# A New Realism for a World in Crisis — Marc Saxer

An episode of [The IR thinker](https://invisiblenetwork.ai/podcast/1716817337), 17 Dec 2025, 41 min.

Audio: https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/655776911a7d7e0012cbc914/e/69427e932ddaba3da187c4c5/media.mp3

In this episode, we sit down with political analyst Marc Saxer to explore his theory of Transformative Realism and why he believes we’re living through a profound systemic crisis. From the erosion of international norms to the urgent need for reimagined statecraft, Marc offers a compelling framework for understanding the forces reshaping our world and what political leadership must look like in response. Marc Saxer is a political analyst, strategist, and writer with two decades of experience in international relations. He heads the Asia Pacific office of the Friedrich-Ebert-Shtiftung and convenes the Asia Strategic Foresight Group. Selected Publications • Transformative Realism: How to overcome the system crisis • Geopolitical Conflict in the Wolf World: Great Power Competition and the Illiberal Revolt against the Liberal Order Chapters 00:00 Introduction 01:38 Understanding Transformative Realism 04:50 Defining Systemic Crisis 07:39 Marc’s Most Compelling Crisis Case Study 15:08 The Erosion of International Norms and Rules 18:24 Recognizing the Signs of Systemic Crisis 20:18 The Role of Agency in Transformative Realism 28:18 Reimagining Statecraft and Political Leadership 33:44 The Crisis in Modern Statecraft Education Follow & Further Resources Substack: https://theirthinker.substack.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/theirthinker/ X: https://x.com/theirthinker Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theirthinker/ Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/theirthinker.bsky.social Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/theirthinker/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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