U.S. Army Retired General;
Chairman of the KKR Global Institute; Former CIA Director
Biographer, Historian,
and Member of the U.K. Parliament
GUEST MODERATOR
Geopolitical Strategist;
Principal at Wickett Advisory;
Trustee of Transparency International UK
Here is what we have in store this week:
- A new conversation about the history of warfare, global affairs, and the connection between conflict and debate
- A closer look at how Americans feel about the war in Ukraine vs. in Israel
- Your Sunday reading list
What happens to our social fabric and on the global stage when words and diplomacy fail?
It becomes conflict — and it can get extreme. Understanding lessons learned from the battlefield is particularly important given the current state of geopolitics, such as Russia’s war with Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and the U.S.’s tension with China. It’s also necessary to consider today’s struggles against disinformation and the increasing role AI and drones now play in modern warfare.
This week, Xenia Wickett returns as our guest moderator. Joining us in this episode is KKR Global Institute chairman and retired U.S. Army General David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts, a historian and biographer who has written best-selling biographies of Winston Churchill and Napoleon Bonaparte.
For more insights on today’s global conflicts, Roberts and Petraeus’s new book “Conflict: The Evolution of Warfare from 1945 to Ukraine,” and what makes countries fall into conflict when all options have failed, listen to the conversation now on your local public radio station and YouTube. As always, let us know what you think.
DEBATING THE DATA
Public Opinion on Ukraine and Israel
POINT/COUNTERPOINT
David Petraeus and Andrew Roberts on Israel After October 7th
David Petraeus
“Who is going to administer Gaza after the political wing has been dismantled? I’m starting to think that there is no alternative, but that the Israelis will have to do so at least on an interim basis. We’ve learned the hard way that extremist groups have to be destroyed, such as Al Qaeda in Iraq, which became the Islamic State. If you take your eye off them, as the Iraqi security forces did three and a half years after we destroyed Al Qaeda during the surge, they were able to reconstitute themselves. That is not a trivial task.”
Andrew Roberts
“In Ukraine, the Russian invasion is wildly out of proportion. The Russians have ripped up the rule book completely. They ignore the Geneva Convention so there’s nothing proportional there. With regard to Gaza and what happened on the 7th of October, I think that you can’t have an exact number of dead and wounded as a proportion of the number that were originally attacked any more than we did in the Second World War. Proportionality is not a numerical thing. It’s much more a sort of a moral, and almost a spiritual, thing.”
WEEKLY POINTS OF VIEW
How Ukraine Can Win Through Defense
Emma Ashford and Kelly A. Grieco | January 10, 2024
Foreign Affairs
Watch Emma’s debate on whether we should isolate Russia
How long will the GOP keep going to Iowa and New Hampshire?
Ben Domenech | January 9, 2024
The Spectator
Watch Ben’s debate on whether the GOP has lost its way
The Election No One Seems to Want Is Coming Right at Us
Gail Collins and Bret Stephens | January 8, 2024
The New York Times
Watch Bret’s debate on whether anti-Zionism is the new anti-Semitism
The 10% World Offers a Sliver of Hope for 2024
John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge | January 7, 2024
Bloomberg
