I'm interviewing political scientist Chris Blattman about his new book 'Why We Fight'. What should I ask him?
By Robert_Wiblin @ 2022-04-01T20:14 (+13)
Next week for The 80,000 Hours Podcast I'll be speaking with political scientist and blogger Christopher Blattman about his new book: Why We Fight: The Roots of War and the Path to Peace.
What should I ask him?
For examples of his recent writing on related topics see:
- Up with international relations theory, down with the -isms, and down with the certainty
- The danger of demonization
- Gangsters want to be good people too
JeremyR @ 2022-04-07T14:16 (+1)
I haven't read any of Blattman's writings but in case I'm not too late and these aren't being covered, I'd be curious to hear his thoughts on
- The impact of international institutions in regard to war (e.g., do they help prevent and/or end wars, are they merely an extension of power by different means, do these examples represent institutionalism and realism respectively which perhaps he thinks we should be "down with")
- The impact of nuclear weapons on willingness to fight (do they, in his view, help prevent war)
For what it's worth, I took a course on Causes of War in college ~ten years back with Professor Gary Bass, and I still have the syllabus alongside a summary of a few of the assigned readings. It's raw, but if you're still looking for inspiration I'm happy to share them for you to skim.