U.S. Full Spectrum Dominance: Nuclear Risks and The End of Empire with Jeffrey Sachs
The Great Simplification with Nate Hagens
Nate Hagens
4.8 • 552 Ratings
🗓️ 11 September 2024
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
(Conversation recorded on September 3rd, 2024)
As the United States continues to play a major role in the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, the risk of a direct engagement, possibly leading to a nuclear exchange, may now be higher than ever.
In this episode, Nate is joined by Professor Jeffrey Sachs to discuss the escalating tensions between the United States and other world powers - and whether there are possible avenues towards a more peaceful world order.
Has the U.S. taken on the characteristics of an imperial state - under the pretenses of security at all costs? As the world continues to become more globalized, how should we change the way we govern within and across borders? Is it possible to transition from foreign policies focused on dominance and control to those emphasizing interconnectedness and the sovereignty of all nations?
About Jeffrey Sachs:
Jeffrey Sachs is widely recognized for promoting bold and effective strategies to address complex challenges including the escape from extreme poverty, climate change, international debt and financial crises, national economic reforms, and the control of pandemic and epidemic diseases.
Sachs serves as the Director of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, and was also Director of the Earth Institute there from 2002 to 2016. He is President of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and Co-Chair of the Council of Engineers for the Energy Transition, Commissioner of the UN Broadband Commission for Development.
Based on his success in advising Poland's anti-communist Solidarity movement away from central planning, he was invited first by Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and then by Russian President Boris Yeltsin to advise on the transition to a market economy.
He spent over twenty years as a professor at Harvard University, where he received his B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Our choice is not national government versus state government. We have different kinds of functions |
| 0:07.2 | that need to be carried out by different kinds of institutions at different levels. Subsidiarity |
| 0:14.5 | is a political idea, which is solve the problem at the lowest possible level of government that can actually solve the |
| 0:23.8 | problem. Don't try to solve the problem at a low level of government if it requires a higher |
| 0:28.9 | level of government. But if you want to get climate change under control or peace and nuclear war. |
| 0:38.3 | You need global institutions. |
| 0:40.7 | The US doesn't sign most new UN treaties because it says we're sovereign and so forth. |
| 0:47.2 | But what do we get out of this? |
| 0:48.8 | We get a world that can't solve its problems and we're closer than ever to nuclear Armageddon. |
| 0:59.4 | You're listening to The Great Simplification. I'm Nate Hagen's. On this show, we describe how |
| 1:05.4 | energy, the economy, the environment, and human behavior all fit together and what it might mean for our future. |
| 1:12.6 | By sharing insights from global thinkers, we hope to inform and inspire more humans to play emergent roles in the coming great simplification. |
| 1:26.6 | As violent tensions continue to escalate around the world, both in the Middle East and in Ukraine, |
| 1:34.0 | I feel a sense of responsibility as the host of this channel to continue to platform those who |
| 1:40.0 | are promoting peace and pragmatism surrounding the topics and realities of war. |
| 1:46.1 | As followers of this channel know, a nuclear exchange, probably accidental, is one of my |
| 1:52.9 | biggest existential worries for the coming years and is a risk that, in my opinion, |
| 1:57.6 | is not talked about nearly enough. |
| 2:00.2 | As such, today I'm joined by Jeffrey |
| 2:03.1 | Sacks for a part one conversation on the United States approach to the situation in Russia and |
| 2:09.3 | Ukraine, alongside the broader geopolitical implications and behaviors that make global peace |
| 2:14.8 | increasingly difficult to imagine, let alone achieve. |
... |
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