The Death of the Empire | Prof. Michael Brenner

Originally published on 5 Oct 2025.

While the West is trapped in a self-imposed fantasy world regarding Russia, clinging to outdated views of Moscow while simultaneously abandoning international norms in acts of "piracy," the US domestic structure is undergoing a revolutionary shift toward American-style autocracy. Is this internal decay making US foreign policy even more reckless and divorced from reality?

Today I’m talking again to Dr. Michael Brenner. Michael is a Professor Emeritus of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and a Fellow at the Center for Transatlantic Relations at John Hopkins.

We explore why there is far more continuity than change in American foreign policy, tracing the strategy back to the 1991 Wolfowitz Blueprint for global hegemony. We analyze the nature of Donald Trump—described as a fascist and clinical psychopath incapable of coherent planning—and how his administration is merely stripping away the pretense of American constitutional democracy. Furthermore, we break down the collective delusion shared by Western leaders, who ignore Russia’s stated strategic needs while pursuing dangerous confrontations that risk catastrophic outcomes.

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