,” he says. That internal contradiction, he argues, is likely to reassert itself as the conflict continues.
Friedman warns that Netanyahu still faces the same three unappealing choices in Gaza: permanent occupation, rule by local warlords, or a phased withdrawal in partnership with an Arab-led peacekeeping force and the Palestinian Authority. If he were to choose door number three, then Bibi would win the next five elections, Friedman says. But doing so would likely require pressure from Washington. With Trump now touting his foreign policy win in Iran, Friedman believes the moment is ripe for the US to push hard for a ceasefire in Gaza.
The conversation also explores the uncertain road ahead for Iran’s leadership. In the wake of military humiliation, Friedman anticipates an internal debate over whether to double down on nuclear ambitions or seek reintegration into the international community. “All real politics in the Middle East happens the morning after the morning after,” he says. As both Israel and Iran attempt to move forward, Friedman suggests the real reckoning—for governments, publics, and the global order—may just be beginning.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Attacking Iran has given Bibi new political life. But will he face a backlash at home?
As part of the latest episode of GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman breaks down what Israel’s recent military success against Iran means for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political future—and for the ongoing war in Gaza. While Netanyahu appears to be in a stronger position geopolitically and domestically, Friedman warns that the deeper dynamics in Israel haven’t changed as much as they might seem. “The people who won this war for Israel... were, for the most part, the very same people who were in the streets of Israel for nine months against Netanyahu,” he says.
Despite the military gains, Friedman argues that the hard choices about Gaza remain unchanged: partner with an international Arab force and the Palestinian Authority, let local militias take over, or reoccupy Gaza permanently. The first option, he says, would dramatically shift Israel’s regional position: “If Bibi were to choose door number one... he wins the next five elections.” But with Netanyahu’s domestic opposition still raw and ideologically opposed to his vision, Friedman suggests the post-war political chemistry in Israel—and Iran—is about to get “really interesting.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
President Trump takes on the Judiciary
From Supreme Court rulings on deportations and birthright citizenship to federal troop deployments in Los Angeles, the courts are becoming ground zero for challenges to executive authority. Emily Bazelon tells Ian Bremmer that the judiciary can’t save American democracy alone—and with Congress sidelined and the DOJ increasingly politicized, checks and balances are wearing thin. “The judges cannot save the country from an authoritarian president… by themselves."
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
What’s behind Trump & Musk’s public feud?
Elon Musk and President Donald’s Trump’s White House bromance imploded in spectacular fashion last week in a feud that played out in full view of the public, with the two billionaires trading insults in real-time on social media. That fight appears to be cooling down, at least for now, but President Trump has made it clear he has no intention of mending the relationship any time soon. On a special edition of GZERO World, Semafor Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief Ben Smith joins Ian Bremmer to discuss what led to the breakup and where the Trump administration’s relationship with Silicon Valley goes from here.
There’s a lot at stake: for Trump, Musk’s political funding ahead of the 2026 midterms; for Musk, billions in government contracts and subsidies for his companies. Smith and Bremmer discuss Trump and Musk’s alliance of convenience, where it all broke down, the role of political journalism in covering such a public conflict, and who ultimately has the upper hand in the battle between political leaders and tech oligarchs.
“[President] Trump's power to reward his friends and punish his enemies in the very short term, in very consequential and permanent ways is totally unprecedented,” Smith says, “Business leaders, civil society and the media can be intimidated and Trump knows it. He usually wins that game of chicken.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).
Could China invade Taiwan?
On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer asks the question keeping diplomats, military experts, and policymakers all over the world up at night: Could China and Taiwan be heading toward war? Tensions are high. The People’s Liberation Army has been staging louder and more frequent military drills around Taiwan and Chinese President Xi Jinping has ordered the PLA to be ready to seize the island by 2027. Diplomatic red lines are being tested, and the risk of miscalculation is growing. Bonny Lin, director of the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, joins Ian to break down the current conflict and whether war between China and Taiwan in the near-term is a realistic possibility.
Securing Taiwan is crucial for global stability—the island manufactures over 90% of the world’s most advanced semiconductors, and nearly half of all container ships pass through the Taiwan Strait. A Chinese invasion of Taiwan would upend the global economy, reshape alliances, and likely trigger the most deadly conflict in the Asia-Pacific since World War II. What are China’s goals and how far is Beijing willing to go to achieve them? And, crucially, if China attacked Taiwan, would the Trump administration step in to help defend it?
