LSE IQ | Intelligent questions with social science answers · LSE Podcasts

Will the US remain the world's superpower?

·35 min

LSE iQ opens with a question about American power and the language leaders use to defend it. The episode treats that question as something larger than a partisan talking point. It places the United States in a longer historical frame. It also links current anxieties about decline to the period after the fall of the Soviet Union. The conversation notes how China’s economic rise changed global trade. It then turns to the way U.S. companies helped move manufacturing offshore. Dr. Elizabeth Ingleson explains that Chinese policymakers in the latter years of the Cultural Revolution were already experimenting with ways to align China’s industrial capacity with the global capitalist system. Her account also puts weight on changes inside the United States. Those changes did not come from one source. They came from corporations, business leaders, and public policy together. The Trade Act of 1974 is presented as an important part of that story. The episode describes how policy encouraged low-cost production in developing countries. It also points to executive-branch thinking that helped support the shift toward offshore manufacturing. Rather than treating deindustrialization as an accident, the episode frames it as the result of choices. That gives the discussion a practical edge. It is not just about national pride. It is about how states and markets interact over time. The interview format lets the guest lay out the argument in detail. The host then brings that argument back to wider public stakes. By the end, the episode pushes back on the idea that superpower status is the only useful measure. It suggests that the bigger challenge is collective rather than national. It ends by asking listeners to think about the 21st century on a scale larger than rivalry.

As heard by us

A careful look at power, decline, and the choices behind both.

The episode starts with a blunt question about American power and keeps pressing on it. It turns from politics to history, then into trade, outsourcing, and Chinese manufacturing, with Elizabeth Ingleson tying U.S.

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Why you'd press play

You want a sober, evidence-led guide to American power and the China story behind it.

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