The truth never goes out of style, and First Things relies on readers like you to keep promoting

the truth in public life. For the price of one cup of coffee per month, you can access all our

subscriber perks and support the important work of First Things. Visit Firstthings.com

slash subscribe to gain full access to all of our articles as well as our prestigious monthly print edition.

That's first things.com slash subscribe.

Hello, welcome to the editor's desk.

This is the podcast where we take a closer look at the essays and articles in the latest print issue of

First Things Magazine. I'm Rusty Reno. I'm the editor of First Things Magazine, and I'm here

with you today at the editor's desk.

Well, I'd like to welcome Nathan Pekosky to the podcast. We're going to talk about his review of Paul Schroeder's book, America's Fetal Leap, 1991 to 2016,

in the January 26th issue of First Things Magazine.

Welcome to the podcast, Nathan.

Thank you very much for having me.

Always a pleasure to be on.

Paul Schroeder, he was a historian, yes?

Yeah, exactly. A historian of international relations. Historian mostly focused on diplomatic

history in the 19th century, so student of the Congress of Europe, study of the kind of balance of power agreements that took place then.

But he also had a little bit of a, shall we say, a side hustle writing for the American Conservative when it was launched, as well as a few other venues.

And they'll speak a bit to his general line of analysis, which this volume assembles,

which is a volume that is by and large skeptical of American foreign policy as it's developed since the end of the Cold War.

Well, he was notable for his judgment that the first Gulf War was a mistake.

What was his reasoning?

...