I think it was Edith Hamilton the great American classicist of the early mid 20th century who wrote that not to think tragically is to rob life of its significance so tragic thinking is inherent in any serious statesmanship. We saw that put to good use in some of three of my favorite statesmen in the second half of the 20th century George Schultz James Baker and Henry Kissinger all had a very tragic world view but all did all did a lot of good. The Biden administration in its own non-intellectual way has been thinking you know practically about it in a constructive manner, he says. I think what we're seeing in Ukraine is that it's all about interest and power the United
The great dilemmas of geopolitics are not battles of good against evil, where the choices are clear. They are contests of good against good, where the choices are often painful, incompatible and fraught with consequence. That’s the argument that political scientist Robert Kaplan who's joined here in conversation by political philosopher John Gray. Together they discuss how the insights of the Greek tragedians – Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides – as well as Shakespeare and modern philosophers and classic authors can help us understand the central subjects of international politics: order, disorder, rebellion, ambition, loyalty to family and state, violence, and the mistakes of power. And they explored how viewing events through a tragic lens could guide the West’s strategy for dealing with Russia and China today.
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