War and The Fragility of Civilization

WSJ Opinion: Free Expression

Gerard Baker, Editor at Large, The Wall Street Journal

Society & Culture, News

4.6 • 591 Ratings

🗓️ 15 May 2024

⏱️ 35 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

As global instability increases and threats to our national security grow, what can we learn from the history of warfare? In a new book, noted military historian Victor Davis Hanson examines how some wars have resulted not just in defeat for the vanquished but in the annihilation of their civilization and people. On this episode of the Free Expression podcast, Prof. Hanson tells Gerry Baker about the parallels between these wars and the threats we now face from our increasingly bold adversaries. How can we avoid the mistakes of those previous civilizations and ensure our survival? He also talks about America’s internal fractures and how they are weakening our national security and what our political leaders can do to reverse the damage in a pivotal election year. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Boardrooms love buzzwords. AI, climate, resilience. But what do they actually mean for CFOs and execs trying to survive the next earnings call? That's where the pre-read comes in. Real experts and real talk. Subscribe to the pre-read, presented by Workieva.
0:17.1	From the opinion pages of the Wall Street Journal, this is Free Expression with Jerry Baker.
0:23.6	Hello and welcome to Free Expression from the Wall Street Journal. I'm Jerry Baker, editor at large of the journal.
0:28.6	If you're not already subscribing, please do sign up wherever you do your podcast listening.
0:32.6	This week, as our planet shows worrying signs of gearing up for World War III, we're going to take a
0:38.8	timely look at the history of warfare, and in particular how wars can end up not just in
0:44.8	victory and defeat, but in the annihilation of entire civilizations.
0:50.0	With conflicts raging in Europe and the Middle East and less well-publicized battles elsewhere,
0:55.2	it's uncomfortable but necessary to ponder whether the long era of relative peace and stability
1:00.5	that we've seen in the last 40 years may be coming to an end.
1:03.8	Russia's war on Ukraine, and Israel's struggle against Hamas can be seen as part of a wider
1:08.1	conflict between allies of the US and what we used to call the West,
1:11.6	and a new alliance of autocratic, authoritarian adversaries.
1:15.6	The biggest challenge of all, of course, comes potentially from China,
1:20.6	and its growing threat to the West and its interests in the Pacific and, indeed, elsewhere.
1:25.6	Now, we know from the history of warfare that what can be at stake in these struggles is
1:29.0	not just regional or global supremacy, but sometimes the very survival of civilizations and peoples.
1:35.8	Victor Davis Hanson is one of our most prominent historians of war.
1:39.0	He's written more than two dozen books on Wars Ancient and Modern, and he's out with a new
1:42.7	book that's called The End of Everything,
1:45.3	How Wars Descend Into Annihilation. It's a historical look at four great conflicts and how they ended
1:51.7	not just in defeat for the vanquished, but in the elimination of their civilization. These conflicts,
	...

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