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Welcome back to Gloves Off Season 2, eight brand-new episodes about the threat to Canada's sovereignty and how middle powers can thrive in the New World disorder. I'm Steven Marsh. Last season, the show was about surviving. Since then, Canada has emerged as a prominent global force, and that's why the question this season is what cards do we hold, and how do we win? The gloves come off on Canada Day, July 1st. Get it wherever you get your podcasts and watch on YouTube.
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I mean, my God, think where the world economy, the American economy could be, uh, if we weren't running through the headwinds of, uh, ridiculous wars that drive up the price of oil or ridiculous tariffs that create uncertainty and drive investment this way and that and dampen economic activity. You know, we should be in the middle of a technology boom right now, that it's, it's going on simultaneously, but we're not reaping the fruits of it, uh, because we're, the, we're, we're making economies go through th- these just driving headwinds of Trumpian nonsense.
[gentle music] The Iran war looks set to escalate to new dangerous levels at the same moment that the Trump administration has levied new global tariffs, uh, outraging allies and friends alike. To break down a tumultuous week on many, many fronts, uh, we're joined by our regular contributor here at Munk Dialogues, Globe and Mail journalist Andrew Coyne. Hey, Andrew.
Hello.
Andrew, uh, let's start with the $64,000, maybe $64 billion question now, given what this war is costing the United States. Why did Donald Trump go back to war? Why wasn't it in his interest, Andrew, to just walk away, to, to do what he usually does, which is, uh, claim victory, uh, snatch, uh, uh, victory from the jaws of defeat in, in his view? Why is he back at war? Why is he bombing Iran for the 13th night in a row? And why is he threatening a major escalation this weekend?
Well, partly because Iran is making a monkey of him, uh, and he doesn't like to be defied. I think that would be part of it, but also because once he pushed Iran over the brink of action, uh, in the Strait of Hormuz, uh, he in a sense liberated it. So previously, Iran had not dared to, uh, take that obvious action that would increase its leverage on the Middle East and on the world be- for fear of, uh, military action against it. Uh, once the military action had already happened, there was nothing to be lost by it, so, you know, they did the logical thing that everyone predicted. And once they've done that, then you can't just walk away. You walk away with Iran having the world economy, uh, i- in- a vice, uh, vice-like grip as they say. Um, so he was caught on two fronts. He was caught economically, and that has political ramifications obviously, and he was caught in the sense that, that, uh, he was made, being made to look weak and foolish. And, um, nobody likes that, but particularly not Donald Trump, who is, after all, preeminently weak and foolish.
[laughs] Andrew, to go back though to the framing, uh, that the
Episode notes
Rudyard and Andrew begin by unpacking the latest escalation in the U.S.–Iran conflict. Andrew argues that Trump cannot simply walk away if he wants to prevent Iran from gaining leverage over the global economy—but where does escalation lead? Will striking power plants and bridges bring him any closer to his objectives? They then examine Trump's latest round of tariffs, including a new 50% tariff on Canadian goods announced this week. What does the global economy look like under the twin pressures of tariffs and war with Iran?
In the second half of the show, Rudyard and Andrew turn to a startling development in artificial intelligence: reports that an OpenAI model circumvented its constraints and sabotaged another AI system during testing—without its engineers' knowledge. They argue that this is far more alarming than fears of job displacement, suggesting it reveals that AI companies may no longer fully understand or control their own creations. As AI capabilities accelerate at a breathtaking pace, they ask whether we're approaching a point where the consequences become impossible to predict—or contain.
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