The Truth of the Matter
A weekly analysis of the complex policy issues driving the news.
Episodes
June 3, 2025 • 26 mins
“I do believe we’re in a strategic competition. I believe it’s fine to describe it that way analytically. But if it’s a competition that is purely strategic, what’s the goal? What’s the endpoint?” U.S. strategic competition with China is a cornerstone of our Indo-Pacific policy. However, this suggests that the U.S.-China relationship is always a zero-sum game when the reality is much more complicated.
Dr. Tom Christensen, Colum...
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May 29, 2025 • 17 mins
“The stark reality is that the Russians really aren’t doing well on the battlefield, and their economy is also in pretty tough shape.” CSIS experts examined several indicators of Russia’s battlefield performance and found that it has been performing poorly since January 2024. Russia’s rate of advance on some fronts has been as slow as just 50 meters per day—the slowest rate since World War II. It has also only seized around 5,000 s...
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May 15, 2025 • 20 mins
“Back in 2015, about $12.8 billion, or about 7.6 percent of DOD’s modernization, went to missile defense of some kind. Today it’s up to $25.5 billion, and 8.2 percent of DOD’s modernization budget.” As hypersonic missiles, cruise missiles, and unmanned aerial vehicles become increasingly more common on the battlefield, focusing on the full spectrum of missile threats is crucial, especially as the missile threat from China and Russ...
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May 15, 2025 • 16 mins
“The Gulf is an absolutely critical player in critical minerals, because they’re all working on their goal of diversifying away from a reliance on oil…Each of these countries has adopted critical minerals as a central priority for their own economic development agenda, and that mirrors President Trump’s prioritization of minerals.” Minerals collaboration is already growing between the United States and Middle Eastern nations, inclu...
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May 14, 2025 • 27 mins
“The economic costs were beginning to become much more obvious—not just in terms of the market volatility, but potential shortages, inflation, the rare earths restrictions that the Chinese imposed. Those were going to bite soon.” On May 12, the White House announced a 90-day pause in the trade war between the United States and China and a significant reduction in tariffs following talks in Geneva. However, the impacts of the tariff...
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May 9, 2025 • 31 mins
“Modern war is almost a new missile age.” Missiles have played a crucial role in the Russia-Ukraine war, with Russia beginning to send mass missile salvos at command and control nodes, political centers, and even civilian targets. The CSIS Futures Lab has launched an innovative new project, the Russian Firepower Strike Tracker, that uses AI and data analysis to determine the success of these attacks and ways for Ukraine to fight ba...
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May 7, 2025 • 20 mins
CSIS’s Charles Edel joins the podcast to discuss the Australian elections and what it means for the Trump administration and the United States.
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May 2, 2025 • 19 mins
CSIS’ Emily Harding joins the podcast to discuss observations from her recent visit to Ukraine including drone warfare, the state of the battlefield, U.S. and European support as well as the mining deal forged by President Trump and President Zelensky.
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May 1, 2025 • 31 mins
CSIS’s Phil Luck joins the podcast to discuss the U.S. national debt, why it matters and what the Trump administration and Congress can do to address it.
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April 29, 2025 • 18 mins
CSIS’s Ryan Berg joins the podcast to discuss the U.S. strategic interests in the Panama Canal, competition with China and potential outcomes.
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April 24, 2025 • 21 mins
"There's some real concern that if U.S. companies back away from selling in China, Chinese companies like Huawei could become dominant in this space and outsell us all over the world, which then hurts our competitiveness." China and the United States have quickly taken the lead in the global AI race, each acting as a hub for innovation in its own hemisphere. Which country comes out on top could be determined by how the White House ...
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April 17, 2025 • 18 mins
“This is not good for China’s economy, but they have staying power, and I don’t see them backing down.” While the pandemic years were tough on China’s economy, the country has recently recovered financially, recording a 5 percent growth rate last year. China is also becoming increasingly less dependent on exports to the United States and is diversifying investments in Southeast Asia, putting it in a good position to weather the sto...
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April 15, 2025 • 23 mins
"The President's 'Liberation Day' really shakes the foundation of the current system in the auto industry...if these tariffs stay on for any length of time, they could lead to a fundamental reordering of the U.S. market." The slate of tariffs recently announced by the White House will likely lead to rising costs for cars in the United States, especially for smaller and lower-priced vehicles. Some foreign auto makers are already pau...
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April 15, 2025 • 20 mins
CSIS’s Gracelin Baskaran joins the podcast to discuss China’s halt of critical minerals to the United States. In addition to consumer products, the Pentagon and defense contractors are heavily reliant on magnets and rare earth minerals mined or processed in China. Baskaran discusses the impact of this decision and more.
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April 11, 2025 • 22 mins
“We are in the Golden Age of digital assets.” More Americans than ever are investing in cryptocurrencies and digital assets, keeping the United States dominant in blockchain technologies. However, given market volatility and the decentralized nature of these assets, some lack confidence in dollar-denominated payment stablecoins as a viable investment.
Rep. Bryan Steil (R-WI) joins the podcast to discuss the STABLE Act, a piece of l...
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April 8, 2025 • 30 mins
In this special crossover episode with CSIS podcast, The Trade Guys, Bill Reinsch and Scott Miller unpack the latest news about the impacts of the Trump administration’s reciprocal tariffs and how markets, trading partners, and consumers will respond.
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April 7, 2025 • 22 mins
Stagwell CEO and longtime pollster/strategist talks about his latest Harvard CAPS/Harris poll findings plus a discussion about the future of news.
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April 4, 2025 • 7 mins
CSIS’ Victor Cha joins the podcast to discuss South Korea’s “Quiet Crisis” of leadership and the vacuum in wake of President Yoon’s impeachment, plus, the impact of President Trump’s tariffs while the ROK seeks to elect its next leader over the next two months.
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April 3, 2025 • 24 mins
In this special crossover episode with CSIS podcast, The Trade Guys, Bill Reinsch and Andrew give their first takes on the April 2 tariff announcements from the White House.
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April 3, 2025 • 11 mins
CSIS’s Navin Girishankar joins the podcast to discuss the new world order President Trump has created with his latest tariff announcement.
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