The New Rules of Power — with Anne Applebaum and Fiona Hill

June 11, 2026

AI Summary

5 min read

The New Rules of Power — with Anne Applebaum and Fiona Hill

On the 400th episode of The Prof G Pod, Scott Galloway brought together two of the most clear-eyed analysts of authoritarian power and the wars reshaping the world. Anne Applebaum, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and staff writer at The Atlantic, and Fiona Hill, senior fellow at Brookings and former National Security Council official, spent the conversation dismantling a series of comfortable assumptions about how power actually works — and how it is being redefined in real time.

The Autocracy Playbook

What binds Russia, China, Iran, and North Korea is not ideology. As Applebaum put it, "the Chinese are communists and the Russians are nationalists, and the Iranians have a theocracy" — what unites them is a shared fear of liberal world order. They are all systems designed to eliminate independent courts, rule of law, separation of powers, and any space for genuine debate. They are fighting against the influence of cultures where those things exist.

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What you'll learn

1 (06:42) **Trump’s Non-Strategic Decision-Making** - Applebaum assesses Trump’s handling of the Iran conflict as entirely self-interested and reactive.
2 (08:00) **The Lebanon-Iran-Israel Nexus** - Applebaum and Hill explain how the Lebanon conflict is inseparable from the broader Iran-Israel proxy war, and why the public struggles to grasp the complexity.
3 (10:16) **The IRGC as a Car Dealership: A Weak Negotiating Position** - Galloway’s thesis that the U.S. has no leverage, and Hill and Applebaum explain why Trump’s approach makes things worse.
4 (12:32) **Inside Iran’s Political Landscape** - Applebaum reports on the initial joy among Iranians after Soleimani’s killing, followed by disappointment and a lack of U.S. engagement with the Iranian people.
5 (17:30) **How Religious Autocracy Differs from Secular Autocracy** - The panel discusses whether Iran’s theocracy changes the nature of the war.
6 (22:17) **The Glass Jaw of Democracies vs. Autocratic Resilience** - Galloway argues that the U.S. cannot absorb casualties the way autocracies can, creating a fundamental strategic disadvantage.
7 (33:21) **Ukraine’s Shift from Defense to Offense** - Applebaum reports from a recent trip to Ukraine, describing a revolutionary change in warfare.

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Show Notes

For our 400th episode, Scott is joined by Anne Applebaum and Fiona Hill to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Iran, the future of global power, and what these conflicts reveal about America's role in the world.

They explore whether Ukraine is changing the future of warfare, how Vladimir Putin's position has evolved over the last year, and what might come next for Iran. They also discuss the strengths and weaknesses of authoritarian regimes, the importance of alliances, and why soft power may matter more than military power in the years ahead.

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