- US Foreign Policy
- China
- History
- International Affairs
- Security & Defense
- Confronting and Competing with China
Dr. Elizabeth Economy sits down with Nadia Schadlow, former deputy national security advisor for strategy in the first Trump administration and author of the influential 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS). Schadlow reflects on how the NSS was architected around the shift toward great power competition and America's four core national security interests: protecting the homeland and way of life; promoting American prosperity; preserving peace through strength; and advancing American influence. The conversation moves through key differences between the first and second Trump administrations, including process, tone, and the role of ideology in foreign policy, before turning to a substantive debate about the limits of multilateral institutions and Schadlow's argument in a recent Foreign Affairs essay that state-centric approaches can outperform global governance frameworks. Economy and Schadlow also assess the strategic landscape ahead of a potential Trump-Xi summit, discussing where US leverage is real, where it may be overstated, and whether tariffs alone can move China's economic model. They close with a shared critique: that the United States has consistently failed to develop a coherent, assertive diplomatic and development strategy to compete with China's Belt and Road Initiative.
Recorded on April 2, 2026.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Nadia Schadlow is a senior fellow at Hudson Institute and a co-chair of the Hamilton Commission on Securing America’s National Security Innovation Base. Dr. Schadlow was most recently US deputy national security advisor for strategy. In that capacity she led the drafting and publication of the 2017 National Security Strategy of the United States.
She conducts research and analysis on a range of issues at the intersection of strategy, national security, and technology. She writes on topics that include the vulnerabilities of US supply chains in areas such as advanced batteries and energetic materials; the relationship between climate and defense policy; and the disconnects between strategy and operational policies. Her articles have appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, The Hill, Parameters, the Wall Street Journal, Philanthropy, and several edited volumes.
- Follow Nadia Schadlow on LinkedIn: Nadia Schadlow
Elizabeth Economy is the Hargrove Senior Fellow and co-director of the Program on the US, China, and the World at the Hoover Institution. From 2021-2023, she took leave from Hoover to serve as the senior advisor for China to the US Secretary of Commerce. Before joining Hoover, she was the C.V. Starr Senior Fellow and director, Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. She is the author of four books on China, including most recently The World According to China (Polity, 2021), and the co-editor of two volumes. She serves on the boards of the National Endowment for Democracy and the National Committee on US-China Relations. She is a member of the Aspen Strategy Group and Council on Foreign Relations and serves as a book reviewer for Foreign Affairs.
RELATED SOURCES
- Nadia Schadlow, “The Globalist Delusion,” Foreign Affairs 105, no. 2 (March/April 2026).
- National Security Strategy of the United States of America. The White House. (December 2017).
ABOUT THE SERIES
China Considered with Elizabeth Economy is a Hoover Institution podcast series that features in-depth conversations with leading political figures, scholars, and activists from around the world. The series explores the ideas, events, and forces shaping China’s future and its global relationships, offering high-level expertise, clear-eyed analysis, and valuable insights to demystify China’s evolving dynamics and what they may mean for ordinary citizens and key decision makers across societies, governments, and the private sector.
