Friday Focus: No winners in the Middle East — and Xi warns Trump against falling into the Thucydides Trap

Tickets to our May 20th Munk Debate on Foreign Wars taking place in Toronto and featuring Mike Pompeo, Victoria Nuland, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, are almost sold out. Visit to purchase tickets. Rudyard and Janice start today's show by taking stock of how intolerable the situation in the Middle East is becoming. Iran is asserting control over the Strait of Hormuz, while surging inflation threatens to send shockwaves through the global supply chain. Tehran believes it can withstand Trump's blockade longer than he can withstand its grip over the flow of energy. The missing piece of this story is just how dire conditions have become inside Iran, with massive unemployment and the hollowing out of the middle class. How long can the regime survive under these conditions? In the second half of the show, Rudyard and Janice turn to Trump's visit to China this week and Xi Jinping's striking invocation of the "Thucydides Trap" to warn of the dangers of escalating strategic rivalry between the U.S. and China. Yet despite the symbolism and spectacle, the visit produced no major breakthroughs or concrete agreements. Meanwhile, European leaders and much of the Global South are increasingly viewing Xi as a more predictable and stable actor amid the constant disruption and volatility associated with Donald Trump. Checkmate China? Become a Munk Donor ($50 annually) to get 72-hour advanced access to the full length editions of Friday Focus. Go to to sign up. Become a Munk Donor ($50 annually) to get 72-hour advanced access to the full length editions of Friday Focus and Munk Dialogues. Go to to sign up. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

You can listen to Friday Focus: No winners in the Middle East — and Xi warns Trump against falling into the Thucydides Trap online on Radio and Podcast. Open the player on this page to stream the available audio.

Friday Focus: No winners in the Middle East — and Xi warns Trump against falling into the Thucydides Trap is an episode from The Munk Debates Podcast by iHeartRadio Podcasts.

This episode is 23:36 long.

This episode was published on May 15, 2026.

Yes. Use the heart button on the episode page to add it to your favorite episodes list.

Yes. This page shows related episodes from The Munk Debates Podcast when more episodes are available from the podcast feed.