Martin Wolf on the 'Terrifying' Superpower That the US Wields

What It Covers

FT chief economics commentator Martin Wolf analyzes the Iran conflict, US geopolitical incoherence, Europe's structural paralysis, and AI's existential risks with Joe Weisenthal and Tracy Alloway in London. Wolf argues that a bewildering superpower is more dangerous than a predictable rival, and that the Trump coalition lacks any unified strategic vision beyond personal loyalty to one individual.

Key Questions Answered

• •World Economy Resilience: Since 1950, global GDP has contracted in only two years — 2009 and 2020 — demonstrating that the world economy requires catastrophic shocks to actually shrink. Trade diversion mechanisms, corporate profit resilience, and the declining share of oil in total energy consumption mean that even major geopolitical disruptions like Gulf conflict produce slowdowns, not collapses. Investors and analysts should calibrate crisis responses accordingly, expecting adaptation rather than systemic breakdown.
• •Gulf Oil Shock Absorption: A sustained loss of Gulf oil output would damage Europe and China most severely, while the US faces the least exposure among major economies — a structural asymmetry that shapes American willingness to escalate. Wolf estimates world growth could fall to 1–1.5% under a severe scenario, but not zero. Pipeline alternatives exist for much of the affected volume, and global energy systems have already structurally shifted away from oil dependency since the 1970s shocks.
• •US Trust Collapse: The Trump administration's core operating mode — deliberate unpredictability in both directions — has permanently eroded international trust in US commitments. No European government, ally, or trading partner can treat any US promise as binding. This matters structurally: Europe built its entire postwar security, technology, and ideological architecture around American reliability. Rebuilding that trust requires not just an election result but proof that the underlying political movement has become unthinkable, which Wolf considers unlikely in the near term.
• •Trump Coalition Incoherence: The MAGA coalition contains irreconcilable factions — AI-optimist tech billionaires betting on a transformative future, Christian nationalist crusaders seeking a theocratic past, Vance-style isolationists, and a mass base of economically resentful men. These groups share affinity for Trump personally but no coherent policy vision. Wolf frames Trump's personal goal as unconstrained bilateral dominance — being acknowledged as the boss in every relationship — rather than any ideological program, making policy direction fundamentally unpredictable.
• •European Strategic Paralysis: Europe cannot rapidly develop strategic autonomy because its postwar identity was deliberately constructed around rejecting the will-to-power that produced two world wars. The centrist liberal impulse toward greater EU integration competes with right-wing nationalist movements that are nationally, not European, in orientation. Wolf notes there are virtually no European nationalist politicians who identify as European first — making a unified strategic response structurally difficult regardless of external pressure from Washington or ongoing conflicts.
• •AI as Faustian Bargain: Wolf frames artificial general intelligence as potentially the single most consequential invention in human history — more transformative than writing, printing, or the internet combined. The core danger is unaccountability: decisions made by systems no individual can be held responsible for, combined with the possibility of AI-directed autonomous military systems capable of controlling human populations. Wolf considers the technology effectively unregulatable given competitive dynamics, and notes that Frank Herbert's fictional Butlerian Jihad — a civilizational ban on thinking machines — may retrospectively appear prescient.