Chris Blattman on War and Centralized Power

Conversations with Tyler

Society & Culture, Education

4.8 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 4 May 2022

⏱️ 48 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What causes war? Many scholars have spent their careers attempting to study the psychology of leaders to understand what incentivizes them to undertake the human and financial costs of conflict, but economist and political scientist Chris Blattman takes a different approach to understanding interstate violence. He returns for his second appearance on Conversations with Tyler to discuss his research into the political and institutional causes of conflict, the topic of his new book Why We Fight: The Roots of War and The Path to Peace.

Chris and Tyler also cover why he doesn’t think demographics are a good predictor of a country’s willingness to go to war, the informal norms that restrain nations, the dangers of responding to cyberattacks, the breakdown of elite bargains in Ethiopia, the relationship between high state capacity and war, the greatest threats to peace in Ireland, why political speech isn’t usually a reliable indicator of future action, Vladimir Putin’s centralized motives for invading Ukraine, why he’s long on Colombia democratically – but not economically, why more money won’t necessarily help the Mexican government curb cartel violence, the single-mindedness necessary for bouldering, how Harold Innis’s insights about commodities led Chris to start studying war, how the University of Chicago has maintained a culture of free inquiry, and more.

Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video.

Recorded March 1st, 2022

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University,
0:08.4	bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems.
0:12.6	Learn more at mercatis.org.
0:15.2	And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit
0:20.4	ConversationsWithT Tyler.com.
0:25.7	Hello everyone and welcome back to Conversations With Tyler.
0:29.1	Today I am sitting down, yes sitting down, with Chris Blatman once again, is an earlier
0:33.9	conversation with Chris.
0:35.5	If you don't remember, Chris is both an economist and a political scientist.
0:39.7	He does not let either discipline claim him.
0:41.8	He is a professor at the University of Chicago, and most importantly for our purposes, he has
0:47.0	a new and wonderful book out which I have blurbed.
0:49.7	It is called Why We Fight, the Roots of War, and the Path to Peace.
0:53.9	Chris, welcome.
0:54.9	Great to be back.
0:56.6	I have many questions about war.
0:58.2	Now let's start with demographics.
1:00.3	So Richard Hanania made the argument recently in his sub-stack that countries where there
1:05.1	was only one child per family were going to be much less likely or willing or interested
1:10.0	to fight wars.
1:11.2	Do you agree?
1:12.9	Because they put their children at risk and they...
	...

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