Couverture de The Dialectic: A Podcast by Fair Observer

The Dialectic: A Podcast by Fair Observer

The Dialectic: A Podcast by Fair Observer

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The Dialectic is the flagship podcast of Fair Observer, an independent nonprofit that publishes nearly 3,000 authors from over 90 countries, including former prime ministers, retired diplomats, professors, noted authors and bright young minds from different fields.

Hosts Atul Singh, the editor-in-chief of Fair Observer, and Glenn Carle, a senior partner at the geopolitical risk advisory firm FOI, dive into some of the most important issues of our times. Atul is a Rajput who grew up in India and debated for Oxford while Glenn is a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) who grew up in Boston and played ice hockey for Harvard. Atul comes from the Gaharwar (or Gahadavala) clan while Glenn’s ancestors arrived in Plymouth in 1620 on the Mayflower.

Atul served as an officer doing counter-insurgency in India’s volatile border regions (Nagaland and Kashmir) and as a lawyer in the City of London. As editor-in-chief, he predicted Brexit, Donald Trump’s two election victories and the global rise of the far right. Glenn served the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in both strategic and operational roles. He also negotiated trade deals for the US, served in the White House and authored The Interrogator, a book about how he opposed torture as a CIA officer during the global war on terror.

The Rajput and the WASP are caricatures of stereotypes, and both are preparing to be mummies in the British Museum. These quirky characters examine issues through historical, economic and cultural lenses. Both of them have a passion for geopolitics and for making sense of the world.

Atul and Glenn seek to both inform and entertain. Let us know what you want them to cover. Join our community, and share this podcast with friends and family!

Copyright 2021 All rights reserved.
Politique et gouvernement Sciences politiques
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    Épisodes
    • Narendra Modi's Vegetarian Stalinism Has Ruined the Indian Economy | The Dialectic
      Jan 18 2026
      In this episode of The Dialectic, Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh and FOI Senior Partner Glenn Carle, a retired CIA officer, deliver a rigorous analysis of the Indian economy under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Their conversation explores how centralization of power, excessive bureaucratization and competitive populism are hollowing out growth, entrepreneurship, private investment, savings, public finances and institutional credibility in India. The authors begin by defining “Vegetarian Stalinism,” which is a metaphor for a system where anyone opposing the Modi government faces repression, not in the form of being packed off to a Siberian gulag, but oppression through regulators, taxmen and even the police, which leads to years of legal limbo, much like waiting for Godot. Vegetarian Stalinism avoids the violence of the Soviet Union but tortures citizens through Kafkaesque processes that suck up time, money and energy. Like the communist Soviet state, the Indian state controls the commanding heights of the economy. Instead of nationalization of all private enterprise, an unholy nexus of babus (Indian term for bureaucrats), big business and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) dominates the Indian economy. This rent-seeking and corrupt system favors oligopolies and monopolies that are unchallenged by competition, leading to consumers paying too much for too little. While Pakistan is a garrison state, a term coined by the scholar Ishtiaq Ahmed, India is a babu state. Babus rule by law in an arbitrary and draconian way. The roots of this bureaucratic oppression lie in the past. India’s British imperial masters ruled through the Indian Civil Service (ICS), elite bureaucrats who came from Oxford and Cambridge, to extract revenue from India, the jewel in the crown. Once India became independent in 1947, the ICS was renamed as the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) and acquired even greater powers under the license-permit-quota raj — a system where you need an insane amount of bureaucratic approvals for any economic activity. This crazy license-permit-quota raj only receded when the Gulf War and the weakness of the Soviet Union in 1990–91 led to a balance-of-payments crisis and the 1991 liberalization of the Indian economy. Modi has turned the clock back. Like Indira Gandhi, Modi has centralized all power in the BJP and in the country. Hence, he relies on babus to enforce his writ. They have brought in protectionism, often through the backdoor and a compliance raj that terrifies anyone doing business. In India, the IAS occupies the commanding heights of not only the state but also the economy. As during the pre-1991 times, Indians have political freedom but no economic freedom. To be fair to Modi, he has done a good job on infrastructure, digital payments and delivering micro welfare benefits directly to the people. The provision of women’s bank accounts, electricity, sanitation and cooking fuel has improved the lives of millions. No less than 810 million Indians get five kilograms of foodgrains for free every month. However, the economy is facing a crisis. India had a massive black economy that many estimate might have been 60% of the GDP. Modi’s shock therapy of demonetization and introduction of a nationwide sales and goods tax in the middle of a financial year destroyed millions of small and medium enterprises. There are hardly any jobs, especially for the youth. A dumbbell economy that gives subsidies to big business and freebies to the poor is causing great strain on the middle class. Note that subsidies have not led to increased manufacturing. Modi’s policies have led to deindustrialization instead with manufacturing falling from 17% to 13% during his 10+ years in power. Tax terrorism has become the name of the game for Modi’s babu state, where citizens are threatened with imprisonment to make payments and then languish in court for years to seek redressal. The Indian system is not Kafkaesque; it is Kafka. Arbitrary, extortionate and draconian actions are forcing Indians to vote with their feet and leave the country. An exodus of talent and capital is underway to escape what an astute business executive calls “rupeeization of incomes and dollarization of expenses.” Three scenarios emerge from this: a 1991-style crisis forces India to reform, India meanders along in mediocrity or the country disintegrates in the case of a major shock. The future of the country depends on the decisions of its policymakers. 00:00 What is Stalinism? 09:00 Modi’s Vegetarian Stalinism 14:30 Infrastructure & Micro Welfare 18:00 Farce Economic Growth 26:40 Dance With Socialism 38:00 Bureaucracy & Red Tape 53:00 Modi’s Sanatan Socialism 1:00:00 India’s Political Populism 1:05:00 Modi’s Tax Terrorism 1:13:00 Evils of India’s Past 1:20:00 India’s Future
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      1 h et 30 min
    • France: The Eternal Crisis Strikes Again. What Now? The Dialectic
      Dec 7 2025

