Conversations with History Blog

"The winner is..."

Eight Nobel laureates have been guests on Conversations with History http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/ Later this week, I will interview Nobel Laureate Dudley Herschback who received the 1986 Chemistry Prize. All of the Nobel interviews have been collected at this url http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/PubEd/research/nobel.html In these interviews, I try to contribute to an understanding of the creativity that lead to extraordinary achievement meriting the Prize.  The Nobel interviewees have excelled in fields as diverse as literature, economics, chemistry, physics, and peace.   Countries represented by this set of laureates include India, Japan, Nigeria, Russia and the United States.  The oldest interview is a 1983 with Linus Pauling.   We discuss "The Peace Movement in Historical Perspective." http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/Pauling/pauling-con0.html The most recent interview is with Zhores Alferov. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people5/Alferov/alferov-con0.html  We discuss "Scientific Discovery and the Information Age."  UCTV is broadcasting all these Nobel Conversations in October and November.  For information about these broadcasts, go to the UCTV schedule at http://www.uctv.tv/cwh/ and here is information about where these broadcasts can be seen http://www.uctv.tv/about.shtml

The Wise Touch

Robert Wise, one of our greatest film directors, has died. I interviewed him for Conversations with History in 1998.  http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/conversations/Wise/wise-con0.html Although he is best known for popular academy award winning films such as The Sound of Music and West Side Story, his greatest memorial is a body of work that is remarkable---a thoughtful reflection on some of the important issues of our time done so as to enhance the public's understanding.  Examples include:  The Andromeda Strain(the implications of technology for human survival) The Day the Earth Stood Still (the dangers of an unchecked arms race), and I Want to Live (a  stinging  indictment of the death penalty in our imperfect system of justice). Wise was also the film editor of Citizen Kane. Wise discusses these and other films in my interview.  See also the Conversations with History movie archive, "Movies and the Imagination." http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/PubEd/research/film.html

Power and Purpose--At Home and Abroad

“Hence shall we see, If power change purpose, What our seemers be,” William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, Act I, Scene 3;

“Soldiers from the 82^nd Airborne Division are able to deploy anywhere in the world in 18 hours.  It took several days for them to arrive on the ground in Louisiana,” Wall Street Journal, page A11, column 2 

     Since the end of the Cold War, the United States has struggled to define its role in the world—a mission statement for the world’s only superpower.  After 911, the Bush administration believed it had found the answer.  A war on terrorism was declared to protect the homeland, and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were launched.  The Pentagon was given the primary responsibility for realizing an ambitious agenda. There was a domestic side to these choices.  At home, reducing the size of government and cutting taxes were the priorities.  There was an emphasis on patronage and payoff to realize these goals.  The fall-out from these choices is now apparent in the belated response to Katrina. 

     The Conversations with History interview with Chalmers Johnson is suggestive. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people4/CJohnson/cjohnson-con0.html  Johnson argued that, after the Cold War, our leaders chose to maintain an “empire of bases” insulated from domestic needs and undermining democratic processes while siphoning off resources. Security for the homeland was the rallying cry but the reality was different:  the home front was forgotten, ignored, and underfinanced. 

     Since 911, in United States military action abroad, the ambition to fight wars was not matched by a willingness to secure the peace after hostilities ceased.  The Conversations with History interviews with Ambassador James Dobbins focused on the implications. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people5/Dobbins/dobbins-con0.html Another interview with military strategist Thomas P.M. Barnett   pointed out that in pursuing its global mission the Pentagon did not do justice to the stabilization mission central to securing the peace in the aftermath of battle.  A leadership that ignores this problem abroad is primed to fail at home in the face of natural disaster.  In Iraq, the failure resulted in an insurgency. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people5/Barnett/barnett-con0.html    In New Orleans the failure to respond with thoughtful and immediate action resulted in a national tragedy.  For a discussion of these stabilization issues, see the Conversations with History gallery on “Peace Keeping, Humanitarian Intervention, and Nation Building" http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/PubEd/research/peacekeeping.html 

     The tension between foreign policy and domestic policy is a recurring theme in our history.  During most of the Cold War, our leaders performed an admirable balancing act.  In a Conversations with History interview, Walter Russell Mead identified several sets of ideas that recur in our history and guide our foreign policy. http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people3/Mead/mead-con0.html The Bush administration embraced two of those ideas.  One is the Wilsonian idea of transforming the world in our image.  The other idea was Jacksonian—asserting American nationalism to defend the homeland by striking back at the enemy.  Both Wilson and Jackson’s policies had a domestic face that was progressive.  The Bush administration in its domestic policy veered to the right.  In foreign policy, Bush embraced the neo conservative agenda which drew on Wilsonian inspiration, but the President also was a Jacksonian emphasizing American nationalism and an assertative defense when attacked.  Now Bush’s balancing act has come crashing to the floor.  Ironically, history’s judgment of President George W. Bush will be heavily influenced by what happened in New Orleans, the very same site of President Andrew Jackson’s greatest military triumph.