John Mearsheimer: It’s Not Great Power Politics. It’s Old-Style Imperialism’

by John Mearsheimer | Jan 20, 2026 | 0 comments

Reprinted from John’s Substack: 

Below is an interview I recently did with the South China Morning Post, which is based in Hong Kong, and is one of the most important newspapers in East Asia. Josephine Ma conducted the “Open Questions” interview for the SCMP. We discussed a wide variety of geopolitical issues, paying much attention to what the Trump administration is attempting to do in Venezuela and Iran.

South China Morning Post, January 19, 2026

Open Questions | John Mearsheimer on Trump and why Iran isn’t Venezuela and Venezuela isn’t Panama

International relations scholar says US could easily take Greenland, while regime change in Tehran would be more difficult.

https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/3340309/john-mearsheimer-trump-and-why-iran-isnt-venezuela-and-venezuela-isnt-panama

John J. Mearsheimer, PhD, is an American professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago. More recently Mearsheimer has attracted attention for co-authoring and publishing the article The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy, which was subsequently published as a book.

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