Podcast / American Prestige / Apr 29, 2025

The Sino-Soviet Split, Part 2

On this episode of American Prestige, Jeremy Friedman on the Sino-Soviet Split.

The Nation Podcasts
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The Sino-Soviet Split, Pt. 2 w/ Jeremy Friedman | American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Please listen to ⁠⁠our Sino-Soviet primer episode⁠⁠ and part one of this discussion for some background!

On this episode of American Prestige, Danny and Derek welcome back Jeremy Friedman, assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy at Harvard, to talk about the Sino-Soviet Split. The conversation picks up in the 1960s with the Soviets’ push for peaceful coexistence vs the PRC and developing world’s push for anti-imperialist armed struggle, how the Cultural Revolution affects the calculation, Mao’s growing distrust of the USSR, the split itself, ideological vanguardism vs elitism, imperialism without capitalism, whether a split was inevitable, and more. 

Grab a copy of Jeremy’s book⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World⁠⁠!

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Russian premier Nikita Khrushchev, Chinese Communist leaders Mao Zedong and Liu Shaoqi survey the Chinese troops at Peking Airport (now Beijing), China October 1959.

(Express Newspapers / Getty Images)

On this episode of American Prestige, we welcome back Jeremy Friedman, assistant professor in the Business, Government, and International Economy at Harvard, to talk about the Sino-Soviet Split. The conversation picks up in the 1960s with the Soviets’ push for peaceful coexistence vs the PRC and developing world’s push for anti-imperialist armed struggle, how the Cultural Revolution affects the calculation, Mao’s growing distrust of the USSR, the split itself, ideological vanguardism vs elitism, imperialism without capitalism, whether a split was inevitable, and more.

Listen to Part 1 of the conversation here.

The Nation Podcasts
The Nation Podcasts

Here's where to find podcasts from The Nation. Political talk without the boring parts, featuring the writers, activists and artists who shape the news, from a progressive perspective.

Imperialist Realism w/ Danny Bessner / American Prestige
byThe Nation Magazine

Derek welcomes back to the show his very own co-host, Danny Bessner, to talk about his new book, Imperialist Realism: Politics and Culture at the End of the American Century, and how we see imperialist realism in American foreign policy and popular culture. They talk about the concept’s inspiration from the video game Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War, the end of mass politics, the decline of grand ideology in U.S. foreign policy, the core features of imperialist realism, the Protestant missionary roots of American foreign policy, imperialist realism in pop culture, and a democratic socialist alternative to current U.S. foreign policy.

Order your copy of the book now

Read the new piece from Danny’s Imperialist Realism Substack, “Empire of Grunge.”

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Daniel Bessner

Daniel Bessner is a historian of US foreign relations and is the author of, among other books, Imperialist Realism.

Derek Davison

Derek Davison is a writer and analyst specializing in international affairs and US foreign policy. He is the publisher of the Foreign Exchanges newsletter, cohost of the American Prestige podcast, and former editor of LobeLog.

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