Thanks to all of you, “Conversations with Coleman” has been nominated for a Webby Award! Help us get over the finish line by voting here: https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2026/podcasts/individual-episode/interview-or-talk-show. Shadi Hamid once marched against the Iraq War, read Noam Chomsky, and believed America was the root of the world's problems. He has since changed his mind—though not entirely. Now a Washington Post columnist and senior fellow at Georgetown University's Center for Muslim Christian Understanding, Hamid argues in his latest book, The Case for American Power, that American dominance, exercised morally, remains the world's best bet for stability and peace. He joins the show to make that case while refusing to pull his punches where America has fallen short. He and Coleman debate whether the Iraq War was worth it in the long run, why Joe Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal was a mistake, how the U.S. has failed to use its leverage over Israel, his fundamental mistrust of the Trump administration, and why a world where China balances American power is not the progressive fantasy some on the left imagine it to be. He and Coleman also get into the America First movement and the limits of the United Nations. 0:00-Intro 1:23-How Did You Come to Argue for American Dominance? 6:06-What Is the Philosophy You're Critiquing? 19:19-Is a Multipolar World Actually Safer? 22:49-Devil's Advocate: Was the Iraq War Justified? 32:40-Devil's Advocate: The Case for Supporting Israel 37:21-Did Biden Actually Use Leverage on Israel? 46:11-Afghanistan: Was the Withdrawal a Mistake? 48:57-The Korea Model: Are Long Deployments Actually Bad? 53:37-Devil's Advocate: Should We Intervene in Cuba? 58:13- Would You Support Any Regime Change? 1:01:08-The Axis of Resistance's Strategy Against Israel 1:04:42-Weakness Is Provocative: The Game Theory of Aid to Israel 1:08:59-The United Nations: Overrated or Underrated? 1:10:59-America First vs. Moral Foreign Policy