"The rate and pace of Chinese activities around Taiwan has been increasing quite a bit," Lin warns, "So lots and lots of developments that are showcasing that China's very dead serious about using military force if they need to."
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
Can Pope Leo XIV heal the Church–and his own country?
Ian Bremmer sits down with Jesuit priest and bestselling author Father James Martin to talk about the historic ascendancy of Pope Leo XIV—the first-ever US Pope—and what his papacy means for the Catholic Church, American politics, and a world in search of moral clarity.
Known for his humility and prayerful presence, Martin says Pope Leo has would do well to make his top priority healing internal divisions within the Church. “There’s a lot of division and anger,” Martin says, “but Pope Leo has the opportunity to build bridges between progressives and traditionalists.” And his early comments on war and migration signal that he intends to take moral stances with global relevance—including the Church’s firm position on welcoming the stranger. “When Jesus says, ‘When you welcome the stranger, you welcome me,’ that’s pretty clear,” Martin says.
Martin also speaks about his own public advocacy for LGBTQ Catholics, especially trans people, who he says are “being treated like dirt.” The conversation also turns to the legacy of Pope Francis, whose pastoral outreach—from encyclicals on climate change to nightly calls with Gaza parishioners—inspired many, including his successor.
“Francis showed us that the Church is a field hospitals."
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
AI superintelligence is coming. Should we be worried?
Are AI companies recklessly racing toward artificial superintelligence or can we avoid a worst case scenario? On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sits down with Daniel Kokotajlo, co-author of AI 2027, a new report that forecasts how artificial intelligence might progress over the next few years. As AI approaches human-level intelligence, AI 2027 predicts its impact will “exceed that of the Industrial Revolution,” but it warns of a future where tech firms race to develop superintelligence, safety rails are ignored, and AI systems go rogue, wreaking havoc on the global order. Kokotajlo, a former OpenAI researcher, left the company last year warning the company was ignoring safety concerns and avoiding oversight in its race to develop more and more powerful AI. Kokotajlo joins Bremmer to talk about the race to superhuman AI, the existential risk, and what policymakers and tech firms should be doing right now to prepare for an AI future experts warn is only a few short years away.
“One of the unfortunate situations that we're in as a species right now is that humanity in general mostly fixes problems after they happen,” Kokotajlo says, “Unfortunately, the problem of losing control of your army of super intelligences is a problem that we can't afford to wait and see how it goes and then fix it afterwards.”
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
Why Sen. Chris Van Hollen stood up to Trump
In the latest episode of GZERO World, Ian Bremmer speaks with Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen about his recent trip to El Salvador and his broader concerns over the Trump administration’s abuse of executive power. Van Hollen visited Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man legally residing in the United States (though who initially entered illegally) who was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador. Despite a unanimous Supreme Court ruling ordering his return, “the President admitted that he could get him back by simply picking up the phone,” Van Hollen says. “They are in violation of a nine-to-nothing Supreme Court order.”
Van Hollen accuses the Salvadoran government of detaining Abrego Garcia only because “the Trump administration is paying us money to do so.” And while Republicans have remained largely silent, Van Hollen reveals that privately, “they have conceded that we are at risk… when we have a lawless president.”
Then the conversation turns to foreign policy and trade, where Van Hollen criticizes deep State Department cuts and Trump’s sweeping tariffs. “This tariff chaos is hurting our economy,” he says, adding that lawsuits are already challenging what he calls an abuse of emergency powers. On domestic politics, Van Hollen argues that Democrats need to offer a clear economic vision: “Trump’s tax plan… is what I call the great betrayal.”
Finally, the senator reflects on the future of the Democratic Party. He urges fellow Democrats to be more than just “no on Trump,” calling for clear alternatives—especially when it comes to taxes, healthcare, and economic policy. He sees Trump’s tax cuts as “exhibit A of the great betrayal” of working Americans and calls for a plan that benefits those left behind.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
The battle for free speech in Donald Trump's America
In the United States, the right to free speech is enshrined in the Constitution, but that doesn’t mean everyone agrees on what it looks like in practice. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer opens with a landmark case: when neo-Nazis won the right to march through a Holocaust survivor community in Skokie, Illinois. The decision was controversial but helped define modern free speech as “ugly, uncomfortable, and messy,” yet fundamental to American democracy. Today, that foundational idea is once again being tested—on college campuses, in immigration courts, and in the rhetoric of both political parties.