      In this episode of The Dialectic, Fair Observer’s Founder, CEO & Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh and FOI Senior Partner Glenn Carle, a retired CIA officer who now advises companies, governments and institutions on geopolitical risk, examine France’s deepening crisis and ask whether the Fifth Republic can survive it. The discussion opens with the immediate breakdown: five prime ministers in two years, Sébastien Lecornu’s 26-day stint, resignation and reappointment, a parliament unable to pass a budget for 2026 and a 6% budget deficit that pushed France into the EU’s most worrying fiscal category. Importantly, Moody’s cut France’s outlook to negative as bond markets grow wary.

      Atul and Glenn trace the crisis to long running structural patterns. They map the historical arc from King Louis XIV and his finance minister Jean-Baptiste Colbert to Charles de Gaulle and the birth of the Fifth Republic, showing how a tradition of centralised state power pushes France into recurring crises. With the government controlling nearly 60% of the GDP, dirigisme — the French version of a centrally directed economy, which is quite like socialism — struggles to create a modern, dynamic economy.

      To add salt to injury, French socialism is inefficient and its society is elitist. The Swedish government spends less than its French counterpart and achieves better outcomes. Unlike Sweden, France’s elite educational institutions are dominated by students from the country’s upper middle classes with very few from the working classes making it to the top. Unfortunately, France spends heavily on social services but struggles with social mobility, persistent unemployment and a talent drain. Immigrants now account for roughly 17% of the population, and rapid urban ghettoization has produced social tension, Islamic radicalization and helped the rise of the far right. France’s domestic troubles come at a time of great shifts in the international order. A resurgent Russia, a more assertive China and an unpredictable America limit France’s room for strategic autonomy. French domestic woes weaken Europe, which is looking for leadership at a time of profound geopolitical shifts. The political paralysis in Paris has also hobbled the Franco-German axis, which has been the bedrock of the EU. The episode balances realistic pessimism with cautious optimism. For all its woes, France retains nuclear deterrence, advanced defense industries, a vibrant luxury sector and deep human capital. Atul and Glenn outline policy pathways for reform and sketch scenarios in which France could experience a renaissance. Listen to this episode of The Dialectic for a clear, historically informed assessment of France at a pivotal moment.

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      1 h et 23 min
    • Can Germany Outgrow Its Postwar American Model? The Dialectic
      Nov 2 2025

      In this episode of The Dialectic, Editor-in-Chief Atul Singh and FOI Senior Partner Glenn Carle, a retired CIA officer who now advises companies, governments and organizations on geopolitical risk, turn their attention to Germany and ask a fundamental question: What has gone wrong with the engine of Europe?

      The conversation begins with Nazi Germany’s total defeat in 1945 and the country’s partition into East and West Germany. Under the American security umbrella, West Germany rebuilt itself through an export-led economic model that came to define postwar Europe. The fall of the Berlin Wall and reunification of the two Germanies brought both triumph and strain.

      Atul and Glenn explore how Germany’s success story has stalled. The German economy is now struggling, its population is shrinking, its workforce is aging, and its dependence on Chinese markets and Russian energy has become a strategic weakness. German bureaucracy has become infamous, and excessive regulation is inhibiting economic activity. The country’s famed automobile industry is losing ground to Chinese electric vehicles, German innovation capacity has waned and the country is missing in the fast-growing high-tech sectors of the global economy. Meanwhile, rising immigration has caused social division and political polarization. Support for the far-right party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), is surging and it is now beating traditional parties in opinion polls. Clearly, Germany is in crisis.

      Atul and Glenn place Germany’s crisis within a wider European story. They consider how demographic decline, economic fatigue and strategic hesitation are eroding Europe’s global influence. Germany is the EU’s economic engine. It is the heart of Europe that looks both west and east. This episode of The Dialectic asks whether Germany can renew itself in an age of global competition or whether its decline mirrors the broader malaise of Europe itself. Read About Vladimir Putin's Long Game - https://www.fairobserver.com/politics/making-sense-of-vladimir-putins-long-game/ Read About Germany's Economy - https://www.fairobserver.com/world-news/is-the-german-economy-now-destined-to-decline/

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      1 h et 30 min
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