Intelligence Squared

In this episode, journalist Hannah Lucinda Smith speaks with economists Soumaya Keynes and Chad Bown about our new era of global trade wars. Drawing on their new book How to Win a Trade War, Keynes and Bown shed light on the historical roots of our modern trade infrastructure and how tariffs, export controls and supply chain battles are drastically reshaping the global economy. The conversation examines the increasingly fraught economic relationship between the US and China, the growing use of economic coercion, and what the future holds for the world stage as countries increasingly treat trade as a strategic weapon rather than a cooperative system. Soumaya Keynes is an economist and journalist. She is the co-author of How to Win a Trade War and host of the podcast The Economics Show. Chad Bown is an economist specialising in international trade and economic policy. He served as chief economist at the U.S. Department of State in the Biden administration from January 2024 to January 2025. He is the co-auth