Conversations with History: Stephen M. Walt

Host Harry Kreisler welcomes Harvard political scientist Stephen M. Walt for a discussion of how to think about balancing power in international politics. They also consider the role theory might play in formulating foreign policy and consider the way the world is responding to the U.S. hegemony in the aftermath of 911 and the Iraq War. Series: Conversations with History [2/2006] [Public Affairs] [Show ID: 11361]

[@bigfacts4235]

Great discourse it’s a shame most American news media outlets don’t get people like this to come on and speak on foreign policy topics.

[@killshotmessy]

Prof Kreisler has interviewed everyone.

[@barumbadum]

Great professor.

[@sajadkarimi-qd6cn]

Amazing professor , Balance of Threats is perfect theory.

[@LadyVHW]

Why isn't there just a script of this....there's a lot that I could skip over for my studies

[@tommyodonovan3883]

I'm a historian, an auto didact.
The study of history is a lonely pursuit, not that I personally feel lonely....I'm a loner by nature, it's just that most people do not care about History, most people do not even know the maiden names of their grandmothers, I get that fact, so I try not to bore people with my obscure hobby.
But it makes it hard for me to do the things that *"Normies"* want to do or engage intelligibility about the things that they find interesting.
For instance,
I do not care about Pro Sports, movies, music, religion (I'm Egnostic), celebrity worship, food/fashion, tv/cable, video games...
I work with a lot of younger people, mostly young men (construction Forman) when these young guys start talking to Me about Video games for example, I tell them;
*"The only thing worse than playing video games....is listening to someone talk about playing video games."*

[@BR-it2qe]

My undergrad was in history. I disagree that most people don't like history. In fact, I think nearly everyone is interested in history. You can talk to nearly anyone about some era of history. I think that very few are passionate enough to study it at the university level. Also, it's just not the best degree. I think some of the loneliness you feel arises from the fact that so few are at your level of understanding of history. You've studied so much that many things aren't "new" and "undiscovered" whereas an average person would be interested and motivated to learn more; you already know. Also, discussing history is a bit different than discussing other topics. Discussing history can get "preachy" very fast, especially for people at our level or when there's a disparity of understanding, again something you and I often experience. I'm not questioning your intelligence but perhaps your coworkers aren't at your level. I've found that the more intelligent a person is the more open they are to discussing history. Another way to think about is that no one want to be the dumb one in a conversation so these people avoid situations where they might appear dumb. Lastly, don't fall for this normie stuff. We are all individuals. If you can only talk about history then perhaps the problem of with you and not everyone else. Good luck and be proud of your knowledge. It puts you ahead of people in so many ways