Amoral American Power, with Professor Matias Spektor

For decades, America couched its foreign policy not only in the language of interests, but in universal values such as freedom and human rights. But what happens when that moral framing of liberal values falls away? From the streets of Caracas to the skies over Tehran, U.S. power is no longer justified through a narrative of liberal internationalism or advanced via appeals—even performative ones—to institutions such as the UN. Instead, Trump 2.0 has embraced a more explicit "might makes right" approach that rejects universality and leans into civilizational conflict between the West and the rest. Matias Spektor, professor and dean at Fundação Getulio Vargas's (FGV) School of International Relations, joins the Values & Interests podcast to examine the consequences of this shift in American power—and how U.S. foreign policy is being interpreted across the Global South, where many have long pointed to a gap between U.S. principles and its practices on the world stage. For more, please go to:

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Amoral American Power, with Professor Matias Spektor is an episode from Carnegie Council Podcasts by Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs.

This episode is 47:29 long.

This episode was published on Mar 2, 2026.

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