Samantha Power on Learning How to Make a Difference
Conversations with Tyler
Conversations with Tyler
4.8 • 2.4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2019
⏱️ 67 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A former war correspondent and UN ambassador, Samantha Power has had her share of tough assignments. But writing a memoir about it all is also a daunting prospect. The format itself is a challenge: how do you convince the reader you’re worth spending time with? How do you paint a relatable portrait without oversharing and losing your dignity? For Samantha the answer was settling upon a purpose for her memoir and ruthlessly cutting out everything not in service of that.
Tyler and Samantha discuss that purpose and more, including what she learned as an Irish immigrant, the personality traits of good diplomats (and war correspondents), relations with China, why democracy is so rare in the Middle East, the truth about Richard Holbrooke, what factors mitigate against humanitarian intervention, her favorite memoir, how to get NATO members to spend more on defense, and whether baseball games are too long.
Read a full transcript enhanced with helpful links.
Recorded July 30th, 2019
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Conversations with Tyler is produced by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University, |
| 0:08.4 | bridging the gap between academic ideas and real-world problems. |
| 0:12.5 | Learn more at mercatis.org. |
| 0:15.2 | And for more conversations, including videos, transcripts, and upcoming dates, visit |
| 0:20.4 | ConversationsWithTyler.com. |
| 0:23.5 | I'm here today with Samantha Power, who is currently Professor of Practice at the Harvard |
| 0:36.7 | Kennedy School and also the Harvard School of Law. |
| 0:39.9 | She started her career as an NPR wartime correspondent, including in the former Yugoslavia. |
| 0:46.3 | Our Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Problem from Hell, focused the attention of the world |
| 0:51.3 | on the issue of genocide and revolutionized our thinking about foreign policy. |
| 0:56.4 | Samantha Power, of course, later served in President Obama's Cabinet, and she was his ambassador |
| 1:01.8 | to the United Nations, and she is also the author of other books, but most notably she |
| 1:07.6 | has a memoir just out called The Education of an Idealist, a memoir. |
| 1:13.3 | Samantha, welcome. |
| 1:14.9 | Great to be here, Tyler. |
| 1:16.4 | Very first question. |
| 1:18.3 | Which personality characteristics do you feel make for a good diplomat? |
| 1:23.9 | Great question. |
| 1:24.9 | Not asked enough, I think, by people who practice diplomacy. |
| 1:28.1 | Probably I'd start with listening and trying to really hear where the other person is coming |
| 1:34.3 | from. |
| 1:35.3 | And often they're coming from a standpoint of receiving instructions from their head |
... |
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