Niall Ferguson on Free Speech and Kissinger's Role in the Middle East

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🗓️ 11 December 2023

⏱️ 66 minutes

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Summary

How can we create a radically different atmosphere at American universities? Easy, says historian Niall Ferguson of Stanford University's Hoover Institution--have meaningful rules about free speech, and ensure that they're upheld. As with humans, as with institutions: It's all about incentives. Ferguson discusses the current state of free speech on American campuses and how the new University of Austin when it opens hopes to safeguard freedom of speech. The conversation shifts then to the war in the Middle East. Ferguson draws on his work on the biography of Henry Kissinger and compares the present moment for Israel to the Yom Kippur War and the role Kissinger played in 1973.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, Conversations for the Curious, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host Russ Roberts of Shalem College in Jerusalem and Stanford University's Hoover Institution. Go to Econ Talk. in to today's conversation. You'll also find our archives with every episode we've done
0:24.5	going back to 2006. Our email address is mail at econ talk.org we'd love to hear from you. I want to let listeners know that this conversation with Neil Ferguson has two main topics,
0:42.0	freedom of speech on American college campuses and the role of Henry
0:45.7	Kissinger in the 1973 Yom Kippur war between Israel and its Arab neighbors.
0:51.9	We discuss how this moment in Israel and Middle East history as Israel fights Hamas
0:56.5	compares to that time in 1973. This conversation was recorded a few weeks before the
1:02.4	death of Henry Kissinger,
1:04.1	which is why there is no reference to Kissinger's passing.
1:08.0	And I would also add a few days after my conversation
1:10.3	when Neil, I was interviewed on free speech on a podcast,
1:13.5	It's a rich yune, and we've linked to that as well,
1:16.3	which is something of a follow-up for me
1:18.6	to the Ferguson conversation of my thoughts.
1:21.8	Today is November 14th, 2023, and my guest is a historian and an author Neil Ferguson, the Milbeck
1:28.1	family senior fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and a trustee at the University of Austin.
1:35.0	Neil, welcome to Econ Talk.
1:37.0	Good to be with you, Russ.
1:38.6	Our topic for today is the role of politics and speech on college campuses and maybe elsewhere.
1:44.0	And if we have time, we're going to pivot to your book on the second volume of your
1:52.0	magisterial biography of Henry Kissinger that you've been working on,
1:56.8	and in particular his role in the 1973 Yom Kipur War, and I'm sure we'll talk about other things as well.
	...

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