With Eliot traveling, Eric welcomes back prolific historian and author Hal Brands to the show to discuss his forthcoming book The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World (New York: W.W.
"War is the continuation of politics by other means" - von Clausewitz
Our daughter is home from college for the holidays. She has one more semester before she graduates with highest honors from Stevens Institute of Technology with a degree in mathematics and computer science. My brilliant French wife and I have done our best to instill in her a respect for disciplined achievement in various areas, primarily music, reading and mathematics. The concept of delayed gratification and self-worth achieved through overcoming difficult challenges has been ingrained into her character. I had a conversation with her yesterday about the benefits of paying off a mortgage as soon as possible rather than spending the extra money on other short term desires. She immediately grasped the logic of our decision to proactively pay off ours. This is relevant because the United States electorate has obviously become incapable of such reasoning. The point that deterrents are a much less expensive way to deal with an inevitable problem is only something that can be grasped by people with disciplined minds. I too stay up at night worrying about what is to come, not right now, but down the road after this administration has inflicted yet another four years of corrupt, obtuse isolationist ignorance. I fear that only when it's too late to avoid catastrophe will the people realize, if they ever do at all, that they were dead wrong. The rest of us, including my daughter will pay the price.
Thanks for another informative though troubling episode. I have zero confidence that the incoming administration has any understanding of our nation’s role in global stability, nor do they have interest in learning about it. I am especially concerned about our degraded armament situation and the pressure our branches are under to train and repair while being asked to deploy all too frequently—the Navy most of all. I’m looking forward to the book.
Everyone needs to be awake to a new possibility: The USA vs. NATO.
Trump pulls us out of Nato, then invades Greenland--which would require the remaining Nato states to decide whether or not to invoke article 5 in order to defend, what is, in fact, part of Denmark. It's a nightmare scenario that I didn't even think was possible.
"War is the continuation of politics by other means" - von Clausewitz
Our daughter is home from college for the holidays. She has one more semester before she graduates with highest honors from Stevens Institute of Technology with a degree in mathematics and computer science. My brilliant French wife and I have done our best to instill in her a respect for disciplined achievement in various areas, primarily music, reading and mathematics. The concept of delayed gratification and self-worth achieved through overcoming difficult challenges has been ingrained into her character. I had a conversation with her yesterday about the benefits of paying off a mortgage as soon as possible rather than spending the extra money on other short term desires. She immediately grasped the logic of our decision to proactively pay off ours. This is relevant because the United States electorate has obviously become incapable of such reasoning. The point that deterrents are a much less expensive way to deal with an inevitable problem is only something that can be grasped by people with disciplined minds. I too stay up at night worrying about what is to come, not right now, but down the road after this administration has inflicted yet another four years of corrupt, obtuse isolationist ignorance. I fear that only when it's too late to avoid catastrophe will the people realize, if they ever do at all, that they were dead wrong. The rest of us, including my daughter will pay the price.
Thanks for another informative though troubling episode. I have zero confidence that the incoming administration has any understanding of our nation’s role in global stability, nor do they have interest in learning about it. I am especially concerned about our degraded armament situation and the pressure our branches are under to train and repair while being asked to deploy all too frequently—the Navy most of all. I’m looking forward to the book.
Everyone needs to be awake to a new possibility: The USA vs. NATO.
Trump pulls us out of Nato, then invades Greenland--which would require the remaining Nato states to decide whether or not to invoke article 5 in order to defend, what is, in fact, part of Denmark. It's a nightmare scenario that I didn't even think was possible.
You might consider having as a guest Mel Gurtov, author of “Engaging China” - really interesting book.
Excellent podcast! It is incredible the number of significant challenges that we are facing in this country, both foreign and domestic.
Very valuable. Thank you both.