# Is U.S. foreign policy now "open for business"?

Page: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-world-stage-6616587/is-u-s-foreign-policy-now-open-for-business
Text version: https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-world-stage-6616587/is-u-s-foreign-policy-now-open-for-business.md
Podcast: [The World Stage](https://stenobird.com/podcast/the-world-stage-6616587)
Published: 2026-03-11T08:18:16+00:00
Episode link: https://www.nupi.no/en/media-appearances/podcasts
Audio file: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/61e7dd4277c0270013a926af/e/69b12549d308577aad4c69b1/media.mp3
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JSON: https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/the-world-stage-6616587/episodes/is-u-s-foreign-policy-now-open-for-business
Duration seconds: 2469

## Resource

In this episode of the World Stage podcast, host  Ole Jacob Sending  (The Norwegian Centre for Geopolitics, NUPI) sits down with  Alex Cooley (Columbia University) and  Taylor St. John  (NUPI) to discuss the shift toward transnational kleptocracy   in US foreign policy. Drawing on a recent  Foreign Affairs  article, the guests explore how the second Trump administration is dismantling long-standing anti-corruption frameworks, such as restricting the enforcement of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA), to facilitate a system where public power is leveraged for private gain. In the podcast, the three participants discuss several examples of transnational kleptocracy. One specific example recently reported in the  Wall Street Journal  involves US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and the President's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who have been in active talks with Kirill Dmitriev head of the Russian sovereign wealth fund. The discussions center on using a portion of frozen Russian assets—which were widely expected to be designated for Ukraine's reconstruction—to instead create what Cooley terms "slush funds" for joint American-Russian investment projects. From the role of unofficial, "nebulous" advisors to the potential pressure on allies like Norway to politicize their sovereign wealth funds, this episode provides a deep dive into how international power is being exercised, bought, and shielded in an era of "kleptocratic populism". Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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## Transcript

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