Conservative legal scholar Ilya Shapiro argues that institutions once devoted to open inquiry are increasingly undermining that mission. “Universities have forgotten their basic responsibilities,” he says, citing unequal rule enforcement and what he calls an “illiberalism” that predates Trump but has intensified with political polarization. Shapiro supports the Trump administration’s aggressive scrutiny of elite universities but warns that some immigration-related free speech crackdowns risk overreach: “I'd prefer the administration go after clear immigration violations, not rely on vague designations like ‘harmful to foreign policy.’”
Meanwhile, New York Times reporter Jeremy Peters warns that the Trump administration’s tactics may do more harm than good. “Rather than executing clean policies that defend free speech,” he says, “they’re using blunt force to try to deport people who didn’t do anything terribly wrong.” Peters points to a growing “chilling effect,” especially among international students, who are now being advised to self-censor for fear of legal consequences. Both guests agree that university culture has played a role in the current crisis, but they differ sharply on whether the government’s response is upholding or threatening the First Amendment.
In America’s culture wars, free speech is no longer just a right—it’s a weapon, and both sides are wielding it.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
50 years after the Vietnam War
On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer speaks with Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Viet Thanh Nguyen and historian Mai Elliott—two authors whose lives were shaped by the Vietnam War—to understand how one of the 20th century’s most devastating conflicts continues to shape the world today. “We were a community that had lost so much,” Nguyen, author of the bestselling novel "The Sympathizer," says of the Vietnamese refugee experience in the US. Elliott recalls the physical and emotional toll of the war she witnessed firsthand, “I didn’t care who won the war by the end of it—I just wanted it to stop.”
But the conversation also turns to Vietnam’s surprising present: a country that has become a regional success story, balancing its economic rise with geopolitical pragmatism. While welcoming US re-engagement, beginning in the 1990s, Vietnam remains cautious not to provoke China—its largest trade partner and historic rival. “If Vietnam gets too close to China, it could lose its country. Too close to the US, and it could lose its regime,” Elliott explains. Nguyen adds, “Vietnam is a country, not a war”—a reminder that the nation has moved forward, even if its history remains unresolved.
GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, the award-winning weekly global affairs series, airs nationwide on US public television stations (check local listings).
New digital episodes of GZERO World are released every Monday on YouTube. Don't miss an episode: subscribe to GZERO's YouTube channel and turn on notifications (🔔).GZERO World with Ian Bremmer airs on US public television weekly - check local listings.
Will Russia agree to a ceasefire in Ukraine?
President Trump has made it clear: He wants a ceasefire in Ukraine. The White House has been engaging with Russia diplomatically, while making it clear to Kyiv that ongoing US military support isn’t a guarantee. The problem? Moscow has so far shown no interest in meaningful compromise. On GZERO World, Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba joins Ian Brmmer to discuss President Trump’s negotiation strategy, Russia’s goals, and Ukraine’s uncertain future.
Larry Summers: Trump's trade war the "worst self-inflicted wound since WWII"
On a scale of 1-10, how irritated is former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers by the Trump administration's escalating trade war? He's at an 11. On GZERO World with Ian Bremmer, Summers says he is highly concerned with the White House's ad hoc and escalating imposition of tariffs, which he describes as the "worst, most consequential, self-inflicted wound in US economic policy since the Second World War."
Can Venezuela's opposition leader unseat Nicolás Maduro?
On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer speaks with Venezuela’s most prominent opposition leader, María Corina Machado, about the future of her country, the role of the United States, and why she believes Nicolás Maduro’s grip on power is weaker than it seems.
The rise of Elon Musk's DOGE under Trump
In a few short weeks, Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency has rapidly reshaped the federal government, firing thousands of workers, slashing spending, and shutting entire agencies. DOGE’s actions have faced some pushback from the courts, but Musk says he’s just getting started. On GZERO World, Ian Bremmer sits down with WIRED Global Editorial Director Katie Drummond for a look at President Trump’s increasingly symbiotic relationship with the tech billionaire, Musk’s impact on politics and policy, and what happens when Silicon Valley’s ‘disrupt-or-die’ ethos collides with the machinery of the US government.
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