Eric Edelman on the World Trump Inherits

Conversations with Bill Kristol

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4.7 • 1.7K Ratings

🗓️ 21 December 2024

⏱️ 83 minutes

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Summary

Donald Trump will face major geopolitical challenges when he takes office. In this Conversation, Eric Edelman, former ambassador to Turkey and Finland and Under Secretary of Defense, shares his perspective. As he explains, Trump will face major decisions on all areas of the geopolitical landscape early in his term. Edelman argues that Israel’s military successes have weakened Iran’s “axis of resistance” and opened up new opportunities—but also raise the threat of Iranian nuclear breakout. Meanwhile, the war in Ukraine rages, the situation in Europe remains uncertain, and China’s military buildup increases. To meet the threats around the globe, we need to build up the military and defense industrial base, embrace American leadership, and strengthen our alliances. Will the Trump Administration do so?

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hi, I'm Bill Crystal. Welcome back to conversations. I'm very pleased to be joined again today by my good friend, Eric Edelman,
0:22.3	former Senior State Department official ambassador to two nations, number three in the Defense Department
0:28.8	in very important years in the second term of the Bush administration, especially with serving
0:34.8	very closely with Robert Gates, the Secretary of Defense, now a senior
0:40.7	fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Analysis, and was, I think, served on, maybe was
0:46.5	vice chair, if I'm not mistaken, of the recent Defense, National Defense Strategy Commission,
0:51.2	I think is called. Yes. It's a congressionally appointed commission.
0:56.2	And it produced a very good report, actually, a important report on our national defense,
1:01.1	bipartisan report, which has gotten a lot of attention.
1:03.3	So defense expert, foreign policy, veteran, overall, deep thinker, PhD in history even. Most, I don't know if that's that the best of the
1:13.4	that's that's a high for me that's as a family matter that's a good thing so that's that's that's
1:18.0	impressive from Yale in the 70s one of the great history departments in modern American history
1:23.3	modern in modern America um modern history that that is. What was your thesis on?
1:28.3	We'd ever, I don't think I've discussed that with you.
1:30.3	It was actually on U.S. relations with Italy from the U.S. invasion of Sicily in
1:37.3	1943 until 1949 when Italy became a member of NATO in the kind of first expansion of NATO.
1:46.4	Oh, interesting, actually.
1:48.6	We'll talk about conversation on that sometime for the more academic-minded audience.
1:52.7	Was it published as a book, or were you one of those people who chose not to?
1:55.7	You went to the Foreign Service.
1:56.7	I went into the Foreign Service and never, you know, returned to academia until I retired.
2:03.9	Right.
	...

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