Edward Luttwak: The Balance of Power, Tariffs, & Future of the American Dream

Geopolitics & Empire

Politics, News, Government, History

4.2 • 570 Ratings

🗓️ 24 April 2025

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Edward Luttwak discusses the current state of great power politics and gauges whether there has been any shift in the balance of power. Putin showed weakness in his failure to quickly achieve victory in Ukraine whereas China is conducting a military buildup. He comments on the specter of WW3, Taiwan, the post-nuclear era, the Middle East, tariffs, deindustrialization in the United States, and the future of the American Dream. *Support Geopolitics & Empire! Become a Member https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com Donate https://geopoliticsandempire.com/donations Consult https://geopoliticsandempire.com/consultation **Visit Our Affiliates & Sponsors! Above Phone https://abovephone.com/?above=geopolitics easyDNS (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://easydns.com Escape Technocracy course (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://escapethetechnocracy.com/geopolitics PassVult https://passvult.com Sociatates Civis (CitizenHR, CitizenIT, CitizenPL) https://societates-civis.com Wise Wolf Gold https://www.wolfpack.gold/?ref=geopolitics Websites Amazon Books https://www.amazon.com/stores/Edward-N.-Luttwak/author/B000APRH3I X https://x.com/ELuttwak UnHerd https://unherd.com/author/edward-luttwak The Machiavelli of Maryland https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/dec/09/edward-luttwak-machiavelli-of-maryland About Edward Luttwak Professor Edward Luttwak is a strategist and historian known for his works on grand strategy, geoeconomics, military history, and international relations. Luttwak has served on U.S. presidential transition teams, testified before committees of the U.S. House of Representatives and the Senate, and has advised the U.S. Department of Defense, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. National Security Council, the White House Chief of Staff, and several allied governments, including Japan. He is the author of several books, including Coup d’État: A Practical Handbook; Strategy: The Logic of War and Peace; and The Rise of China vs. the Logic of Strategy, which have been published in 29 languages besides English and are widely used at war colleges around the world. His articles have appeared in the London Review of Books, the Times Literary Supplement, Foreign Affairs, and Tablet. *Podcast intro music is from the song "The Queens Jig" by "Musicke & Mirth" from their album "Music for Two Lyra Viols": http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Joining us is the renowned Edward Lutwock historian expert on grand strategy, geoeconomics, military history, and international relations.
0:08.0	He's a prolific author whose books are translated into dozens of languages and used at war colleges.
0:13.0	He's advised presidents, prime ministers, among many other exploits, activities and accomplishments, including cattle ranching in Bolivia.
0:20.0	Welcome to geopolitics and empire, Mr. Lutvon.
0:22.6	Thank you.
0:23.6	I first became familiar with your work back in 2008 when your book,
0:28.6	Turbo Capitalism was assigned reading by my Hungarian geopolitics and Geo-Economics Instructor
0:34.6	at the Geneva School of Diplomacy.
0:36.6	And so I've been following you on X, and I read your recent excellent analysis that unheard on Trump tariffs and thought it'd be great to have you on to get your broad insights. And you know, you've written many books, books on the grand strategy of the Roman Empire, of the Byzantine Empire. In some ways, I see American Empire as a continuation of the Roman Empire and tariffs seem to be
0:55.4	part of its current grand strategy. But to start maybe, you know, you've written previously as well
0:59.9	in articles that, quote, the overall power of the Russian Federation has been greatly diminished by
1:04.6	its failure to swiftly conquer Ukraine, as all had expected, and the overall power of China has
1:09.0	been eroded. Could you give us your thoughts from your vantage point on what is that play right now on the grand chessboard, so to speak,
1:15.6	where demarcation lines seem to be shifting once again while there's talk of the decline of the West, a rising global South led by Russia and China?
1:24.6	Well, as you know, the West has a lot of problems of different kinds.
1:31.1	There is a question of culture, which is sharply a question in England, which is undergoing
1:38.4	all kinds of transformations, some of them very unwelcome.
1:42.4	Some of my said, this problem, that problem, a lot of the NATO armies are not real armies.
1:48.7	They just wear uniforms and eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner, but are not mentally, morally,
1:56.2	ready to fight and sounds like.
1:58.2	All terrible problems, but, as you know, the West is diverse, is heterogeneous,
2:06.2	it has different strengths and weaknesses, and has islands of great strength, certain things that are
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