Shadi Hamid, a Washington Post columnist and political scientist known for his critiques of U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East, is now making a reluctant but forceful case for continued American global dominance in his new book “The Case for American Power.”
Hamid, a Muslim Arab American who once marched against the Iraq War and embraced left-wing, anti-interventionist politics, frames the book as an “anguished manifesto.”
He argues that great power is unavoidable in world affairs, and that the real choice is not between American power and no power, but between a U.S.-led order and one dominated by authoritarian states such as China and Russia.
At the heart of his argument is what he sees as the moral superiority of democracy. Because the United States is a democracy, Hamid contends, it retains a unique capacity for self-correction: citizens can protest, organize and vote to change foreign policy, in contrast to systems where dissent is suppressed. That, he says, allows critics at home and abroad to hold the U.S. to its own stated ideals, a dynamic largely absent in Beijing or Moscow.
Hamid does not minimize U.S. failures, calling the Iraq War a “historic blunder” and condemning Washington’s role in backing dictators and enabling bloodshed in places like Gaza. But he cites interventions in Bosnia and Kosovo and the first Gulf War as examples where, in his view, American power helped avert greater atrocities. The Syrian civil war, he argues, shows that U.S. inaction can be just as deadly as misused force.
The book lands amid a sharp decline in national pride, particularly among Democrats: only 36% now say they are “extremely” or “very” proud to be American, according to recent Gallup polling. Hamid worries this “crisis of self-confidence” could weaken support for a U.S.-led order just as China and Russia test its limits.
Guest:
Shadi Hamid is a columnist at The Washington Post and a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. From 2023 to 2024, he served on the Post’s editorial board. Hamid is the author of several books, including “The Problem of Democracy” and “Islamic Exceptionalism.” His new book is “The Case of American Power.”
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This episode will be recorded on Monday, December 8, 2025, at 12:00 p.m.
