Bruce Bueno de Mesquita on the Spoils of War

EconTalk

Library of Economics and Liberty

Economics, Social Sciences, Society & Culture, Education, Science, Books, Philosophy, History, Ethics, Courses, Business, Interviews

4.7 • 4.4K Ratings

🗓️ 12 December 2016

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

There is a fascinating and depressing positive correlation between the reputation of an American president and the number of people dying in wars while that president is in office. Political scientist Bruce Bueno de Mesquita of NYU and co-author of The Spoils of War talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about how presidents go to war. Bueno de Mesquita argues that the decision of how and when to go to war is made in self-interested ways rather than in consideration of what is best for the nation. The discussion includes a revisionist perspective on the presidencies of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and others as Bueno de Mesquita tries to make the case that the reputations of these men are over-inflated.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.5	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:13.1	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast, and find
0:18.1	links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.0	We'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going
0:25.3	back to 2006.
0:27.5	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org.
0:29.8	We'd love to hear from you.
0:34.5	Today is November 8, 2016, and my guest is New York University political scientist and
0:39.1	Hoover Institution senior fellow, Bruce Pointer de Mosquita.
0:43.4	His latest book, co-authored with Alistair Smith in the topic of today's conversation,
0:47.7	is The Spoils of War, Creed Power in the Complex that made our greatest presidents.
0:54.3	Bruce, welcome back to Econ Talk.
0:56.5	It's a pleasure to be here.
0:58.6	Your book argues that greatness is a little bit overrated.
1:02.5	The presidents that we rate highly are overrated, and that we particularly overrate presidents
1:08.0	who take us to war, and that in addition we misunderstand their motives.
1:13.4	How do you see presidents making that faithful decision of committing the United States
1:18.4	to war?
1:19.4	Well, somewhere on their list of priorities, well down on their list of priorities, maybe
1:25.2	things about what is good for the United States as they understand it, or what is good
1:30.2	for we, the people as they understand it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Library of Economics and Liberty, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Library of Economics and Liberty and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.