Chris Blattman on Why We Fight

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2022

⏱️ 69 minutes

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Summary

It's tempting to explain Russia's invasion of Ukraine with Putin's megalomania. Economist Chris Blattman of the University of Chicago talks about his book Why We Fight with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Blattman explains why only a fraction of rivalries ever erupt into violence, the five main reasons adversaries can't arrive at compromise, and the problem with trying to get into Putin's head (and why it's not all about Putin. Really).

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics
0:07.0	and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover
0:13.0	Institution.
0:14.0	Go to econtalk.org where you can subscribe, comment on this episode and find links down
0:18.6	the information related to today's conversation.
0:21.6	You'll also find our archives, but every episode we've done going back to 2006.
0:26.8	Our email address is mail at econtalk.org.
0:30.3	We'd love to hear from you.
0:37.8	Today is March 24, 2022, and my guest is economist and author Chris Blatman of the University
0:43.2	of Chicago.
0:44.7	This is Chris' fourth appearance on econ talk.
0:46.9	It was last year in July of 2017, talking about chickens, cash, development.
0:53.8	Our topic for today is his book, Why We Fight, the Roots of War and the Paths to Peace.
1:00.7	Chris, welcome back to econ talk.
1:02.8	He's grabbing me.
1:04.7	How did this book come about?
1:06.2	Why did you write a book on of all things on war?
1:10.6	Well, I've been working on subject for myself.
1:15.6	I mean, it seems far from chickens and cash.
1:18.8	We were saying chickens and cash was a little bit of a detour for me.
1:24.2	I was working in conflict zones from about 2004 and initially working on how to relieve
	...

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