Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, it's a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that at some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music when it's out of ice cream.

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I want to start today by talking about the power of an idea.

It's perhaps one of the most powerful ideas that has ever existed.

It dates back as far as the 5th before Christ, and yet if you were to

listen into the corridors of power today, you would almost certainly hear it. Barack Obama believes

it, so does David Cameron. In fact, you'd be hard-pressed to find a president or prime minister

who didn't. This idea is realism realism and it tells us that all states,

no matter who they are, want more power. Because power brings security. International politics

is a Machiavellian world where weakness invites attack and states are locked in a constant battle

for survival and domination.

To quote Thucydides, perhaps the original realist, the strong do what they can and the weak

suffer what they must. Many people, and many people in power, believe that realism

captures a fundamental truth about international politics. No matter how friendly

states may seem, no matter how much they cooperate or pledge support for one another, when push comes

to shove, every state is on its own. It would be irresponsible in the extreme for a president

or prime minister to believe anything else.

But there is another idea of what international politics is, and even more importantly, what it should be.

The idea of international law serves as a counterbalance to the bleakness of realism. It tells us that

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